Politics
Police arrest dozens at Palestine Action protest
The Met Police has again arrested dozens of mostly older protesters at Westminster Magistrates’ Court for protesting against Israel’s genocide and the UK’s ‘terror’ ban on protest group Palestine Action.
Activist photographer ‘BetterThanReal’ was on the scene for Skwawkbox and the Canary to capture the events. As always, the protesters were entirely peaceful, good tempered. And they were mostly older, including – again – Jewish Holocaust survivors and retired priests:
But the police gathered in large numbers to drag off their targets:
The victims included an 80-year-old Holocaust survivor, showing once again that the regime’s ‘terror’ clampdown has nothing to do with protecting Jews. She was arrested despite holding only placards against Israel’s genocide:
Palestine Action arrests
The Defend Our Juries group posted footage of long-time Quaker Rajan, who was arrested for supposedly assaulting a police officer, despite his complete Quaker commitment to non-violence and abundant witnesses:
In a statement accompanying the footage, the group said:
DIRTY TRICKS AND FALSE ARRESTS
The Met Police arrested a number of people unlawfully today, not including the unjust arrests of those announcing their support for Palestine Action (which we also are confident will be proven unlawful).
In this clip, Officer Myers accuses a totally nonviolent Quaker of “assaulting a police officer”. Something which categorically has never happened.
Rajan, who has been a supporter of Defend Our Juries since it launched in 2023, has never assaulted or been accused of assaulting anyone in his life. He is devoutly nonviolent, and is a proud member of Quakers for Peace.
It will be of concern to many that they picked a person of colour from a crowd of largely elderly white people and made this false accusation.
This arrest is among a number of seemingly dirty new tactics being used by the Met to attempt to justify their unlawful and irrational treatment of peaceful protesters. Among other false accusations today were breaches of the Serious Organised Crime Act (for speaking on a megaphone) and arrests under Section 12 of the Terrorism Act (for getting the attention of the crowd and not even mentioning Palestine Action).
We will not be intimidated.
Free Rajan. Free all of us. Free Political Prisoners.
Free Palestine.
And while some were arrested for pronouncing their support for the banned group, others were arrested without saying anything at all. Or simply for moving aside to allow poets room to read their work:
The accession of Andy Burnham as PM in place of Keir Starmer has done nothing to reduce the government’s authoritarian police-state behaviour.
Featured image via BetterThanReal
By Skwawkbox
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