The co-founder of Palestine Action has accused ministers of making false and defamatory allegations about the banned group, and of contradicting their own intelligence assessments in an attempt to justify recent mass arrests.<\/p>\n
The government has come under pressure to justify the detention of 532 people arrested over the weekend under the Terrorism Act \u2013 half of whom were 60 or older<\/a> \u2013 on suspicion of showing support for Palestine Action.<\/p>\n The number of people arrested for peaceful protests, together with the images of older people being led away and the demands placed on the criminal justice system, have led many to call into question the criminalisation of so many people.<\/p>\n On Monday, a Downing Street spokesperson responded by saying Palestine Action, which last month became the first direct action protest group to be banned<\/a>, was \u201ca violent organisation that has committed violence, significant injury, extensive criminal damage\u201d.<\/p>\n The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, told the BBC<\/a> that Palestine Action \u201cis not a non-violent organisation\u201d and claimed that court restrictions meant people \u201cdon\u2019t know the full nature of this organisation\u201d.<\/p>\n Palestine Action co-founders Richard Barnard and Huda Ammori. Photograph: Mark Kerrison\/In Pictures\/Getty Images<\/p>\n But Huda Ammori, co-founder of Palestine Action, said: \u201cYvette Cooper and No 10\u2019s claim that Palestine Action is a violent organisation is false and defamatory and even disproven by the government\u2019s own intelligence assessment of Palestine Action\u2019s activities \u2026<\/p>\n \u201cIt was revealed in court during my ongoing legal challenge<\/a> to the ban that the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre\u2019s (JTAC\u2019S) assessment acknowledges that \u2018Palestine Action does not advocate for violence against persons\u2019 and that the \u2018majority\u2019 of its activities \u2018would not be classified as terrorism\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cSpraying red paint on war planes is not terrorism. Disrupting Israel\u2019s largest weapons manufacturer, Elbit Systems, by trespassing on their sites in Britain is not terrorism. It is the Israeli Defense Forces and all those who arm and enable their war crimes who are the terrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n JTAC, a government body based within MI5<\/a>, produced a secret report on 7 March which was disclosed in the high court.<\/p>\n While recommending banning Palestine Action, JTAC said the group \u201cprimarily uses direct action tactics\u201d, which typically resulted in minor damage to property. \u201cCommon tactics include graffiti, petty vandalism, occupation and lock-ons,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n Defend Our Juries, which has organised multiple demonstrations, including Saturday\u2019s, in support of Palestine Action, also highlighted Whitehall officials\u2019 description \u2013 again in documents revealed in court \u2013 of a ban as \u201crelatively novel\u201d as \u201cthere was no known precedent of an organisation being proscribed on the basis that it was concerned in terrorism mainly due to its use or threat of action involving serious damage to property\u201d.<\/p>\n