MORE than 500 people, including a Baptist minister and a Roman Catholic priest, were arrested on the weekend after displaying signs in support of Palestine Action.
The mass protest in Parliament Square, in Westminster, on Saturday expressed support for the direct-action protest group, arrange in 2020. Palestine Action was proscribed under the Terrorism Act last month.
Fr John McGowan, of St Joseph’s, Chalfont St Peter, in Buckinghamshire, wrote on the Independent Catholic News website that he felt “calm, even serene” after being arrested.
“I’m prepared for anything, even going to prison. As soon as I could I contacted a friend within the West Bank who helps Palestinians; I felt I could now look him in the attention. I haven’t any regrets about what I did. My conscience is evident.”
The Revd Dr Sally Mann, of Bonny Downs Baptist Church, East Ham, in east London, told The Independent: “I’m aware there can be repercussions in my life if I’m successfully convicted but I felt completely at peace with each my actions and my decision. It’s the suitable side of history.”
Another of those arrested on Saturday was Martin Clay, a licensed lay minister at St Thomas’s, Southborough — despite holding a poster that stated that he didn’t support Palestine Action.
Mr Clay was wearing a sleeveless T-shirt with the message “Support [Palestine flag] ACT NOW”, and carrying a poster that he had made and that said: “I didn’t support and I don’t support Palestine Action but I support the suitable to support them. I do support the liberty to exhibit.”
He was bailed to look at Plumstead Police Station this month.
Half of those arrested on Saturday were over 60, based on figures released by the Metropolitan Police.
An 83-year-old priest, the Revd Sue Parfitt, of Henbury, in Bristol, was arrested last month for expressing support for Palestine Action, in an analogous protest in Parliament Square.
The Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, has defended the choice to outlaw support for Palestine Action, saying that it’s “not a non-violent organisation”.
“There could also be people who find themselves objecting to proscription who don’t know the total nature of this organisation, due to court restrictions on reporting while serious prosecutions are under way,” she said.
Last week, several well-known figures, including the writer Michael Rosen and the comedian Alexi Sayle, were amongst greater than 300 British Jews who signed a letter calling on the Government to reverse the choice to proscribe Palestine Action.
“Opposing the brutality of genocide, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing happening in Gaza and the West Bank, including taking direct motion, just isn’t antisemitic. Nor is it terrorism. We consider the proscription of Palestine Action as illegitimate and unethical,” the joint letter said.
Demonstrations in support of Palestine have continued alongside those specifically for Palestine Action. On Monday, a 78-year-old priest was frogmarched from outside the west door of Westminster Abbey after displaying an indication calling for public repentance over the situation within the Middle East, and saying that the part that Britain played in Palestine throughout the Mandate was answerable for genocide.
“I feel very strongly that this country lit the fuse of the genocide and walked away,” the Revd Stephen Collier said on Tuesday. He staged his demonstration as a type of repentance, which, besides having private forms, also needs to be “public, communal, and national,” he said.
Westminster Abbey, given its associations with each Church and State, was the suitable place wherein to take this stand, he said, although he “knew that they wouldn’t tolerate me there”.
“I knew it was a dangerous business, however it was something I needed to do,” he said. He stood in prayer for “two or three” minutes before being “frogmarched” out of the Abbey precinct, he said
An Abbey spokesperson said that “whilst the Abbey understands that individuals have sincerely held views, we usually are not a spot for public protest and so [Mr Collier was] asked to go away”; and, having declined to accomplish that, he was “escorted respectfully away from the Abbey”.
