By Zdravko Yazhikov
The British Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, announced on Monday, June 23 that the Government will use anti-terrorism laws to proscribe Palestine Action after members of the group broke into the Brize Norton military airbase in Oxfordshire last week, vandalising two planes.
“The disgraceful attack on Brize Norton in the early hours of the morning on Friday 20 June is the latest in a long history of unacceptable criminal damage committed by Palestine Action.“
“The UK’s defence enterprise is vital to the nation’s national security and this government will not tolerate those that put that security at risk,” Cooper said.
A draft order of the ban will be presented in parliament on June 30 and will come into effect shortly after if it receives the approval of the MPs.
Once cleared, the proscription will make being a member of Palestine Action, promoting its actions, and gathering support for its causes or organising meetings, a criminal offence.
A violation of which will carry up to 14 years in prison.
The Home Secretary confirmed the measures deployed by the Government concern Palestine Action only, whose activities in the last five years have cost “millions of pounds”.
The measures will not affect other legal campaigns in support of causes related to the Middle East.
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Palestine Action responds to Cooper
Shortly after news of the ban was announced, the activist group released a statement accusing the British Government of complicity with Israel’s genocide over the people of Palestine.
They said: “The real crime here is not red paint being sprayed on these war planes, but the war crimes that have been enabled with those planes.”
“We are teachers, nurses, students and parents who take part in actions disrupting the private companies who are arming Israel’s genocide, by spray painting or entering their factory premises.”
“It is plainly preposterous to rank us with terrorist groups like ISIS, National Action and Boko Haram.”
The group also claimed that the Home Secretary’s statement is “a series of categorically false claims” made by the pro-Israel groups who lobbied the British Government in banning the organisation.
“We have instructed lawyers who are pursuing all avenues for legal challenge,” they added.
Hundreds rally in London to support Palestine Action
The news of the proposed proscription came as hundreds of supporters of the activist group protested in Trafalgar Square in central London.
Waving Palestinian flags and chanting “Stop bombing now”, “Shame” and “We are all Palestine Action”.
The rally clashed with police officers on several occasions, leading to 13 arrests.
“While the protest initially began in a peaceful manner, officers faced violence when they went into the crowd to speak to three individuals whose behaviour was arousing suspicion,” a Met spokesperson said.
“This sequence of events repeated itself on multiple occasions, with officers being surrounded on each occasion they tried to deal with an incident.”
Ban attracts criticism
Many welcomed the swift action of the Home Secretary, claiming it was a step in the right direction, but others were not convinced and questioned its adequacy.
Labour peer and former shadow attorney, Baroness Shami Chakrabarti claimed proscribing Palestine Action “may be an escalation too far”.
“From what I can tell, this is a militant protest group that engages in direct action and that includes criminality, no question, but to elevate that to terrorism, so anybody who attends a meeting, or who promotes the organisation, or is loosely affiliated with it, is branded a terrorist – that is a serious escalation I think.”
Ex-justice secretary Charlie Falconer was also not convinced that spraying paint on military planes justified the ban, claiming “there must be something else that I don’t know about”.
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