Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) utterly condemns the grotesque decision to proscribe Palestine Action as terrorists, which threatens all of our freedoms and democratic rights. The government has chosen to redefine the meaning of terrorism in a way that serves to criminalise dissent.
If this ban remains in place, it will be unlike any previous proscription. The vast majority of people rightly understand terrorism as involving acts of violence directed against civilians to achieve political ends. We know that the real terrorists and criminals are those who continue to facilitate Israel’s atrocities against the Palestinian people.
Earlier this week, five UN experts wrote to the British government stating that, ‘According to international standards, acts of protest that damage property, but are not intended to kill or injure people, should not be treated as terrorism.’ In just a matter of days, nearly 27,000 PSC supporters have written to their MPs, thousands have rallied on the streets in protest, and over 100,000 have signed PSC’s petition to express their opposition to the breaches of basic liberties caused by proscription. For these reasons, we will continue to oppose this proscription. The ban on Palestine Action will now be challenged in the courts and PSC is actively engaged in discussions on how we can best support that legal process.
This proscription is a ferocious attack on freedom of speech and expression. The right to protest and freedom of assembly is also in danger. Even the previous Tory government’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation has warned that merely saying ‘their heart is in the right place, or that the government should listen to them,’ will carry the threat of prosecution and imprisonment for up to 14 years. Even before it takes effect, this proscription is already being used to erode our fundamental rights. On Wednesday, the Met Police imposed restrictions to prevent us from protesting outside parliament to coincide with the vote – something that has been done for generations and that we have done many times before. The excuses offered included, for the first time ever, that the ‘purpose of the persons organising the assembly is the intimidation of others,’ which has never been given as a rationale for imposing restrictions on our previous demonstrations.
Throughout history, every solidarity movement and struggle against colonialism has used a diversity of tactics. Targeting one part of the movement in this way is an attempt to suppress us all and a threat to everyone’s civil liberties. Unable to politically defeat the movement against Britain’s complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza, the government is turning to repression. Journalists, academics, and artists have been targeted, MPs and an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor have been hauled in for questioning, and next week, PSC Director Ben Jamal and Vice-chair of Stop the War Chris Nineham will appear in court simply for organising an entirely peaceful protest. These are the actions of a government that has thoroughly lost the moral argument.
Every struggle against racism and colonialism has faced attempts to demonise, divide and suppress it. There are few causes where this is more acute than the struggle for the rights of the Palestinian people. We know, and must not forget, that it is Palestinians who are at the sharpest end of oppression – subject to Israel’s genocidal violence and apartheid, aided and assisted by western governments including Britain. Our responsibility to them is to mirror their steadfastness and persevere. Genocide in Gaza is the story. Israel’s regime of apartheid across all of historic Palestine is the story. 77 years of ongoing Nakba is the story.
In the face of these attacks, we will not be silenced or divided. Nor will we be driven off the streets. In our workplaces and trade unions, towns and cities, universities and communities, all of us must continue to resist. Our movement will continue to build and grow, because this struggle must continue until Palestine is free.