I do remember reading a bit about arrests for Pro-palestinian protestors. The line between protest and hate can be crossed and I’m not well enough informed to say which is which in any given event. I take you at your word that peaceful protest was stomped on.
I thought this is a function of police and courts isn’t it? What was the PM’s role in this?
I feel like you’re getting a lot of partial answers, so I’ll try and fill in the gaps.
Palestine action are a protest group who believe that Palestinians are being mistreated by Israel, and that the UK shouldn’t support Israel in doing that. They e been around for a while, but obviously they’ve gotten a lot more active recently.
The key thing is that when they say “action”, that’s exactly what they mean. They aren’t about the usual things like protest marches, although I imagine they take part in those as well. Their approach is to do things like shut down roads leading to companies supplying the Israeli military or police by physically blocking the road.
The significant thing they did which brought them to the center of attention was to break into a military airfield, and throw paint into the engines of aircraft which they believed (and were likely correct to believe) were about to go to Israel to provide reconnaissance over Palestine to support military operations there. A lot of the news called that “vandalism”, but in reality a bucket of paint in the intake for a modern jet engine means the engine needs to be partially dismantled and thoroughly cleaned before it can run again. That costs a lot of time, and a huge amount of money, so really it amounts to sabotage.
That seriously angered the government, who used certain powers they were given by parliament years ago to declare that Palestine Action weren’t just criminal, they were terrorists. Those powers allow them to deny all sorts of fundamental legal rights, so much so that they can’t really be said to have been given fair trials. These are powers which were intended for people planting bombs in public places, and they’re alarmingly authoritarian even for that.
Among other things, declaring them terrorists has made it illegal for anyone to support them in any way. As a result, the overwhelming majority of people who have ever been arrested under the terrorism laws are now people who’s only crime was to say that Palestine Action did nothing wrong. Police were rounding up whole crowds of protestors, including harmless elderly people, and arresting them all for “supporting terrorists”
I do remember reading a bit about arrests for Pro-palestinian protestors. The line between protest and hate can be crossed and I’m not well enough informed to say which is which in any given event. I take you at your word that peaceful protest was stomped on.
I thought this is a function of police and courts isn’t it? What was the PM’s role in this?
How would you categorize holding a sign that says “I support Palestine Action”?
I get that, and I’ll take you at your word without knowing anything about who Palestinian Action is, or the UK context. But what did the PM do here?
Isn’t stepping on rights for police and courts to settle. Sorry, I don’t understand the connection.
It was a political decision to ban the phrase in the first place, and to make it a jailable offence
They’re hammering people with terrorist level sentencing. It’s a fucking travesty and Starmer et al should be facing the same charges. It’s ludicrous.
Thanks for helping me understand.
I feel like you’re getting a lot of partial answers, so I’ll try and fill in the gaps.
Palestine action are a protest group who believe that Palestinians are being mistreated by Israel, and that the UK shouldn’t support Israel in doing that. They e been around for a while, but obviously they’ve gotten a lot more active recently.
The key thing is that when they say “action”, that’s exactly what they mean. They aren’t about the usual things like protest marches, although I imagine they take part in those as well. Their approach is to do things like shut down roads leading to companies supplying the Israeli military or police by physically blocking the road.
The significant thing they did which brought them to the center of attention was to break into a military airfield, and throw paint into the engines of aircraft which they believed (and were likely correct to believe) were about to go to Israel to provide reconnaissance over Palestine to support military operations there. A lot of the news called that “vandalism”, but in reality a bucket of paint in the intake for a modern jet engine means the engine needs to be partially dismantled and thoroughly cleaned before it can run again. That costs a lot of time, and a huge amount of money, so really it amounts to sabotage.
That seriously angered the government, who used certain powers they were given by parliament years ago to declare that Palestine Action weren’t just criminal, they were terrorists. Those powers allow them to deny all sorts of fundamental legal rights, so much so that they can’t really be said to have been given fair trials. These are powers which were intended for people planting bombs in public places, and they’re alarmingly authoritarian even for that.
Among other things, declaring them terrorists has made it illegal for anyone to support them in any way. As a result, the overwhelming majority of people who have ever been arrested under the terrorism laws are now people who’s only crime was to say that Palestine Action did nothing wrong. Police were rounding up whole crowds of protestors, including harmless elderly people, and arresting them all for “supporting terrorists”
Thanks. Best answer by far.