In a significant escalation, Defend Our Juries will organise a series of mass actions. It plans to kick this off in Liverpool at Labour Party Conference and culminating in a national mobilisation in Parliament Square on 4 October. The actions will be in response to the growing backlash to the proscription of Palestine Action and the government’s complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Defend Our Juries call for mass actions against the proscription of Palestine Action
Since the protest at Parliament Square on 6 September, which saw police arrest 857 people for holding signs reading “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action”, more than 1,100 people have already registered to participate in the next mass sign-holding protest in October.
They have signed a form which confirms both that they want to take part in the next protest and that they’re aware of the potential risks, including arrest and other legal consequences. Due to the growing demand from the public to join mass defiance of the ban, Defend Our Juries is planning a series of mass actions in the week building up to Saturday 4 October.
This comes amid mounting pressure on the government to lift the ban following the mass arrests last weekend. Trade unions representing 5.6 million workers have unanimously demanded Keir Starmer repeal the “authoritarian” ban. The president of the civil servants’ union said the ban represents a:
significant abuse of counter terrorist powers and a direct attack on our right to protest against the genocidal Israeli regime.
MPs also piled pressure on Ministers to lift the ban, including many who voted for the proscription. Members of the House of Lords have also called for this, including former Conservative home secretary Lord Ken Clarke. Clarke decried the arrest of “hundreds of harmless old ladies” for supporting Palestine Action as counter-productive. Labour peer and former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Lord Hain, asked:
how exactly does the arrest on terrorism charges of over a thousand peacefully protesting retired magistrates, as well as vicars, priests, war veterans and descendants of Holocaust survivors, help combat real terrorists?
Support the action from home
Defend Our Juries is also launching a new call for thousands of people across the country to put signs saying “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action” in a window in their home which is visible to passersby.
This follows a viral video of former Labour councillor Keith Hackett. Police told him he can legally display a poster in support of the proscribed Palestine Action group because it is “not in public”. Hackett, 71, who runs the inner-city riding school Park Palace Ponies, displayed a poster in his front window saying “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action”. The Merseyside Police told him that this was legal. His daughter captured the exchange on film and posted it online.
As of today, the sign is available to download and print from Defend Our Juries’ website. The webpage includes a disclaimer. This explains that while senior Merseyside Police stated this was lawful “some police may take other approaches”. However, it details how it would be an “abuse of process” to prosecute someone “contrary to public statements made by the police” about the signs.
A spokesperson from Defend Our Juries said:
Public opposition to the proscription of Palestine Action is growing at an exponential rate. Just days after police arrested 857 people on Saturday 6th September for holding cardboard signs, over 1,100 more registered to join the next action and risk arrest.
In response to this overwhelming surge in support, we are announcing a major escalation: a week of mass actions, with plans to kick this off in Liverpool at Labour Conference, culminating in a national mobilisation in Parliament Square on 4th October. This will present an unprecedented challenge to the enforcement of this unjust ban, with the Police Federation itself already warning that policing these protests is ‘unsustainable’.
There should be no confusion about where the blame lies: it sits squarely with the Government for pursuing this authoritarian ban, plunging an overstretched police force and court and prison systems which are already in crisis, into further chaos. The power lies with the new Home Secretary to end this farce by listening to MPs, Lords, UN experts, legal professionals, human rights advocates – and the majority of her own party’s members – and lift this dangerous, anti-democratic ban.
We are also calling on thousands across the country to show their defiance by displaying the signs in their front windows – exposing just how absurd and unenforceable this ‘terror’ ban truly is.
As Israel’s horrifying genocide in Gaza continues, armed and enabled by the British Government, the sight of Keir Starmer shaking hands with a war criminal, while arresting over 1,600 pensioners, priests, nurses and war veterans for holding cardboard signs, is intolerable. The public sees the grotesque double standards – and it makes them even more determined to do whatever it takes to overturn this unjust ban, including by targeting Starmer’s upcoming conference.
A week of mass defiance to make the ban unenforceable
Police have arrested over 1,600 people under the Terrorism Act since the ban came into force on 5 July. The vast majority of these were for holding a sign stating their opposition to genocide and the Palestine Action ban. Those cops have arrested so far under the Terrorism Act 2000 for opposing the ban include vicars, priests, doctors, former government advisors, army veterans, and many elderly, and disabled people.
New statistics published by the Home Office reveal that authorities have charged more people since Palestine Action ban than during the entire ‘war on terror’ since 2001. Notably, police have charged four times as many people under Section 13 terror powers since July 2025 than between 2001 and June 2025.
Defend Our Juries’ plan to escalate their actions, with a week of mass defiance, which the group say will create an “unprecedented challenge” for the enforcement of the ban. The Police Federation is already saying the policing of these protests is “unsustainable” and that officers are “emotionally and physically exhausted”. Met Police officers have also spoken out about enforcing the ban making them feel “sick” and “ashamed”.
Before 6 September action, Met Commissioner Mark Rowley claimed the Met Police would arrest everyone in Parliament Square who held a sign. However, police only arrested 857 of the estimated 1,500 sign-holders sitting in Parliament Square over the course of 11 hours. The police seemed overwhelmed by the amount of people who oppose the Palestine Action ban.
Defend Our Juries: police arrests against international law
Rowley has insisted that:
Where officers see these offences, we will continue to make arrests.
Yet Home Office minister Lord Hanson of Flint made clear in the House of Lords once again on Wednesday that the decision on whether and how to enforce the law in this case is a matter for the police. He said:
The police do have discretion. It’s not for ministers to order arrests or to potentially bring forward charges.
Amnesty International wrote to Mark Rowley advising him that arrests were against international law. Meanwhile, lawyers acting for the government in the High Court assured Justice Chamberlain that it is legal to campaign for the deproscription of a banned group. The legality of the proscription is subject to a judicial review in the High Court.
Chaotic policing approaches
The Met’s approach starkly contrasted with that of Police Scotland, which refrained from arresting around 70 people for holding the same sign in Edinburgh on 6 September. In a statement, Police Scotland said:
Police Scotland is a rights-based organisation. Our role is to keep the public safe while respecting the rights of those who wish to peacefully demonstrate. We value the strong relationships we have with our communities and are grateful for their ongoing support.
Police have charged only a fraction of those it has arrested for holding signs. These have all been for section 13 of the Terrorism Act, a summary only offence dealt with by the Magistrates Courts.
Police targeted seven perceived organisers in the build up to the mass protest on 6 September, with dawn raids and arrests. It has applied a total of 43 offences to them under section 12 of the Terrorism Act for hosting public Zoom meetings. Despite this attempted intimidation to deter people from taking part in the mass protest against the ban, record numbers attended the action on 6 September. It led to nearly double the number of arrests which police carried out on 9 August.
Labour government continues to be an active participant in genocide
The UK government continues to allow weapons from the UK to flow to Israel. This is in breach of its obligations under international law. It also allows daily reconnaissance flights from RAF Akrotori and planes leaving RAF Lakenheath refuelling Israeli planes involved in war crimes in Gaza.
The Gaza Tribunal in London has heard evidence from expert witnesses that Britain is not just complicit in Israel’s breaches of humanitarian law in Gaza but even as a participant that has repeatedly ignored its legal obligation to prevent a genocide. This comes as defence secretary John Healey is on the verge of giving a £2bn contract to Israel’s biggest weapons supplier Elbit Systems and last week allowed weapons companies owned by the Israeli state to participate in DSEI arms fair in London.
Featured image via the Canary
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.