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<h1>Being branded as ‘extremist’ won’t deter Palestine Action</h1><p class="gmail-article__subhead gmail-css-1wt8oh6"><em>Palestinian solidarity remains steadfast despite growing authoritarianism in the United Kingdom.</em></p><div class="gmail-article-info-block gmail-opinion-info-block gmail-css-ti04u9"><div class="gmail-article-b-l" style="border-color:rgb(250,144,0)"><ul class="gmail-article-author"><li class="gmail-article-author__item"><div class="gmail-article-author__info"><div class="gmail-article-author__name"><a class="gmail-author-link" href="https://www.aljazeera.com/author/lisa-minerva-luxx">lisa minerva luxx</a></div><div class="gmail-article-author__title">Writer and social activist</div></div></li></ul><div class="gmail-article-dates" style="border-color:rgb(250,144,0)"><div class="gmail-date-simple gmail-css-1yjq2zp"><span class="gmail-screen-reader-text">Published On 28 Mar 2024</span><span aria-hidden="true"> - </span><font size="1"><a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/3/28/being-branded-as-extremist-wont-deter-palestine-action">https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/3/28/being-branded-as-extremist-wont-deter-palestine-action</a></font></div></div></div><div class="gmail-social-share-buttons"><div class="gmail-update-reading-list"></div></div></div><div class="gmail-update-reading-list"><span class="gmail-update-reading-list__tooltip" role="tooltip"></span></div><a class="gmail-social-share-button" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-label="Share on Facebook" href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Faje.io%2Fgwsuqg"></a><a class="gmail-social-share-button" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-label="Share on Twitter" href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=Being%20branded%20as%20%E2%80%98extremist%E2%80%99%20won%E2%80%99t%20deter%20Palestine%20Action&source=sharethiscom&related=sharethis&via=AJEnglish&url=https%3A%2F%2Faje.io%2Fgwsuqg"></a><a class="gmail-social-share-button gmail-copylink" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-label="Copy link" href="https://aje.io/gwsuqg"><span class="gmail-copylink__tooltip gmail-copylink__tooltip-hidden"></span></a><div class="gmail-responsive-image"><img src="https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/GettyImages-1770205416-1698917264.jpg?resize=770%2C513&quality=80" alt="" width="408" height="272" style="margin-right: 25px;"></div>Activists
from Palestine Action spray paint over the London offices of the Arms
Company Leonardo which supplies fighter jets to the Israeli military on
November 2, 2023 in London, England [Guy Smallman/Getty Images]<div class="gmail-wysiwyg gmail-wysiwyg--all-content gmail-css-ibbk12"><p>The United Kingdom is plummeting into a paranoid deluge of authoritarianism.</p>
<p>Since October, our government’s steadfast support for Israel has
ushered in a new age of state coercion, exposing in its wake the
artifice of democracy in Britain.</p>
<p>In response to weekly pro-Palestine protests calling for an end to
Israel’s onslaught on Gaza attended by hundreds of thousands in London
and other major British cities, the Conservative Party government
expanded police powers and moved to weaponise concerns over so-called
“extremism”. Its leading figures referred to peaceful protesters
exercising their democratic rights as “mobs” and “hate marchers”,
classifying any and all opposition to Israel’s war and occupation as
hate and racism.</p>
<p>On March 1, in an impromptu address to the nation responding to the
by-election victory of an independent candidate who campaigned on a
pro-Palestine platform, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak condemned what he
deemed a “shocking increase in extremist disruption and criminality” in
the country, and committed to implementing a robust new framework that
would allow his government to tackle “extremism” at its roots – a
framework many feared would be another attempt by the unelected Sunak
government to curtail political freedoms and make a mockery of the UK’s
democracy.</p>
<p>Two weeks later, these fears were realised when Communities Secretary
Michael Gove unveiled a new “extremism” definition under which certain
groups will be blocked from government funding and meeting officials.</p>
<p>According to the new definition: “Extremism is the promotion or
advancement of an ideology based on violence, hatred or intolerance,
that aims to negate or destroy the fundamental rights and freedoms of
others” or “undermine, overturn or replace the UK’s system of liberal
parliamentary democracy and democratic rights”. The definition further
includes anything that would “intentionally create a permissive
environment for others to achieve” the above aims.</p>
<p>This is an intentionally vague, purposefully subjective definition
that would serve to do nothing but silence, marginalise, and eventually
criminalise many Muslim communities, civil liberties organisations, and
others campaigning to uphold human rights and international law in
Palestine. Essentially, it has the potential to brand as an “extremist”
any individual or collective who does not align with the government’s
unconditionally pro-Israel stance.</p>
<p>Our group, Palestine Action, is also facing the threat of being
labelled as “extremist” due to the principled actions our front-line
members have taken to put an end to Britain’s complicity in Israel’s
occupation and ethnic cleansing of Palestinian territories.</p>
<p>The main target of Palestine Action’s campaign has been the UK
subsidiary factories and offices of Elbit Systems – Israel’s largest
arms manufacturer that supply some 85 percent of the land and air
munitions used by its military.</p>
<p>Since its formation in 2020, Palestine Action has forced the
permanent closure of Elbit’s Oldham factory and pushed the company to
abandon its London headquarters. In 2022, the group’s protest action led
to the dissolution of contracts worth 280 million pounds ($353.6m)
between the UK Ministry of Defence and Elbit Systems. Our campaign has
also successfully impelled several leading British and European
companies to cut ties with Elbit permanently.</p></div><p>We have long known that the success of our campaign against Elbit
Systems, and Israeli interests in general, has upset the government.
