PROTESTERS supporting people charged for backing Palestine Action have told The National their movement is non-violent and a campaign to protect freedom of speech.
A demonstration outside Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday saw at least 77 people arrested for expressing support for the banned group.
It came – even after the cases due to be heard at the court were postponed – on the same day as it was announced Palestine Action’s co-founder Huda Ammori would be able to challenge the ban at the Supreme Court later this year.
Attendees told The National that they were campaigning in support of the group, which is a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years under terrorism laws, and to protect human rights they said were threatened by the ban.
Edinburgh man Colin Sutherland said: “I’m opposed to the deliberate slaughter of children, mass murder and genocide. I’m opposed to the complicity of the British government in the commission of that genocide through the allowance of the manufacture of weapons in this country, which go to a genocidal state and I’m protesting the suppression of opposition which I consider entirely legitimate, so it’s a free speech issue as well.”
The 67-year-old, a semi-retired community mental health support worker, said he had previously been arrested for expressing support for Palestine Action at a demonstration outside Woolwich Crown Court in June.
That case saw four members of Palestine Action – Charlotte Head, 30, Samuel Corner, 23, Leona Kamio, 30, and Fatema Rajwani, 21 – jailed for a raid on an Elbit Systems factory near Bristol.
READ MORE: Palestine Action can challenge UK Government ban in Supreme Court
Asked if he was worried about being arrested again, Sutherland replied: “No, otherwise I wouldn’t be here.”
Samantha Whittaker, a housewife from Newbury, Berkshire, said she had attended to support her daughter who had previously been arrested for expressing support for Palestine Action.
The 60-year-old said: “She was arrested a few months ago because she held up a sign – terrible terrorist she is, holding up a sign peacefully and quietly – and she was arrested, she’s yet to find out what’s going to happen about that.”
She added: “The protests that happen for people like Tommy Robinson are full of violence, they’re full of police getting attacked, people end up in hospital. I’ve protested I think 10 or 12 times now against the genocide, for Gaza, not one bit of violence have I seen, not one bit of aggression.
“We are peaceful, we are just here to promote peace and to deplore people who think that war and genocide is the way to make their feelings known and get their point across and suppress an innocent people.”
Mother and daughter Pip and Emily Harris were also in attendance, with the elder saying that her Quaker faith meant she had strongly-held views about human rights, especially freedom of speech and trial by jury.
Pip, from Devon, said: “I’ve been following the situation in Israel and Palestine for literally decades. I’m a Quaker and, for a long time, we’ve been working out there with part of an ecumenical accompaniment, so I’ve heard firsthand of the situation there and the history.”
READ MORE: Several arrested as protesters show support for Palestine Action at London demo
She said she had been arrested “for holding a cardboard sign” in Parliament Square, Westminster, in September and had been due to have her case heard in the court she was sitting outside on Thursday.
The retired teacher said: “It felt important that I should be here to encourage people who are still protesting.”
Her daughter Emily, a documentary filmmaker, said: “I’m very proud of her.” The 35-year-old described the situation as “ridiculous” and said she was concerned that supporters of Palestine Action could face time behind bars.
“It’s just awful,” she added.
Pip said that she felt able to protest the ban – like many others who have been arrested for backing Palestine Action – because she was now retired.
“I think it’s something that older people can do,” she said. “I’m retired, I’ve travelled in the past so if I have a travel ban, even if I have a custodial sentence – which I don’t think is likely, but is a possibility – then that’s something I can do.
“We can’t expect our young people to face those kinds of draconian measures. I know how much our young people are behind us in this and that’s important to me, too.”
Among those arrested on Thursday was Sir John Porritt, a former leader of the Greens when they were known as the Ecology Party who advised King Charles on environmental issues while the latter was Prince of Wales.
In a video message recorded while he was being arrested, Porritt said: “I am a supporter of Palestine Action, trying to save lives is not terrorism, exposing this Governments complicity in genocide is not terrorism.”
