Responding to today’s mass arrests of protesters opposing the proscription of Palestine Action, Tom Southerden, Amnesty International UK’s Law and Human Rights Director, said:
“Today’s mass arrests of peaceful protesters in Trafalgar Square under UK terrorism law are yet another blow to civil liberties in this country – and made all the more outrageous by the Metropolitan Police’s own U-turn.
“The High Court ruled in February that the proscription of Palestine Action was unlawful. The Met rightly said it would stop making arrests. It has now gone back to its old, failed policy – mass arrests of people holding pieces of card, including today an elderly woman with walking sticks. This is not policing. This is the state criminalising dissent.
“Peaceful protest is a fundamental right. People are understandably outraged by the ongoing genocide in Gaza and entitled under international human rights law to express their horror. These protesters were not inciting violence. They were holding signs. Arresting them as terrorists is not just disproportionate – it is absurd.
“We have long warned that UK terrorism law is excessively broad and a threat to freedom of expression. Today’s scenes prove that concern was justified. A government that arrests peaceful protesters while arming a genocide has its priorities catastrophically wrong. Instead of criminalising demonstrators, it should be taking immediate and unequivocal action to end Israel’s genocide in Gaza and any risk of UK complicity in it.”