The photographs from final week’s sit-in protest in Parliament Sq. over the banned group Palestine Motion had been unprecedented.
As demonstrators held up placards studying, “I assist Palestine Motion”, some 522 of them had been arrested on suspicion of breaking terrorism legal guidelines – greater than double the full such arrests in 2024.
Their common age was 54, mentioned the police. Some 112 of them had been over 70 years previous.
The battle over the ban on Palestine Motion (PAG) – final month, proscribed as a terrorist organisation within the UK – now feels as a lot a political and PR battle as a authorized one.
And the organisers of the marketing campaign try to capitalise on perceived sympathy amongst a few of the public by organising one other demonstration in September – hoping to power the state, by numbers, to raise the ban.
How does it finish?
Does it danger turning into an “I’m Spartacus second”? – the phrases of Baroness Shami Chakrabarti, the Labour peer and civil rights campaigner?
That relies on three courtroom battles that can every, in flip, affect how Palestine Motion is publicly perceived and legally characterised.
Let’s begin with the protesters arrested since July for displaying assist for the group – greater than 700 to date.
One lawyer says it has been awkward to date for cops.
“I’ve seen police look extremely uncomfortable with the truth that they’re having to deal with these aged folks as criminals,” mentioned solicitor Katie McFadden, who suggested many protesters, after their arrests, final Saturday.
“I’ve seen them in police custody and so they’ve definitely been thoughtful and regarded, frankly, fairly shocked and horrified that that is what they had been having to do as a part of their job once they’ve signed as much as exit and shield the general public from harmful criminals.”
The actual problem for the police and prosecutors is what number of protesters do they should cost with assist of a banned terrorist organisation to ship a message to the general public. And what message do they ship if they do not cost all of them?
The typical age of these arrested was 54, police say, with 112 over the age of 70 [EPA]
To this point, three folks have been charged with displaying an merchandise displaying assist for Palestine Motion throughout the first demonstration on 5 July. They are going to all seem in court docket subsequent month.
The director of public prosecutions, Stephen Parkinson, needed to seek the advice of the Legal professional Basic’s Workplace earlier than he may go forward with the fees due to extra safeguards in some terrorism instances.
That signifies that Lord Hermer, the Legal professional Basic and likewise a cupboard minister, or his deputy, might need to be concerned in every of the information that police ship to prosecutors.
That, in flip, means the overwhelming majority of the 700 might not know for months if they will find yourself on trial – in instances that might be greater than a yr away from a jury.
Simply assuming they do get charged, historical past suggests the danger of a most of 14-year sentence is low.
Conventionally, a conviction like this would depart careers in tatters and produce other life-changing results.
The equation for some Palestine Motion protesters is completely different.
Many are older individuals who have graduated from involvement in local weather change activism and imagine the ban breaches free speech safeguards. It appears many have fewer fears concerning the influence of arrest on their day-to-day lives.
So is the ban on Palestine Motion a authorized and PR catastrophe within the making for Residence Secretary Yvette Cooper?
Huda Ammori, Palestine Motion’s co-founder, has mentioned on social media: “The system cannot cope when hundreds resist.”
[EPA]
However ministers hope that the distinction between the organisation she based and different types of protest over Gaza will develop into clear because of the second of the three linked authorized battles quickly to take centre stage.
In August 2024 alleged PAG supporters broke into Elbit Techniques UK in Bristol, an Israeli defence agency that has lengthy been a key goal.
A repurposed jail van smashed by a safety fence and crowbars and a sledgehammer had been allegedly used to smash up tools.
Three folks had been injured: a safety guard and two cops.
Palestine Motion promoted video of the injury – however not any photos of the alleged assaults.
These allegations start to come back to trial in November. Some 18 folks deny prices together with felony injury, assault inflicting precise bodily hurt, violent dysfunction and aggravated housebreaking.
That incident prompted nationwide safety officers and the police to have a look at whether or not a terrorism ban on PAG might be justified, after having beforehand concluded that the overwhelming majority of its extremely disruptive actions amounted to minor felony injury.
Paperwork disclosed to the BBC within the Excessive Courtroom present how the considering on a ban had advanced. Palestine Motion was turning into extra militant, mentioned officers. It had allegedly produced an “underground guide” that it was claimed detailed how you can plan a “break-in”, referring to face masks, burner telephones and faux automobile quantity plates.
“With an environment friendly sledgehammer in your hand, you’ll be able to trigger fairly a bit of injury,” the guide learn, earlier than than detailing how to take action.
And that is the place the UK’s huge definition of terrorism is available in. It consists of not simply the menace or use of violence to advance a trigger – but additionally using severe felony injury.
That is as a result of within the Nineties the IRA started inflicting financial injury by bombs, with out taking life.
So when Cooper banned PAG, her determination was largely knowledgeable by what the Residence Workplace has described as tens of millions of kilos of felony injury, not an evaluation that it was a gaggle of murderous militants.
“Proscription is about one slender group that has been concerned in violent assaults together with accidents, together with weapons, smoke bombs inflicting panic amongst harmless folks, main felony injury,” the house secretary mentioned following final Saturday’s arrests.
“There could also be people who find themselves objecting to proscription who do not know the total nature of this organisation attributable to court docket restrictions on reporting whereas severe prosecutions are beneath manner however it’s actually vital that nobody is in any doubt that this isn’t a non-violent organisation.”
If the ban is overturned within the Excessive Courtroom then a whole lot of these arrested would see their instances collapse [TOLGA AKMEN/EPA/Shutterstock]
Ms Ammori has contested this characterisation, saying the federal government’s personal papers present that Palestine Motion didn’t advocate for violence.
This brings us to the third of the three large authorized challenges that can resolve this affair: was the Residence Secretary proper?
The Excessive Courtroom will take into account within the autumn if the ban was a rational and proportionate response to PAG’s actions.
Jonathan Corridor KC, the impartial watchdog of terrorism legal guidelines, has beforehand advised BBC Information that the ban is legally workable as a result of the group had moved from protest into what’s successfully “blackmail” – suggesting it was exerting stress to get what it needed.
However Ms Ammori’s authorized workforce have a variety of great arguments round freedom of protest.
Volker Turk, the United Nations’ human rights chief has received concerned too, saying the ban is so fallacious it locations the UK exterior worldwide regulation.
The result of that case will outline whether or not Palestine Motion stays banned. If the ban falls, then the 700 arrested to date are free – their instances would collapse. As for the group itself, it might really feel emboldened – however would know that it may nonetheless be banned once more if its actions cross the terrorism legal guidelines line.
If the ban stands, then the benefit shall be with the federal government – and arrests and prices will proceed.
That’s the counter-terrorism policing manner: slowly however certainly, step-by-step, search to comprise and, finally, crush the menace.
