In a landmark decision the High Court on Friday quashed the government’s ban on Palestine Action. This is a massive win for the Palestine movement.
Lindsey German, StW convenor said: “This is fantastic news. It is an utter humiliation for Yvette Cooper, Shabana Mahmood and the rest in this most authoritarian government in living memory.”
Stop the War and Palestine campaigners are calling for the head of the Met Police, Mark Rowley, and Yvette Cooper, the former Home Secretary responsible for the ban, to resign, and for all charges against activists arrested and imprisoned to be dropped.
“Now the CPS must drop all the charges against those wrongly arrested and imprisoned without trial for peacefully protesting a genocide,” said Lindsey German. “That includes the charges against four of the leaders of the Palestine movement, Chris Nineham, Ben Jamal, Alex Kenny and Sophie Bolt.”
Huda Ammori, co-founder of Palestine Action who brought the case to the High Court, described the ban as a “Trumpian abuse of power”.
Since the proscription was introduced about 3,000 activists, many retired and disabled, have been arrested on terrorism charges for holding signs in support of Palestine Action, in what was the largest civil disobedience campaign in decades.
The High Court ruled the Palestine Action ban to be unlawful, with the three presiding judges saying it represented a disproportionate interference to our right to free speech and assembly. Shabana Mahmood, the current home secretary, intends to fight the judgement in the appeal court. Meanwhile the ban remains in place.
The government’s attempts to silence protest on Palestine and all criticism of its support of Israel has failed. Its abuse of the law to suppress our basic democratic rights has been chilling and has been criticised across the world by human rights groups. So much for our prime minister being a human rights lawyer.
The ban was a grave abuse of power and defending it cost the Home Office £700,000 in legal fees. The police also spent millions in the excessive and overtly political policing of protests. In both instances a gross misuse of public funds.
Last week a jury acquitted the first six of the Filton24, held under counter-terror laws and imprisoned for over a year without trial for spraying red paint on military jets and attempting to destroy weapons destined for use in the Gaza genocide.
The victory of the six Filton activists and the overturning of the Palestine Action ban come just ahead of the trial of Chris Nineham and Ben Jamal. Two of the leaders of the Palestine movement charged for taking part in a peaceful protest agains the genocide on 18 January last year. We must use these victories to build the demonstration on Monday 23 February, the first morning of the trial, and show how strongly the public oppose the charges, the attempts to suppress protest and the government’s complicity in genocide.