cross-posted from: ibbit.at/post/73202

The Met police have announced they arrested a total of 488 peaceful sign-holders who took part in the action in Trafalgar Square. The arrests took six and a half hours, with the final arrests at 7.30pm, after the silent vigil began at 1pm. This brings the total number arrested for defying the Palestine Action ban to over 2,000 since it came into effect on 5 July 2025, which Defend Our Juries has called an “extraordinary affront to democracy”.

Defend Our Juries October protest: mass arrests once more

Those the Met arrested came from all faiths and none, and included:

Elizabeth Morley, 79-year-old Jewish daughter of a Holocaust survivor. This weekend, police arrested her for the third time at a Lift The Ban action.Muhammad Rabbani, managing director of CAGE International which campaigns against the misuse of terror laws.Reverend Sue Parfitt, 83 year old Anglican priest. This was also her third arrest at Lift The Ban actions.

The police arrested many elderly people and disabled people during the protest. This included a blind man using a mobility cane and two mobility wheelchair users. Everyone held a sign with the same seven words:

I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.

The Met operation required not only 70% of their own public order capacity – 1,500 officers – but also an additional 400 officers from forces as far as the North of Ireland. Amnesty International Northern Ireland programme director Patrick Corrigan commented:

We are repeatedly advised that the PSNI has insufficient numbers of officers. Yet here they are in London helping the Met to arrest pensioners for holding cardboard signs.

Explaining the strain this is putting on police officers, Police Federation chair Paula Dodds said:

Enough is enough. We are emotionally and physically exhausted.

Policing Palestine Action ban protests is a choice, says Defend Our Juries

Demonstrating that police forces can exercise discretion and common sense when it comes to interpreting the ban on Palestine Action, Devon and Cornwall Police took the decision not to make arrests at a Lift The Ban sign-holding vigil in Truro earlier the same day. Instead the force sent two Police Liaison Officers who described the demo as “lovely and peaceful” and defended people’s right to protest to one passerby who heckled protesters. Other forces in Edinburgh, Derry, Totnes, and Kendal have also chosen to not arrest peaceful protestors holding the same sign at previous actions.

A spokesperson for Amnesty International said:

It will never stop being shocking to witness hundreds of peaceful protesters being hauled from the streets into police vans.

Police chiefs have a choice about how they police protests. These arrests are in breach of the UK’s international human rights obligations and should not be happening. Arresting hundreds of people for peacefully sitting down and holding a sign is not the job of the police and is a waste of their time when they could be out helping people.

Amnesty has long criticised UK terrorism law for being excessively broad, vaguely worded and a threat to freedom of expression. Police responses to these peaceful protests only further confirm that our concerns are justified.”

A Defend Our Juries spokesperson said:

In an extraordinary affront to democracy, over 2,000 people have now been arrested for peacefully defying the ban on Palestine Action — including elderly and disabled people, priests, pensioners, and children of Holocaust survivors, dragged away by police for silently holding a seven-word cardboard sign.

This disastrous decision by Yvette Cooper and Labour’s Cabinet has led to counter-terrorism resources being diverted to criminalise those trying to save lives in Palestine. The threat this ban posed — not only to free speech but to policing resources — was entirely foreseeable and repeatedly warned against. But in a bid to appease arms manufacturers and lobby groups, the Government made an unprecedented and absurdly authoritarian decision to proscribe a domestic protest group.

Defend Our Juries was asked by the Met police to postpone the silent vigil due to pressure on its resources. It then emerged that two of the victims in the horrific antisemitic attack on Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester were shot by the police. Police resources should be focused on thoroughly investigating this and on community safety, not spent arresting peaceful protesters holding cardboard signs. Forces in Edinburgh, Derry, Totnes and Kendal have rightly chosen not to arrest protesters holding the exact same signs – which say “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action” – showing police forces have that discretion.

It is the Labour Government which is to blame for this monumental waste of policing and counter-terror resources. Until the Home Secretary sees sense and lifts this anti-democratic ban, police resources should be focused on real threats — not wasted silencing people calling for an end to genocide. Every day, more Palestinians are being slaughtered in Gaza and British citizens have been abducted from the aid flotilla by Israeli forces. This crisis is escalating — and today’s protest opposed both the genocide and the ban on those trying to stop it by taking action against the weapons companies arming this bloodshed.

Possible to have compassion for the victims of multiple atrocities at the same time

Responding to prime minister Keir Starmer’s suggestion that the action should not go ahead, Defend Our Juries supporter, Zoe Cohen, who was arrested at the August action, said:

As a Jewish person born and bred in the North West I’m grieving after the appalling synagogue attack in Manchester and I feel it deeply. I’m also grieving for the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who have been murdered, displaced and starved in Gaza. I think it’s possible for us to be compassionate and open our hearts to victims of multiple atrocities at one time.

