Amnesty urges UK police to respect rights of protesters backing Palestine Action

Amnesty International has warned London’s Metropolitan Police against arresting peaceful protesters expected to gather on Saturday in support of the banned group Palestine Action.

The demonstration, organised by the campaign group Defend Our Juries, is set to take place in Parliament Square on Saturday afternoon. Protesters have been asked to carry signs reading: "I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action"

Palestine Action was outlawed by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper last month following an attack on an RAF airbase in Oxfordshire, where activists allegedly caused £7 million in damage to military aircraft in protest at UK arms support for Israel.

In a letter addressed to the Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley and Sacha Deshmukh, the UK chief executive of Amnesty International warned that arresting people for expressing support for Palestine Action or opposing genocide would violate Britain’s international obligations.

She wrote: "Arresting peaceful protesters for carrying signs that read 'I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action' would constitute a breach of the UK’s international commitments to protect freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.

"We urge you to instruct your officers to act with restraint and comply with those obligations by not arresting individuals solely for expressing their views."

In response, Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, said: "I strongly advise anyone planning to visit London this weekend in support of Palestine Action to consider the potential criminal consequences of their actions."

Murphy’s comments came as the first charges were brought under terrorism laws against demonstrators accused of showing support for the banned organisation. Three protesters were arrested during a protest in Westminster on July 5 and are set to appear in court on September 16.

They are among ten people charged under the Terrorism Act since the group's proscription.

According to Counter Terrorism Police, 221 people have been arrested since the ban, including 58 under Section 12 for promoting or recklessly expressing support for a banned group, and 162 under Section 13 for carrying symbols or signs linked to a proscribed organisation in public.

One person was arrested under Section 11 for alleged membership.

This week, dozens of prominent writers, academics and public intellectuals published an open letter urging the UK government to reverse its decision.

They described the movement against the ban as a "growing campaign of collective defiance" and praised those "risking arrest" by joining the protest in London.

"As scholars of justice and ethics, we believe the ban on Palestine Action represents an attack on the broader pro-Palestine movement and a fundamental threat to the rights of free expression, assembly, association and protest," the letter said.

Among the high-profile signatories were American scholar and former Black Panther Angela Davis, Canadian Jewish author Naomi Klein, feminist philosopher Judith Butler, political theorists Etienne Balibar and Rebecca Comay, historian Ilan Pappé, and British-Israeli historian Avi Shlaim.

"While hundreds risk arrest by taking to the streets on August 9, and as students and educators brace for another disrupted academic year, we express full solidarity with those organising on campuses and in communities to end the accelerating genocide and stop Britain’s complicity in Israel’s crimes," the letter added.

Prominent Palestinian academics included Rashid Khalidi of Columbia University, Abdel Jawad Omar of Birzeit University, and Haidar Eid of Al-Aqsa University in Gaza.

Other signatories included political theorist Michael Hardt and Israeli-British architect Eyal Weizman.

Earlier this week, 300 left-leaning Jewish figures, including director Mike Leigh and author Michael Rosen, also signed a letter to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, calling the ban on Palestine Action "unlawful and immoral" and accusing the UK government of enabling Israeli war crimes.

The Met Police told The New Arab that those supporting the Palestinian cause would not be "committing an offence" but it was "unlawful" to support Palestine Action after being designated as a terrorist organisation. 

"Anyone showing support for the group can expect to be arrested. More than 100 such arrests have taken place in recent weeks," the statement added.