cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/33390661
Sammy Gecsoyler
Sat 19 Jul 2025 14.41 EDTDemonstrations were held in London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Bristol and Truro on Saturday as part of a campaign coordinated by Defend Our Juries.
In London’s Parliament Square, beside the Mahatma Gandhi statue, police officers surrounded people at an event at which signs were held that read “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action”.
A woman who was detained in Parliament Square said: “We demand that #Palestine Action is de-proscribed.
“Our government is not only arming a genocide, they are using terrorism laws to silence people who speak out."
Making Palestine action a terrorist group is a fucking outrage. Tel Aviv Keith is an authoritarian israeli
While I would normally agree that labeling a protest group as terrorists would be government overreach, I’m not sure if that is true for Palestine Action. Their protests have more similarity with terrorist actions than I would be comfortable with
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/7/4/palestine-action-what-has-the-group-done-as-it-faces-a-ban
Particularly the last bullet point in that article is a big one
In June 2025, the group carried out one of its most provocative actions to date: infiltrating RAF Brize Norton, the UK’s largest airbase. Activists used electric scooters to breach security and vandalised military aircraft with red paint.
You can’t break into a military base, vandalize property, and expect the government not to do anything about that.
I’m all for pro-Palestinian protests and standing with Palestine, but this is not it.Oh god, red paint on an aircraft, the terror!
Don’t be disingenuous.
Terrorist means something specific until it doesn’t, at which point it can be twisted to mean anyone. Like people who disagree with and protest ethnic cleansing, genocide, shooting children, medical workers and journalists, etc.
This was exactly the concerns raised by this wretched law at the time. The definition of what constitutes terrorism is so broad it was inevitable that it would become weaponized by politicians.
The fact that it is being used to crush peaceful protests is ominous.
It seems that the Israel chimera is fast tracking authoritarianism across the West.
Iraq war protestors did the same thing in 2003 and they were acquitted at trial by the jury. Their barrister was…Keir Starmer
There were similar attacks on RAF jets during the genocide on Myanmar I believe. They were also acquitted by a jury
In the latest edition of London Review of Books they speculate that making PA a terrorist group is to remove jury trials as prosecutions under the Terrorism Act is reviewed by a district judge without a jury present. The government doesn’t want juries to acquit them as they most likely would, given the history of direct action in this country.
