More than 425 people have been arrested at the largest demonstration yet opposing the proscription of Palestine Action.
Defend Our Juries, who organised the demonstrations, said there were 1,500 sign-holders in Parliament Square on Saturday at a fresh protest in London against the ban. At the previous major demonstration last month, 532 people were arrested for taking part. Participants gathered in Parliament Square by 1pm, many holding signs that read: “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.”
At just after 9pm, the Metropolitan police said it had made more than 425 arrests. The Met’s deputy assistant commissioner, Claire Smart, who led the operation, said: “In carrying out their duties today, our officers have been punched, kicked, spat on and had objects thrown at them by protesters. It is intolerable that those whose job it is to enforce the law and keep people safe – in this case arresting individuals committing offences under the Terrorism Act – should be subject to this level of abuse.”
Rookie numbers. Crank that shit up. Choke the entire system across the entire country.
How long they been building out that capacity?
The people using force to try and scare the rest into complying with their ideology aren’t the ones being booked for Terrorism.
Once again the /r/worldNews thread on this is a cesspool
“These morons, don’t they know they threw paint into a plane engine?! Arrest them all, Israel has a right to defend itself!”
Usually what happens when any other option is banned from the sub
deleted by creator
thanks for keeping London safe by arresting terrorist pensioners
It is intolerable that those whose job it is to enforce the law and keep people safe
“Keep people safe” defending the extermination of a group of people in the Middle East.
- Daddy, what did you do at work today?
- I arrested a granny because she said starving children to death is bad.
Or: I arrested a person who thought that it’s more important to write “I support Palestine action” (classified as terroristic organization in UK) on a paper than “I support Palestine”.
IMO, these people want to produce these pictures of arrests we are now seeing…
But I get it… It gets them media attention, just like driving with boats to a war zone to obviously get stopped there by military.
What’s acts of terror has Palestine action committed for it to be classified as a terrorist organization?
i mean…they DID trespass onto a military airport and messed with military aircraft.
that was what they did, that got them the designation “terrorist organization”.
the planes were about to fly weapons down to israel, afaik, so i think they were doing something worthwhile, but, you know…bad idea regardless.
I don’t agree that this makes them terrorists, i think that’s some insane hyperbole on the governments side…but it does fit a very draconian definition of “terrorism”: simply defined a “using force to achieve a political goal”
the entire thing is stupid. this is the stupidest timeline, after all…
Sure they did something highly illegal, but anyone who thinks that illegally trying to stop a weapons shipment is terrorism is insane. If “using force to achieve a political goal” is terrorism, then nearly every country on the planet is a terrorist organization. Idk if thats like actually the UK’s definition or something but that is a ludicrous definition for terrorism.
Terrorists use terror. Its why they are called that. Not the use of force, but specifically attempting to strike deep fear into a civilian populace. At no point was PA trying to make people fearful. They were trying to stop people from dying.
yeah, i entirely agree!
it’s stupid and ridiculous!
anyone who thinks that illegally trying to stop a weapons shipment is terrorism
I mean… The law of the UK defines what falls under terrorism. It does not matter what anyone thinks.
If a pro-Russian saboteur sabotages a weapon shipment to Ukraine, it will fall under the term, too.
If “using force to achieve a political goal” is terrorism, then nearly every country on the planet is a terrorist organization.
The term is usually not used to describe nations. It’s to describe people or groups of people.
Then the UK’s legal definition is fucking stupid. Terrorism is when a group attempts to strike fear and terror into a populace to coerce them. It definitionally requires violence and fear.
The wikipedia article goes into the details.
