Tag: Palestine Action

Human Rights Concerns in UK Protest Laws


Concerns about latest bill and affects on right to protest

January 2026

Liberty and other human rights organisations argue that proposals in this bill, currently going through the Lords, will block countless people from exercising their fundamental right to protest, risk criminalising marginalised communities, and prevent meaningful change.

Repeat Protests 

Clause 372 of the Crime and Policing Bill would give police the power ban repeat demonstrations in a designated area. If this is voted into law, senior police officers must consider the “cumulative disruption” caused by previous – or even future – protests in the area as a reason to ban a demonstration, regardless of whether they were organised by the same people or focused on the same issues. They would also decide what area is restricted, with no clear rules on its size. This means there could be borough or city-wide bans on protests, simply because a different demonstration took place the week before. This won’t just impact frequent large-scale marches; it could restrict emergency demonstrations on issues of grave importance, or the right to organise counter protests.

Since change is rarely achieved by a one-off demonstration outside Parliament (votes for women took nearly a century to achieve, as did a two-day weekend) this clause is viewed as inhibiting persistent lawful protest.

Face coverings at protests

Sections 118-120 of the Crime and Policing Bill will make it a criminal offence to wear a face covering at designated protests, and police will have the power to arrest or fine anyone breaching this condition. The lack of adequate safeguards in the Bill will particularly impact anyone who has to wear a face covering for health, religious, or privacy reasons. This could result in Muslim women, disabled people, and political dissidents being criminalised for attending protests with face coverings. Police already have the ability to require people to remove items if they believe they’re being used to hide their identity.

Demos polling shows that 86% of people believe everyone has the right to voice their opinion and raise awareness of issues. The Crime and Policing Bill will strip this right away from those who can only protest safely with a face covering.

Protests outside places of worship 

Section 124 of the Bill also proposes giving the police powers to restrict protests ‘in the vicinity’ of places of worship. Police already have the power to restrict protests based on their intention; this prevents genuine harm or disruption to religious communities. This new clause would instead ban protests based on the fact there is a place of worship nearby, regardless of intention, with the only criteria being that these protests could be considered ‘intimidating’.

This very low threshold could capture almost any protest in towns or cities across the country. Regular demonstrations outside Parliament could now be restricted due to the numerous places of worship nearby, with no requirement to prove they are being targeted by protests.

Other amendments 382 A-D would make it harder to organise processions quickly in response to current events, and remove the vital “reasonable excuse” safeguard that helps prevent the criminalisation of peaceful protest.

CITIZENSHIP RIGHTS

The British Egyptian activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah will not be stripped of his citizenship as, according to the Home Secretary Shabana Mahmoud. His ‘abhorrent’ social media posts of a decade ago do not meet the legal bar for revocation. The necessary criteria would include fraudulent acquiring of citizenship or terrorism charges or links with serious organised crime.

The British government helped secure the activist’s release from years in an Egyptian jail but after his arrival in London from Egypt on Boxing Day, opposition parties called for him to be deported and his citizenship revoked, citing tweets in which he called for Zionists to be killed. El-Fattah who was granted British citizenship while in prison in 2021 through his mother’s birth in the UK, has apologised for past social media posts.

Government sources said the bar on removing citizenship was set high to provide the necessary safeguards. There is a right of appeal against the decision to revoke citizenship. Shamima Begum’s appeal was rejected by the former home secretary Sajid Javid in 2019.

PROTESTS ON BEHALF OF HUNGER STRIKERS

A 500-strong protest was held outside Pentonville prison to express urgent concern at the government’s continued inaction in the face of the imminent death of three remaining hunger strikers of the so-called Filton 24. They have now been on strike for over 45, 59 and 66 days respectively (8 January). 800 medical personnel have signed a letter criticising the government’s handling of the hunger strikers.

Campaigners have called their treatment ‘punishment by process’ since none has yet been charged with a terrorist offence, only with burglary, criminal damage and violent disorder, relating to their entry into a factory run by Elbit Systems, the Israeli arms manufacturer.

While the CPS sets a maximum of six months on remand, the hunger strikers have already been imprisoned without trial since November 2024. Their actions took place before the banning of their pro-Gaza protest group, Palestine Action, a banning which is currently being investigated after an appeal supported by Liberty and Amnesty.

Previous posts:

On 21st January, we are hosting a talk by the author and journalist Peter Oborne about his new book ‘Complicit’. For details see the post about Britain’s role above. It is free with a parting collection.

0

Spot the difference


The different responses by police to protests

September 2025

At the beginning of the month, a protest march concerning Palestine Action which was peaceful and attended by large numbers of elderly people, resulted in over 800 arrests. No police officers were reported to be injured.

On Saturday, 110,000 attended a rally in London where the police struggled to restrain the violence, where bloodthirsty, threatening and violent statements were made by Elon Musk and others and 26 police officers were injured. There were 28 arrests.

800 v. 28

0

Ban on Palestine Action confirmed


Group loses its case in the High Court and is now proscribed

July 2025

As of today (July 5th) Palestine Action is now a proscribed terrorist organisation. This decision has been widely condemned and is seen as an abuse of legislation introduced to stop far more deadly organisations. The Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, lumped into the order, two other organisations: Maniacs Murder Cult and Russian Imperial Movement, to give MPs little choice but to approve it which they did 385 votes to 26. PA now joins al-Qaeda and ISIS on the list. Local MP, Danny Kruger (E Wilts) voted for the ban.

