Protest group Defend Our Juries (DOJ) has vowed to escalate its campaigning against the proscription of Palestine Action as a terror organisation – promising civil disobedience across the country – after the Home Secretary announced police would be given greater powers to restrict protests.
More than 2,000 people have been arrested for showing support for the group since it was banned in July, DOJ said, as it condemned Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s announcement on Sunday.
Under the measures, police will be allowed to consider the “cumulative impact” of repeated demonstrations.
Ms Mahmood said large-scale protests had caused “considerable fear” for the Jewish community after frequent pro-Palestinian demonstrations, including an event in London on Saturday, which saw almost 500 arrests.
DOJ said the Government’s move is an “extraordinary new affront to our democracy” and said there will be civil disobedience “in key cities and towns” across Britain.
“It beggars belief that the Government has responded to widespread condemnation of its unprecedented attack on the right to protest — from the United Nations, Amnesty International, legal experts and even the former Director of Public Prosecutions — by announcing a further crackdown on free speech and assembly in our country,” a spokesperson said.
“This confirms what we’ve warned all along: the proscription of Palestine Action was never just about one group — it’s a dangerous, authoritarian escalation that threatens everyone’s right to protest in our country.”
The Government will amend Sections 12 and 14 of the Public Order Act 1986 to explicitly allow the police to take account of the cumulative impact of frequent protests on local areas in order to impose conditions on public processions and assemblies.
The Home Secretary will also review existing legislation to ensure powers are sufficient and are being applied consistently by police forces – this will include powers to ban protests outright.
Saturday’s event in London took place despite calls for restraint following the synagogue attack in Manchester.
Almost 500 people were arrested, including 488 arrests for supporting banned terror organisation Palestine Action.
There is currently a high bar restricting police’s ability to ban a march entirely. It requires a risk of “serious public disorder”.
Under the changes being proposed, if a protest has taken place at the same site for weeks on end and caused repeated disorder, the police will have the authority to impose conditions such as ordering organisers to hold the event somewhere else.
Anyone who breaches the conditions will risk arrest and prosecution.
“Sunday’s vigil was a deeply moving stand against all violence and oppression,” the DOJ spokesperson added.
“Hundreds of people — including elderly and disabled, priests, pensioners and children of Holocaust survivors — were dragged away by police one by one simply for holding signs reading: ‘I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action’.
“The Home Secretary’s extraordinary new affront to our democracy will only fuel the growing backlash to the ban.”
Ms Mahmood said: “The right to protest is a fundamental freedom in our country.
“However, this freedom must be balanced with the freedom of their neighbours to live their lives without fear.”
DOJ has called on its supporters to sign up for further action and to book time off ahead of a High Court legal challenge to the ban in November.
A High Court ruling in July decided that Palestine Action’s co-founder Huda Ammori had several “reasonably arguable” beliefs in her challenge over the group’s ban that would be heard at a three-day hearing in November, but a bid to pause the ban temporarily was refused.
DOJ said its Palestine Action supporters will converge on London for the judicial review on between November 25 and 27.
Palestine Action was banned after two Voyager aircraft were damaged at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on June 20, which police said caused about £7 million worth of damage.
