The arrests followed the banning of direct action group Palestine Action under the terrorism act
Police carry away at protester in St Peter’s Square yesterday(Image: Defend Our Juries)
Police say 16 people arrested in Manchester city centre yesterday during a protest against Palestine Action being designated a proscribed terror group have been bailed.
They were among a total of 70 people arrested at demonstrations across England and Wales. It came after Palestine Action were banned under the Terrorism Act.
Pictures from the Manchester protest on Saturday show several people gathered at the Emmeline Pankhurst statue in St Peter’s Square holding cardboard signs. Video footage from the scene shows police carrying away some of the demonstrators.
In London, two groups of protesters gathered underneath both the Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela statues in Parliament Square shortly after 1pm. The individuals then wrote a message ‘I oppose genocide, I support ‘Palestine Action’ with black markers on pieces of cardboard, and silently held the signs aloft as they were surrounded by Metropolitan Police officers and members of the media.
South Wales Police also confirmed 13 people were arrested on suspicion of committing offences under the same Act during a protest in the vicinity of Central Square, Cardiff. In a statement, West Yorkshire Police said a 58-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of demonstrating support for Palestine Action in Leeds. He was interviewed at a police station before being released on bail.
In a statement yesterday a Greater Manchester Police spokesperson said: “At around 2.30pm this afternoon we responded to a protest taking place in St Peter’s Square. 16 people were arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000. The group peacefully dissipated at around 3.25pm.”
A spokesperson for campaign group Defend Our Juries, which helped organise the protest, said: “In the whole of last year there were just 248 arrests for Terrorism Act offences. In just the last week there’ve been nearly half that number, all for people holding cardboard signs, opposing genocide and supporting those acting to stop it.”
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The terror group designation means that membership of, or support for Palestine Action is a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison. The move to ban the organisation came after two Voyager aircraft were damaged at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on June 20, an incident claimed by Palestine Action, which police said caused about £7 million worth of damage.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced plans to proscribe Palestine Action three days later, saying that the vandalism of the planes was ‘disgraceful’ and the group had a ‘long history of unacceptable criminal damage’.
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The move has been widely criticised by human rights groups. Tom Southerden, of Amnesty International UK, said: “Terrorism powers should never have been used to aggravate criminal charges against Palestine Action activists and they certainly shouldn’t be used to ban them.
“Instead of suppressing protest against the UK’s military support for Israel, the UK should be taking urgent action to prevent Israel’s genocide and end any risk of UK complicity in it.”