About 1,500 people showed up at the demonstration outside the UK Parliament in London, according to the campaign group Defend Our Juries, who was the rally’s organizers, and were at risk of being arrested under terrorism laws.
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“Met police brutally assault protesters and throw them to the ground, while they detain others for carrying cardboard signs that read “I oppose genocide.” I back Palestine Action, which was posted on X along with a video of the clashes, and Defend Our Juries.
BREAKING: Met police brutally assault and pelt protesters, and mass arrest others for holding cardboard signs that read: “Breaking:
“It is a genocide,” I say. I back the picture of Palestine Action. https://twitter.com/Ivzfcz2YNk
According to The Press Association, police reportedly drew their batons during the altercations, and a protester was seen with blood streaming down his face behind a barrier after being arrested.
Additionally, according to the report, police reportedly had verbal altercations with demonstrators, and that they were thrown water and plastic bottles at them while several protesters eventually fell over in a crush.
Around 150 people were detained by London’s Metropolitan Police for a variety of crimes, including assaulting a police officer and supporting a prohibited organization.
According to the Met, “Officers policing the Defend Our Juries protest in Parliament Square have been subjected to an extraordinary level of abuse, including verbal abuse, kicks, spitting, and objects being thrown,” according to the Met on X.
The “chilling effect”
The latest rally is one that denounces the UK government’s decision to outlaw Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act 2000 in July.
The group’s members entered an air force base in southern England earlier that month, causing an estimated 7 million pounds ($9.4 million) of damage to two aircraft, which was subject to the ban.
Membership in or support for the organization, which is now a criminal offense punishable by a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison, is supported by renowned authors like bestselling Irish author Sally Rooney and Massive Attack singer-songwriter Robert Del Naja.
The government wants to overturn the ban, but Palestine Action has received approval from the High Court to challenge it. A hearing is scheduled for September 25th, and the case is still ongoing.
The government’s decision to ban it as “catastrophic” for civil liberties was condemned by Huda Ammori, cofounder of Palestine Action, and said it would have a “much wider chilling effect on freedom of speech.”
Something is going very wrong in the UK, according to Amnesty International UK’s Kerry Moscogiuri, a member of the human rights advocacy group Amnesty International UK.
In this context, “criminalizing speech is only permitted when it encourages violence or fosters hatred.” By itself, showing support for Palestine Action does not meet this standard.
More than 700 people were detained at earlier protests, including 532 at a London rally on August 9, which was the largest mass arrest in the capital since the 1960s, and 138 have been charged under the Terrorism Act.
After making headlines for his arrest on August 9 and being blind and using a wheelchair, Mike Higgins, 62, resumed his protest on Saturday.
What options are there for me? he told The Press Association. There is no other way that the genocide is being stopped, aside from by us.
Source: Aljazeera
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