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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.thecanary.co/uk/news/2025/07/20/palestine-action-protests-19-july/">thecanary.co</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Public applauds \u2018terror\u2019 suspects ahead of major escalation of Palestine Action protests</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">The Canary</div>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">july 20, 2025</div>
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<img src="cid:ii_mdd7bf9b3" alt="2025720.jpg" width="394" height="296"><br><p>On Saturday 19 July, police arrested nearly 100 more
people under the Terrorism Act 2000 for holding signs saying \u201cI oppose
genocide. I support Palestine Action\u201d, bringing the number to around 200
since Palestine Action<a href="https://www.thecanary.co/topics/palestine-action/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> became a proscribed</a> organisation on 5 July.</p>
<h2>More arrests \u2013 and applause, too</h2>
<p>Again the police were divided in their response, with common sense
prevailing in Edinburgh, Derry, and outside the British Embassy in The
Hague, where peaceful protestors were left undisturbed:</p>
<p><a href="https://www.thecanary.co/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/IMG_1212.jpg"><img src="https://www.thecanary.co/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/IMG_1212.jpg" alt="Palestine Action" width="960" height="1280" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img"></a></p>
<img src="cid:ii_mdd7a5i52" alt="IMG_1212.jpg" width="296" height="394"><br><p>By contrast, the Met Police arrested 55 in Parliament Square. 17 were arrested in Bristol, 16 in Manchester and 8 in Truro:</p>
<img src="cid:ii_mdd79lkd1" alt="IMG_1209.jpg" width="296" height="394"><br><p></p>
<p>Paul O\u2019Brien, medical doctor and one of those sign holders, said:</p>
<blockquote><p>In my long life I have not seen anything like the horrors
coming out of Gaza each day. Nobody and nothing is spared. Despite
this, our government continues to provide political, military and moral
support for Israel conducting this genocide. International law means
nothing. It is up to everyone to oppose this brutality and Palestine
Action is doing it the way they can.</p></blockquote>
<p>Ahead of what is expected to be a major groundswell in numbers on 9
August, members of the public offered sustained applause to those
arrested in Truro, whose number included 81 year-old Deborah Hinton, a
former magistrate:</p>
<h2>Palestine Action: the thin end of a decades-old wedge</h2>
<p>Holding up cardboard signs has become the crime of the day since the
Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, ordered that Palestine Action be <a href="https://www.thecanary.co/trending/2025/07/04/palestine-action-legal-challenge/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">banned as a \u2018terrorist organisation\u2019</a> on 5 July, after supporters of the group entered an RAF base at Brize Norton and spray-painted two military planes red.</p>
<p>The Home Secretary\u2019s decision followed years of right-wing think tanks and arms corporations <a href="https://defendourjuries.org/timeline-of-corruption/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lobbying the Government</a> to clamp down on the activists denouncing their policies and corporate abuses of power.</p>
<p>On 19 July, sign-holders were spread across London, Manchester,
Edinburgh, Bristol, Derry, and Truro and included teachers, doctors, and
scientists. They joined a group of people from all walks of life who
have been taking this action for the past two weeks, such as a vicar in
her 80s, the daughter of a Polish resistance fighter, and veterans of
the 1960s civil rights movement including Eamon McCann, political
activist, former politician and journalist, and Kate Nash, whose brother
was killed on Bloody Sunday.</p>
<p>Another sign holder, Heather Cooper, retired, said:</p>
<blockquote><p>I was part of the peace movement when I was in my 20s. A
close friend was one of the two people who did a Swords into
Ploughshares action in the UK. He served 6 months in prison for beating
in the nose cone of an F1-11 which at that time the UK was selling to
Indonesia to bomb the hell out of the East Timorese. No one called
either of the two who took action terrorists. I am highly worried by the
action of the government in proscribing Palestine Action who, it seems
to me, are acting bravely within the tradition of nonviolent direct
action against the arms trade and the horrific genocide in Gaza.</p></blockquote>
<p>Meanwhile, crowds gathered outside the British embassy in The Hague,
Netherlands, to decry the UK\u2019s human rights record rapidly falling
behind its international partners:</p>
<img src="cid:ii_mdd78s4f0" alt="IMG_1200-1140x855.jpg" width="394" height="296"><br><p></p>
<p>The protest comes ahead of a High Court hearing on Monday 21 July.</p>
<p>In this legal challenge to the ban, the Claimant Huda Ammori will
seek permission for a full judicial review of the proscription of
Palestine Action. If successful, the judicial review would quash the
protest group\u2019s proscription.</p>
<h2>Madness</h2>
<p>Actions like these are only set to grow bigger. On Saturday 9 August,
over 500 people are expected to come together to all hold up signs
saying \u201cI oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action\u201d. The action will
put to the test how many hundreds or even thousands of peaceful citizens
the police force are willing to arrest before they will decide the
inevitable, namely that the proscription of Palestine Action is absurd
and unworkable.</p>
<p>Clare Walters is a psychotherapist and another sign holder. She said:</p>
<blockquote><p>I am a 68 year old grandmother. I cannot remain quiet
while this country is actively supporting genocide in Gaza. It is not
happening in my name. To criminalise people who are protesting against
arms sales to Israel is a terrifyingly oppressive step that is being
taken by this government. I feel moved to act in this way by sitting in
silent vigil for an hour, even if I risk a prison sentence.</p></blockquote>
<p>People around the country are already demonstrating that these acts
of attempted deterrence aren\u2019t working. Only recently, a man was <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn0qn8vz00no" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly arrested and charged</a> in Glasgow for holding a placard at a protest which read: \u201cGenocide in Palestine. Time to take action.\u201d</p>
<p>That brings the total of arrests to have taken place in the aftermath
of the proscription of Palestine Action to nearly 200 within a
fortnight in the UK and about 280 altogether, including the 80 arrested
as part of a solidarity action in the Hague on 5 July.</p>
<p>Last year, the total number of terrorism related arrests in the UK
was 248. There have also been 14 raids of sign-holders\u2019 private homes in
Cardiff, Leeds, and Bradford.</p>
<h2>Investigate Keir Starmer</h2>
<p>On 18 July, Defend Our Juries wrote to Sir Mark Rowley, the Met
Commissioner, giving him advance notice of the protests, but urging him
to use police resources to investigate crimes of genocide rather than
carboard signs and red-paint:</p>
<blockquote><p>Our intention is simply to make visible the chilling
implications of this totalitarian law, which is already being used to
silence opposition to the horrors unfolding in Gaza, in which the
British government is an active partner. The independence of the police
from political interference, and the principle that no-one is above the
law, are the cornerstones of democracy and the rule of law. As regards
the proper use of police resources, we urge you to investigate the Prime
Minister, Keir Starmer, for offences under the Genocide Act 1969.</p></blockquote>
<p>A spokesperson for Defend Our Juries said:</p>
<blockquote><p>Just a few weeks ago, being arrested under the Terrorism
Act was the stuff of nightmares. Now it\u2019s a badge of honour that people
are wearing with pride \u2013 the mark of resistance to genocide and standing
firm for our democratic freedoms. This is a major cultural shift. For
years, the Terrorism laws and the Prevent programme have been used to
divide and rule communities, and to marginalise Muslim communities in
particular. Thanks to Yvette Cooper\u2019s hubris, they are now helping to
bring us together.</p></blockquote>
<p><em>Featured image and additional images supplied</em></p>
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