In May 2024, Edinburgh Palestine Action activists targeted a Leonardo factory in Crewe Toll, spraying red paint over the factory and fighter-jet models, as well as claiming to have sabotaged “internet cables”, with a spokesperson for the group saying, “In the early hours of Tuesday 28th May [2024], a group opened the box of cables, cut the internet wires, sprayed expanding foam inside the box and spray painted ‘Stop Arming Israel’ on the lid.” The action was carried out, against Leonardo, according to PA Scotland, for “continuing to arm the Israeli military with weapons”. In January of the same year several activists occupied the roof of the same factory.[48]
Also:
The UK Ministry of Defence, and a defence expert,[68] said the particular aircraft spray-painted hadn’t refuelled or supported Israeli air force jets.[69] The BBC reported that those two particular jets had not been used to support the Israeli air force, although they had been used in British air attacks in Yemen, Iraq and Syria.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine_Action#Legal_actions
So they vandalized some planes and snipped some cables? And this got them declared as terrorists?
I’ve noticed a pattern where “terrorist” is often used as a stand in for any group that opposes the government.
Well, that was one of their actions. I mean, it might be daily business for you… But for me, getting access to fighter jets, sabotaging them and doing whatever else they did there does not sound like usual activity that some other organization would do. I have never head of someone from an LGBT organization seen sabotaging fighter jets… During BLM, there was also no organization sabotaging fighter jets or anything remotely similar to it.
for any group that opposes the government.
Organizing a protest on the streets is the base form of “opposing”. Sabotaging stuff by breaking the law is for sure also “opposing”, but I don’t think, we should put that on the same level.
Im not saying what they did isn’t illegal. I’m saying it’s not terrorism. This is like if someone was charged with murder and punished for it only to turn out all they did was rob a store and you’re like “well akshually ☝️🤓 they’re a criminal so it’s fine”
You are correct that the protests are specifically about the group Palestine Action. Which while they have committed crimes within the UK haven’t committed any acts of terror. And therefore should not be classified as terrorist.
The terror act was extremely controversial when it was enacted because it grants the government far reaching authoritarian abilities which are fundamentally against our standard of human rights.
It is only acceptable for extreme cases of groups which are in fact committing acts of terror against civilian population.
Therefore, it is protesting against the decision to designated a group which is not terrorist as terrorist
I kind of get what you are writing, but why are people focussing on the group that obviously broke the law (the law there sees it as terrorism) - and not just one time, but multiple times, the Wikipedia article is not short… - instead of the actual goal?
Why not forgetting the criminal (if you don’t want to call is terroristic) group, creating a new group that does not commit crime and protest for the actual thing???
To clarify, it is a significant stretch that under British law Palestine Action committed any acts of terrorism.
It is mostly an authoritarian overreach.
And the reason that people are protesting so vehemently is two-fold:
Firstly, it is critical for the functioning of our society, that the government is not able to freely carry out gross abuses of power such as the designation of Palestine Action as a terrorist group.
Secondly, it is relatively trivial for the government to use their proscription of Palestine Action as a basis for the proscription of subsequent protest groups, and they have also already used it to arrest people simply for signs which say things like “free Palestine”.
In other words, protestors are able to make twice the impact with a single protest.
A person who thought that it’s more important to write “I support Palestine action” … on a paper than “I support Palestine”.
Ahhh, the worst kind of crime, adding the word “action” to an otherwise acceptable protest sign. His kids will be proud of him! He helped stop hundreds of the worst criminal scum today and really kept the streets of London safe!
ACAB
Well, the one sentence supports people starving and the other one supports an organization classified as terroristic in the UK… It’s not the same thing…
When I write “Europe colonizing America in = bad” and I just append the word “fakenews” or “lies”, it changes the meaning…
These people are opposed to the proscription of PA as a terrorist group, which is why they are protesting. They are making a point; that arresting these people for terrorism is ridiculous and authoritarian, and you might not like PA as a group personally but it sets a precedent, as the government can and will use “terrorism” to clamp down on any organisation or protest they deem to challenge them.
Thanks for your arguments without any insults.
