A protest group campaigning against the proscription of Palestine Action as a terror organisation has promised civil disobedience in key cities and towns across Britain after the home secretary announced police would be given greater powers to restrict demonstrations.
Defend Our Juries (DOJ) warned of a “major escalation” in its campaign after Shabana Mahmood’s announcement on Sunday, which followed a protest held by the group on Saturday, when there were almost 500 arrests.
Under the greater powers, Ms Mahmood said officers would be allowed to consider the “cumulative impact” of repeated demonstrations, saying repeated large-scale protests had caused “considerable fear” for the Jewish community.
In response, DOJ said it will escalate its campaign to lift the ban on Palestine Action ahead of the legal challenge against its proscription being heard in the High Court. The Judicial Review hearing will take place between 25 and 27 November, with civil disobedience across cities and towns planned for between 18 and 29 November, it said.
It comes after 488 people were arrested for supporting Palestine Action in a vigil staged in Trafalgar Square on Saturday, bringing the total number of arrests for defying the ban on the group to 2,000, according to DOJ.
A spokesperson for the campaign group said: “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. 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.”
They added: “The Home Secretary’s extraordinary new affront to our democracy will only fuel the growing backlash to the ban. We are announcing a major escalation in the lead-up to the High Court challenge to the ban in November.”
Saturday’s event in London took place despite calls for restraint from Sir Keir Starmer and police chiefs following the terror attack on a synagogue in Manchester on Thursday.
The government will now 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.
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.
During Saturday’s protest, the Met Police said people had to be carried by several officers at a time because they refused to be walked away.
Paula Dodds, chair of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said officers were “physically exhausted” but continued to be called on “to facilitate these relentless protests”.
But Kerry Moscogiuri, director of campaigns at human rights group Amnesty International UK, said: “Arresting hundreds of people for peacefully sitting down and holding these signs is not the job of police.
“These arrests are in breach of the UK’s international human rights obligations and should not be happening.”
