LONDON: Hundreds of trade unionists, activists, politicians and campaigners have signed an open letter condemning the UK government’s recent decision to ban the protest group Palestine Action, describing the move as “a major assault on our freedoms.”
Palestine Action, known for its direct action protests targeting UK-based Israeli weapons factories and their supply chains, was officially proscribed under anti-terrorism laws earlier this month after a parliamentary vote.
The ban makes it a criminal offence to be a member of or express support for the group. A last-minute legal challenge to halt the proscription was unsuccessful.
“Peaceful protest tactics which damage property or disrupt ‘business-as-usual’ in order to call attention to the crimes of the powerful have a long and proud history. They are more urgent than ever in response to Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people,” the open letter, which has gathered more than 900 signatures so far, argued.
Among the signatories are singer Charlotte Church and long-time environmental and human rights activist Angie Zelter, who was previously acquitted after disarming a BAE Hawk jet and destroying infrastructure linked to Britain’s Trident nuclear weapons system, .
Elected representatives also joined the list of supporters, including James Dornan, Scottish National Party MSP for Cathcart, who last week tabled a motion in the Scottish parliament calling for the Israeli military to be designated a terrorist organization.
Glasgow Trades Union Council, which is collectively backing the letter, issued a statement saying: “As the UK government is attacking our civil liberties, we must ask ourselves if not now, then when?”
Anne Alexander, a University of Cambridge researcher and UCU activist who helped organize the letter, said the response showed widespread opposition to the government's stance.
“The response to this open letter shows that people up and down the country want to stop arms going to Israel and that they don’t agree that a direct action group are ‘terrorists’ because they tried to disrupt the supply chain fuelling a genocide,” she said.
The draft order to proscribe Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act 2000 was put forward by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and passed the House of Commons on July 2 by 385 votes to 26.
The legislation included a ban on two neo-Nazi organisations, the Maniacs Murder Cult and the Russian Imperial Movement.
Some MPs and human rights groups have been critical of the government for the move, suggesting that combining Palestine Action with white supremacist groups in a single motion placed political pressure on MPs to support the measure.