This is why it came as no surprise that in the draft plan of Gove’s new
definition, Palestine Action was named as a group that could be captured
in the new, extended “extremism” bracket.</p>
<p>However, we will never be deterred by such intimidation attempts.</p>
<p>As a network, we have already faced arrests, house raids, police brutality and imprisonment. In 2023, it was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/aug/20/israeli-embassy-officials-attempted-to-influence-uk-court-cases-documents-suggest" target="_blank">exposed</a>
in the British press how Israeli embassy officials have been pressing
the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) to intervene in the prosecution of
Palestine Action protesters on their behalf.</p>
<p>We have not given into such undemocratic efforts to silence us in the
past, and we will not do so in the future, whether our group ends up
being classified as an “extremist” entity under Gove’s new definition or
not.</p>
<p>The persecution we face in the UK is nothing compared with the
horrors communities in occupied Palestine are being subjected to by
Israel, with the backing of our government. With that in mind, we see no
way forward other than continuing with our campaign, with integrity and
determination.</p>
<p>The state’s renewed attempts to monitor and bully our movement into
silence since the beginning of this latest war on Gaza did not break our
resolve or weaken the growing public support for our cause.</p>
<p>In fact, Palestine Action has received thousands of fresh sign-ups
since October. We have new recruits from across the social spectrum: A
young mother of toddlers, a TV producer, many doctors, delivery drivers,
primary school teachers, and disability support workers … People of all
ages, classes, religions and experience approached us and said they
want to do their part. These new members took on many different roles,
including arrestee and justice-system support.</p>
<p>The overwhelming majority – if not all – of these new recruits said
that since the beginning of this latest onslaught on Gaza, they have
become disillusioned with the façade of democracy in the UK. They told
us they have lost faith in marching, signing petitions and writing to
their legislators as they helplessly watched on their screens weapon
technologies, that continue to be supplied by Britain, shred Palestinian
bodies into pieces.</p>
<p>They explained that they chose to join Palestine Action because they
measured their Western comfort against their conscience, and felt
obligated to do more. That they are ready to dedicate themselves to a
practice of justice which leads to material change.</p>
<p>Most of all, they said they now refuse to feel powerless – no more
feeling useless at the sight of a mass grave, babies shivering in
terror, young boys turned skeletal by famine, body parts hanging from
walls, or a father listening for the screams of his daughter under the
rubble.</p>
<p>Each allegation against Palestine Action unwittingly sheds light on
the crimes our campaigners are using their bodies to stop – the most
barbaric crimes against humanity.</p>
<p>If a house is on fire with a child inside and a passer-by must kick
down the door to stop the child from being burned alive, then the door
becomes immaterial. British government’s new definition of “extremism”,
however, appear more concerned with the fate of the door than that of
the child – and even less concerned with asking who started the fire,
and who supplied the matches. But one cannot speak of the passer-by and
the door without speaking of the child and the fire.</p>
<p>As tensions continue to rise in the UK, supporters of Palestine must
not lose sight of their uprightness. Alongside other principled groups,
including CAGE, Black Lives Matter and Sisters Uncut, Palestine Action
will continue to model steadfastness and focus. It is not a time to be
subsumed by rhetoric when actions are urgently needed.</p>
<p>We are being asked by numerous media outlets how – if brandished –
this new “extremist” label would affect our movement. Our response is
clear: it won’t. If a just democracy was functioning healthily,
Palestine Action would not need to exist. Palestine Action’s commitment
is to Palestinians and the struggle against a genocidal occupation; we
will not stop until British complicity stops and Israel’s largest arms
manufacturer no longer operates out of the UK.</p>
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