Police have arrested 14 Defend Our Juries protestors opposing the proscription of Palestine Action outside London’s New Scotland Yard. In a significant escalation of their tactics, the protestors marked the one year anniversary of their first anti-proscription demonstration in Parliament Square by speaking one-by-one through a megaphone outside the Met headquarters. They declared their support for Palestine Action, their membership of the banned organisation, and encouraged the police surrounding them to join it too. When the megaphone was confiscated, they shouted instead. All fourteen protestors were arrested under section 12 of the Terrorism Act 2000. According to the Act, professing support for a proscribed group or inviting another to support a proscribed group is an offence, carrying a custodial sentence of up to 14 years. In the last twelve months, 3,500 plus protestors have been arrested for holding signs reading ‘I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action’. Most of those arrests were made under section 13 of the Terrorism Act, a criminal offence carrying a maximum term of 6 months. Among those arrested was 84-year-old Reverend Sue Parfitt, who was detained at the very first post-proscription protest, exactly one year ago today. She has been arrested several times since. Speaking to Novara Media as a police officer leafed through the bible she carries in her bag, Parfitt said of Palestine Action, “I support them, and I shall continue to support them. That apparently makes me a terrorist. That’s OK”. Palestine Action was proscribed as a terror group by then Home Secretary Yvette Cooper on 5 July last year. The first domestic direct action group in British history to be banned, the proscription was ruled unlawful by a judicial review in the high court earlier this year. Following a successful appeal by the government, the decision of the high court was quashed last month. As such, Palestine Action remains a proscribed terror organisation. “ It may seem tongue-in-cheek to invite the police to join Palestine Action but the police haven’t seen the funny side,” said a spokesperson for Defend Our Juries, “Tens of thousands of children have already been murdered in Gaza. The best way the police could discharge their duty right now would be to target the British factories of Elbit Systems, the leading supplier of drones to the IDF.”

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