Police have arrested protesters on suspicion of supporting the banned group Palestine Action outside the Labour party conference in Liverpool. About 100 people gathered silently on Sunday, holding signs reading “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action”, according to protest organisation Defend Our Juries, which said there were dozens of arrests.
Palestine Action was banned as a terror organisation in July after it claimed responsibility for damaging two planes at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire the previous month. The proscription makes membership of the group, or inviting support for it, a criminal offence under the Terrorism Act, carrying a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison. It is the first time a direct action protest group has been classified as a terrorist organisation.
A Merseyside police spokesperson said: “We can confirm that officers are in attendance at a Defend Our Juries protest near to The Wheel of Liverpool this afternoon, Sunday 28 September. Some of the people in attendance have displayed material in support of Palestine Action. Officers are in the process of making arrests on suspicion of wearing/carrying an article supporting a proscribed organisation.”
A spokesperson for Defend Our Juries criticised the Labour party, saying: “We’ve come to remind everyone that the Labour party is in breach of its duty to act to prevent genocide under international law. Instead it made the cowardly decision to ban the direct action group that was trying to prevent genocide.” They added that Labour members and trade unions are overwhelmingly against the party’s complicity in genocide and the ban on Palestine Action, but party officials have shut down debates on these issues during the conference.
Earlier this week, the Guardian reported that more than 1,600 people have been arrested and 138 charged for allegedly expressing support for Palestine Action since the ban came into force on 5 July. Kerry Moscogiuri, Amnesty International UK’s director of communications and campaigns, said: “These arrests should not be happening. It’s clearly both ridiculous and seriously disproportionate for police to be targeting and arresting people for sitting down, quietly holding a sign.”