I get your point, although from my view, it’s not a random organization that is just like any other, as the intensity of the crimes is… exceptional. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine_Action#Legal_actions
The proscription was in response to their protest in 2022 where they aimed to destroy some equipment. This isn’t a terrorist act. The people involved were prosecuted under existing laws and served prison time for what they did, which were not acts of terror.
Their acts are not violent, they are not threatening anyone and calling throwing paint at planes “serious damage to property” is a stretch.
If we are going to give organisations the label of terrorist based on this flimsy criteria then Reform should also be proscribed for inciting people to protest at hotels where asylum seeker children are living, commiting arson and threatening violence. Physical violence against humans.
Palestine Action want the UK to stop sending military equipment to Israel. There are people in power making a fuck load of money off this, and they’ve proscribed PA after being out under pressure to make them go away.
All the other rancid bullshit in your comment aside, why do you imply that media attention in this case is bad?
Also, the one word difference means what, you support an org that spray painted a few jets? And that justifiably makes them all terrorists for wearing it on a T-shirt
rancid bullshit
Great base for a dialog…
why do you imply that media attention in this case is bad
Did I?? I said “I get it” above… I just spoke out what others here don’t want to speak out… I guess, people will be surprised again, when Greta will successfully fail to enter Gaza the next time (according to plan).
you support an org that spray painted a few jets
Read the Wikipedia article… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine_Action
BTW: Jets don’t park at the side of the road… You usually need to break into military related areas to do so, which is not what average people do.
I guess they’ve successfully removed all meaning from the word “terrorist” now.
And we have successfully replaced the debate about people starving in Gaza with a debate about a British group that continuously breaks the law.
…and keep people safe – in this case arresting individuals committing offences under the Terrorism Act…
Ah yes, everyone is much safer now.
(Back in my day, being a terrorist actually meant something. Way to water down the term.)
“Terrorist” means “against the interests of the state”. In a democracy, the state is the people. In absolutistic systems, the state is the Elites.
Guess what?In what country was the state the people, ever?
Smaller democracies. The bigger it gets, the more specialized politicians get, the less they network with non-politicians.
Switzerland does have full-time politicians. It’s not that small of a country.
Claire Smart is protecting genocidalists, and thus is a genocisalist. Being spat at, kicked and punched is a lot better than being a child starved then shot when queuing up for some calories in the form of raw flour. She should be grateful.
Keir Starmer is a Zionist authoritarian who takes his orders from the israeli ambassador.
First day on the job for a Home Secretary that says she as an ardent supporter of Palestine and has challenged previous government ministers to recognise Palestinian statehood.
What’s she going to do now that she has the power to effect change?
Claire would be pushing people into the showers and complaining that they looked at her funny before she closed the airtight door.
As serious as the situation is, the blind guy holding his sign upside down gave me a chuckle.
Good on him though.
i love these guys, appropriately they’ve adopted the martyrdom approach favoured by terrorists in palestine, rather than
- acknowledging that vandalizing military sites is terrorism
- simply calling themselves anything else
nice of them to volunteer their identities so we can help them with their intellectual diversity in the future
actually the blind stupid leading the blind
Jimmy boy, you’ve missed the point quite spectacularly.
Forcing the police to arrest pensioners veterans, and disabled people is the entire point.
Neoliberals literally can’t understand basic social and material facts. You could tell them all day that arresting a thousand grannies will concretely demonstrate the newly passed law is bullshit creating the pressure to fix it. And they’ll respond “well if they named themselves something else they could have protested without being arrested” until their last breath.
Neoliberals literally CAN’T think of the common good because they think there shouldn’t be commons, only individuals, families, and private property. They also don’t think there can be good, only profitable and legal matter, in that order.
What the fuck is wrong with you?
I dunno… It feels kind of intended…
“I support Palestine Action”
Just leave the word “action” away… Now, it’s not “supporting an organisation classified as terroristic” anymore.
Supporting the organisation, and protesting the fact they’ve been deemed a terrorist organisation, is the entire point though.