There is no doubt that PA caused damage to the various establishments they raided. Although Cooper and others spoke of violence, no evidence of violence has been produced. This action is of a piece with legislation introduced by the previous government to limit and make protests and demonstrations a lot more difficult. Well, not quite, because it may be noticed that the farmers have been taking their tractors into London and elsewhere and blocked streets and stopped traffic. There is no record of any police action against them nor any arrests having been made.

Many have made the point that the activities of PA are covered by existing legislation and indeed, some have been arrested and sentenced after earlier actions using laws already on the statute book. When the terrorism law was introduced about a quarter of a century ago the claim was made then that it would only be used for ‘extreme’ crimes. That seems to have been forgotten. Unfortunately, the legislation is overly broad enabling it to be used in cases like this. The problem has been that juries have not been convinced by government lawyers and have not found against the defendants, hence the need to ban them. Taking them to court for spraying RAF jets stood little chance of a successful conviction now that more people know what dubious activities the RAF are up to and the covert help they are offering the Israelis. The suggestions are that they have carried out over 600 flights over Gaza and that they are refuelling Israeli jets in some of their sorties.

What has embarrassed the government is that the group is drawing attention to the government support being offered, not just by the RAF but in allowing Elbit Systems to continue to make the drones in factories here in the UK, as they claim on their website.

People have a right to protest and the list of protest movements who have brought change is a long one. We noted in our last post that the very fact Yvette Cooper is an MP and a minister is as a result of a prolonged period of protest – latterly violent – by the suffragists and the suffragettes. Her action, and the willingness of 385 MPs to vote for the motion is a shameful one.

One MP, Nadia Whittome (Lab) said “Hundreds of lawyers have written to the Home Secretary, warning that proscribing Palestine Action would conflate protest and terrorism. Amnesty International and Liberty have both expressed deep concerns. A senior civil servant has briefed that there is disquiet among Home Office staff about the decision, and has called it “absurd” [HC Deb 2 July c367]. Earlier in the debate she reminded the House of the suffragettes.

While the government was busy proscribing Palestine Action, people were still being killed in the food queues and what is believed to be a massive 500 lb bomb was dropped on the al Baqa café in the north. The bomb killed a large numbers of people many of whom were blown to pieces. Around 56,500 have been killed in Gaza.

Sources: BBC; Middle East Eye, Al Jazeera, Amnesty International, They Work for You.

Vigil

Forty people turned out today (5 July) for the weekly vigil in Salisbury.

Latest posts:

2

Proscribing Palestine Action


Government’s intention to proscribe Palestine Action regrettable

June 2025

UPDATE: July 3rd. Parliament voted to ban Palestine Action yesterday. They were included in a motion with Maniacs Murder Cult and Russian Imperialist Movement, two extreme organisations. Parliament voted 385 to 26 in favour.

Yvette Cooper is a woman. She has the vote. She is also a Member of Parliament and presently the Home Secretary. That she is able to vote and become an MP is in large part because beginning in the middle of the nineteenth century, a number of campaigners fought for female suffrage. They began peacefully, writing pamphlets and holding marches and some became suffragists. It availed them

nothing. Then, at the turn of the century in 1903, frustrated by years of inaction, their campaigning became more violent involving throwing bricks, disrupting public meetings, ruining golf courses, planting bombs and going on hunger strikes. They were termed ‘suffragettes’ a word coined by the Daily Mail as a term of disparagement. After the Great War, they achieved their goal, at least partly and today women have the vote. And a woman like Yvette Cooper can become an MP.

Palestine Action entered the news this week because of their action in Brize Norton. They did not disrupt the actions of the RAF as admitted by the Department of Defence. They did not throw a bomb and no one was injured. They did seriously embarrass the RAF however by showing how feeble their security was. Yet Evette Couper has decided that it is to be proscribed as a terrorist organisation. Great has been the chorus of condemnation. A local MP, Dr. Andrew Murrison said ‘they were a national security threat‘ in a

quote in the Jewish Chronicle. Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader said ‘this is not lawful protest but politically motivated criminality‘. Lord Walney (pictured), a former adviser on political violence and extremism, went into overdrive saying it was a ‘grotesque breach of national security … we should not let these criminal activists act like the Ayatollah apparatchiks by attacking the country from within … employees at the workplace they target have been systematically terrorised by Palestine Action for too long.’

At root is the issue of Palestine and Gaza. With 56,000 now dead in Gaza with more deaths daily adding to the total, there are many who object to the continued support being provided by the UK government to Israel. This includes arms supplies, diplomatic cover and – the issue behind the raid on Brize Norton – the activities of the RAF in overflying Gaza. Details of which are scant and which a government minister has claimed it is ‘solely in pursuit of hostage rescue.’ Another issue which has emerged is that the Israeli Embassy has been pressing the government to take action against Palestine Action. Heavily redacted internal government documents released under freedom of information laws have revealed meetings between the government and Israeli embassy officials, apparently to discuss Palestine Action. Ministers have also met representatives from the Israeli arms firm Elbit Systems.

The RAF flights are controversial and there are suggestions that they and the UK government are complicit in Israel’s actions in Gaza. In particular it is alleged the information is used to assist them in torturing Palestinians.

A familiar cry from politicians and some media commentators is that they are happy with peaceful protests but taking action by spraying RAF planes is not acceptable.

The Home Secretary’s response and proposal to proscribe the organisation is seen by many to be extreme. Peaceful protests are almost always ignored. Perhaps Ms Cooper should remember that she owes her exalted status to the violent actions of women a century or so ago. Left to the peaceful protests of the suffragists, she could now be an unknown and certainly not an MP.

1

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