Protests against Palestine Action ban planned in 18 UK towns and cities

Protesters calling for an end to the ban on Palestine Action are planning demonstrations in 18 towns and cities next month.

Defend Our Juries said protests will take place in Edinburgh, Cardiff, Oxford, Leeds, Aberystwyth, Nottingham, Northampton, Gloucester, Truro, London, Belfast, Manchester, Birmingham, Cambridge, Bristol, Sheffield, Exeter and Lancaster on various dates in November.

Organisers said around 1,500 people could take part in the action next month.

Suspects accused of supporting the banned group who are currently in prison awaiting trial are also due to stage rolling hunger strikes starting on Sunday.

So far more than 2,000 people have been arrested for alleged support of Palestine Action, which was banned as a terrorist group in July.

Organisers have held a series of mass events where people hold placards saying “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.”

Defend Our Juries spokesman Dr Clive Dolphin said: “This is about here in the UK, people having the right to protest, the right to speak up to government when they think the government has got something wrong, and fundamentally this is about the fact that the British people oppose genocide.

“They do not want to be complicit in war crimes. They do not want to see people starved to death in an artificial famine. British people oppose genocide.”

He said the sheer number of people who have been charged so far is causing “absolute chaos” in the magistrates’ court system.

Defend Our Juries said that police in the home nations are taking different approaches to the ban, with no arrests in Northern Ireland and 10 in Scotland.

Palestine Action was banned after alleged attacks on an Israel-based defence firm’s UK site and two planes at RAF Brize Norton.

Campaign group Prisoners for Palestine said some suspects accused of being involved in the two alleged attacks will start a series of hunger strikes on Sunday.

Five of its members are accused of being involved in the vandalism of two planes at RAF Brize Norton on June 20, causing £7 million of damage.

Another 24 people are due to face trial over a break-in at Elbit Systems in Bristol in August 2024.

The ban on Palestine Action, which began on July 5, made membership of, or support for, the direct action group a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

Co-founder Huda Ammori is taking legal action against former home secretary Yvette Cooper’s decision to proscribe the group under anti-terror laws.

A further court hearing is due to take place in late November.