Those who have used the attack on the Jewish community in Manchester to call for today’s vigil to be cancelled, are wrongly conflating the actions of the Israeli state with all Jews. Jewish people around the world are not responsible for Israel’s crimes and there are many Jewish people who do not support the actions of the Israeli state. Cancelling today’s vigil would have perpetuated this dangerous narrative which fuels antisemitism.

I am one of a significant number of Jewish people who have taken part in these actions because we refuse to stand by while our government enables Israel’s genocide and bans the protest group which seeks to stop that complicity by disrupting arms factories. 53 Palestinians were also killed on Thursday and they have names and stories too. Every life matters. When I was brought up learning about the Holocaust and we said “never again”, I learnt that this means ‘never again’ for anyone.

The Met could have chosen to prioritise protecting communities and places of worship today rather than arresting peaceful protesters – many elderly and disabled people – for holding a homemade sign. Police in Edinburgh, Derry, Totnes and Kendal’s decision not to arrest people for holding the same sign demonstrating that the police do have that discretion. Blame for the strain on police resources today lies squarely with the Government for its draconian decision to ban a protest group for the first time in British history, which took action to try to preserve human life, not to take life. The Home Secretary can and must put an end to this by lifting the ban. If we do not overturn it, democracy is dead in our country, and if today’s vigil had been cancelled we would have been letting terror win.

Cops not keeping communities safe

Labour MP Richard Burgon said:

Instead of vital police resources being used to keep communities safe, we have the absurd situation where they’re being wasted on arresting peaceful protesters: people simply holding signs and exercising their democratic rights to oppose genocide. This follows the wholly disproportionate and deeply troubling decision to designate Palestine Action – a group that posed no risk to the public – as terrorists. I voted against that decision in Parliament and again call on the Government to immediately overturn it.

Whilst they were sitting peacefully holding cardboard signs, protesters read out the names one by one of some of the 18,500 Palestinian children the Israeli military has slaughtered.

An hour before the silent vigil started, a group of people dropped a banner off Westminster Bridge in front of the Houses of Parliament with the words “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action”. Met police said they arrested six people in connection with this action.

The proscription of Palestine Action has drawn criticism from across the political spectrum. It has led to the chilling effect of freedom of speech in the UK. The unprecedented decision to ban a domestic direct action group was solely based on “serious property damage”. It has taken away resources from dealing with terrorists who pose a genuine threat to the public.

In a statement on Thursday, Defend Our Juries unreservedly condemned the vicious attack in Manchester and called it “real terrorism”. The Met police asked for the group to postpone the silent protest, due to a lack of police resources. In response, Defend Our Juries urged the police to “choose to:

prioritise protecting the community, rather than arresting those peacefully holding signs in opposition to the absurd and draconian ban of a domestic direct action group.

Defend Our Juries said that cancelling a peaceful protest to defend our democracy and oppose violence and oppression would be to “let terror win”.

Cynically exploiting the Manchester Synagogue attack to silence protest for Palestine

Zack Polanski, Green Party leader said:

I think its really problematic if someone is trying to weaponise the attack that happened yesterday to try and silence protest in this country against the genocide. They’re separate issues… we need to be clear what this government is doing.

During his speech at the Green party conference, he also called for the immediate withdrawal of the Palestine Action proscription. He reiterated his support for Defend Our Juries.

Jews who regularly take part in pro-Palestine marches released a statement about why they are taking part in the vigil. They expressed their concern at the home secretary:

cynically exploiting this tragic event to fulfil a long-standing ambition of successive British Governments: to justify a ban on the mass protests against Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

Following Defend Our Juries’ letter to the Met police, on Saturday, the Met police commissioner Mark Rowley rowed back on his claim of limited resources. He said:

If we have to, we will call in support from forces across the UK to ensure we can arrest all those breaking the law in support of a terrorist group while we also keep communities safe.

A spokesperson for the Network for Police Monitoring said:

The actions of Devon and Cornwall Police today exposes the policing priorities of the Metropolitan Police and this government. The protest in Truro shows that it is down to individual police forces to choose where they direct their resources, and the Met is clearly showing that their priority is arresting peaceful pensioners sitting with placards.

Over the last two days, there has been an ongoing smear campaign to conflate pro-Palestine protests with the horrendous antisemitic actions of the Manchester attacker with politicians and pundits manipulatively and cynically using what happened to try to undermine people protesting a genocide by a far-right Israeli government.

Feature image supplied.

By The Canary

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