Nearly 900 ‘Palestine Action’ Supporters Arrested at Protest, Metropolitan Police Say
(AFP) – In total, 890 people were arrested in London during a demonstration this weekend in support of the prohibited group Palestine Action, the metropolitan police in the capital announced on Sunday.
The force said that 857 people had been arrested under anti-terrorist laws for supporting a prohibited group during the demonstration on Saturday, with 33 additional arrested for other offenses, including the assault against police officers.
“We have a duty to apply the law without fear or favor. If you announce that you intend to make a crime, we have no choice but to respond accordingly,” said assistant assistant commissioner Claire Smart in a press release.
In July, the government prohibited action in Palestine under the 2000 law of the United Kingdom’s terrorism following several acts of vandalism, notably against two planes in a base of the Royal Air Force, which caused around 7 million pounds sterling (10 million dollars) of damage.
Critics, including the United Nations, condemned the ban as a legal surpassing and a threat to freedom of expression, but the ministers insist that people are always able to attend the pro-Palestinian marches.
“The contrast between this demonstration and the other demonstrations that we practiced yesterday, including the march of the Palestine coalition attended by around 20,000 people, was struck,” added Smart.
“You can express your support for a cause without committing an offense under the law on terrorism or descending into violence and troubles, and several thousand people do in London every week.”
It is estimated that 1,500 participated in the demonstration of the action in Palestine outside the Parliament, puts it condemning the “intolerable” abuse which he claims to have suffered that his officers.
Of the 33 people arrested for non -terrestrial offenses, 17 were for assault against police officers, force said.
The organizers of the demonstration, the campaign group defends our juries (DOJ), said that the rally of “lifting of the prohibition” had been “the image of the peaceful demonstration”.
Many people detained for showing support for action in Palestine seemed to be the elderly.
Most of them risk six months in prison if they were found guilty, but the organizers of the rallies could be sentenced up to 14 years if they were found guilty.
Five members to defend our juries were arrested earlier this week before the demonstration.
The former Minister of Interiors, Yvette Cooper, who supervised the prohibition, accused the action in Palestine of orchestrating “aggressive and intimate attacks against companies, institutions and the public”.
Cooper has also suggested that some supporters of action in Palestine “do not know the total nature of this organization, due to the judicial restrictions on reports while serious prosecution is underway”.
The prohibition seems to have increased support for what was previously a little -known organization.
“It is so important to me that the groups which are called terrorist groups must be terrorist groups,” said Philip Hughes, Greengrocer, 60, holding a sign that said: “I oppose the genocide. I support the action of Palestine”.
“You cannot go and use terrorism laws to stop an organization that opposes something you have done,” he told AFP.
The rallies came while Israel launched new strikes on Gaza, with the aim of seizing Gaza City to defeat the militant Hamas group.
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