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Labour’s most shameful day yet as Palestine Action proscription WILL go ahead

The High Court has denied Palestine Action its interim halt to the government’s attempt to proscribe it. The verdict came as hundreds of people camped outside the central London court house – amid police violence and bias from the corporate media.

Palestine Action: the proscription his happening

The Home Secretary’s proscription of Palestine Action is due to come into effect at midnight tonight (12am Saturday 5 July), which the group say will lead to a “dystopian nightmare” where thousands of its supporters wake tomorrow to find they have been “criminalised overnight”. United Nations Special Rapporteurs and experts say this would have a “chilling” effect on free speech, assembly, and participation in political life.

As Justice Chamberlain did not grant interim relief at the hearing today, lawyers for the Claimant, Ms Huda Ammori, a 31-year-old woman of Palestinian and Iraqi heritage and one of the founders of Palestine Action, are urgently seeking permission to appeal to effectively suspend the proscription pending the ongoing legal challenge.

The next hearing on the request for permission for a judicial review will take place in the week commencing 21 July.

The Claimant’s lawyers argued that proscription coming into force tonight would cause “serious harm and irremediable prejudice” to the Claimant, to Palestine Action, to its supporters and to many in the general public. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights Ben Saul has requested to formally intervene in the judicial review.

Support at court

From 10.30am today, Friday 4 July, thousands of people have been outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London to show solidarity with Palestine Action. This, the non-violent direct-action group said, is:

The last opportunity to stop the proscription of Palestine Action

Dr Louise Raw said that, “as far as the eye can see”, there were “people who will NOT be intimidated”:

The National was covering events live from court:

Defend our Juries, meanwhile, said “the public are up in arms”, and that Labour’s attempts to crack down on anti-genocide activists “is sure to backfire”. The group has already written to Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley to let him know it plans to be in Parliament Square at around 1pm on Saturday 5 July with signs saying “I OPPOSE GENOCIDE. I SUPPORT PALESTINE ACTION”. It added:

We are committed to nonviolence and there is no risk whatsoever of anyone being harmed. It is our commitment to nonviolence that demands that we stand together with those seeking to uphold international law, such as Palestine Action.

Britain’s pro-Israel government is cracking down on non-violent direct action, in order to protect its genocidal ally. But despite complicit MPs overwhelmingly voting to ban Palestine Action, another similar group has already sprung up, using the name ‘Yvette Cooper’ to continue efforts to shut down Israel’s economy of genocide. MPs have overwhelmingly voted to proscribe anti-genocide group Palestine Action. The group shares its name with home secretary Yvette Cooper, whose cosy links with pro-Israel lobbyists may well have informed her decision to crack down on anti-genocide actionists.

Heavy police presence, pro-Israel agitators also present

A few genocide-apologists also turned up, trying to disrupt the protests.

Two genocide-deniers reportedly brought a sign saying “There is no genocide in Gaza”, and numerous police officers “formed a protective ring around them”.

Former Guantanamo Bay abductee Moazzam Begg, now senior director civil rights group CAGE, addressed protesters on the dangers of states labelling people as terrorists:

 

Predictably, police turned violent at points – arresting peaceful protesters:

Palestine Action: preventing a dystopian nightmare

Co-founder of Palestine Action, Huda Ammori, gave the following statement on the court’s decision:

We are seeking an urgent appeal to try to prevent a dystopian nightmare of the Government’s making which would see thousands of people across Britain wake up tomorrow to find they had been criminalised overnight for supporting a domestic protest group which sprays red paint on warplanes and disrupts Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer to disrupt the flow of arms to Israel’s genocidal war machine. We will not stop fighting to defend fundamental rights to free speech and protest in our country and to stand up for the rights of the Palestinian people.

The Home Secretary is rushing through the implementation of the proscription at midnight tonight despite the fact that our legal challenge is ongoing and that she has been completely unclear about how it will be enforced, leaving the public in the dark about their rights to free speech and expression after midnight tonight when this proscription comes into effect.

Hundreds of thousands of people across the country have expressed support for Palestine Action by joining our mailing list, following and sharing our social media content and signing petitions, and many, including iconic figures like Sally Rooney, say they will continue to declare ‘we are all Palestine Action’ and speak out against this preposterous proscription, demonstrating how utterly unworkable it will be. As Justice Chamberlain acknowledged in court today, it is unclear what expressions of support could lead to arrest and potential prosecution with sentences of up to 14 years in prison.

We would only have only a few hours to disband our entire organisation and dismantle all of our infrastructure, including closing bank accounts and deleting our mailing list and social media platforms. This is despite the fact that we have not had the opportunity to defend our fundamental rights in court and challenge this unlawful, authoritarian and utterly absurd proscription. If we ultimately succeed in overturning the proscription, we would have to start from scratch, having lost everything we have painstakingly built over five years.

As United Nations Special Rapporteurs and experts have told the Government, property damage is not terrorism, and this proscription would even criminalise “innocent members” and supporters for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and assembly. The “chilling” effect on political protest and advocacy the United Nations experts warn of would be happening at a time when Israel’s genocide is being live-streamed before our eyes – how many more thousands of children would die while we are unable to take action against this Israel’s war crimes and our Government’s complicity? We will not stop fighting to defend fundamental rights to free speech and protest in our country and to stand up for the rights of the Palestinian people.

So, it remains to be seen what happens next.

We must resist alongside Palestine Action at all costs

The idea of proscribing Palestine Action of course first came under a Conservative government. But it has been a Labour one that has finished the job – for shame. Of course, the party has always been an authoritarian one when it comes to civil liberties and the right to protest. But even by those standards, this is draconian in the extreme. It must be resisted at all costs.

Featured image via the Canary

By Steve Topple

This post was originally published on Canary.