On Wednesday 10 September, the same day that Keir Starmer was pictured shaking hands with and gazing into the eyes of accused war criminal, genocide-inciter and Israeli president Isaac Herzog, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) at its annual meeting – which represents over 5 million workers – unanimously passed a motion calling on the Starmer regime to repeal its proscription order banning Palestine Action, a non-violent UK direct action group, as terrorists.

TUC: deproscribe Palestine Action

PCS (Public and Commercial Services) union president Martin Cavanagh said of the TUC vote:

The UK government’s proscription of Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act 2000 is not just a legal manoeuvre comrades, it is a political attack with implications for our rights, our members and our democracy.

We believe this proscription represents a significant abuse of counter-terrorist powers and a direct attack on our right to protest against the genocidal Israeli regime. Let’s be clear: protest is not and can never be classed as terrorism. Solidarity is not a crime, and silence in the face of injustice is not an option.

The TUC vote comes just days after police arrested almost nine hundred peaceful protesters, mainly elderly and disabled, for holding placards supporting the group at a demo opposing the proscription. A report by the government’s Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC), released in August as part of the group’s legal appeals against the proscription, shattered then-Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s claim, as she tried to justify her decision to accede to demands from pro-Israel pressure groups for the ban, that intelligence experts had told her that Palestine Action was planning violent terrorism.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

This post was originally published on Canary.