More than 70 arrested at UK protests in support of banned group Palestine Action
In London, the Metropolitan Police said 42 people had been arrested by late afternoon. All but one of the arrests were for showing support for a proscribed organization, which police have said includes chanting, wearing clothing or displaying articles such as flags, signs or logos. Another person was arrested for common assault.
A further 16 arrests were made in Manchester, according to Greater Manchester Police, while South Wales Police said 13 people were also held in Cardiff.
In London, it was the second straight week protesters gathered to support the pro-Palestinian activist group. Its outlawing has meant support for the organization is deemed a criminal offense. Police arrested 29 people at a similar protest last weekend.
Two groups gathered underneath both the statues of Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi and South Africa's first post-apartheid president, Nelson Mandela, in Parliament Square.
Signs with the wording 'I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action,' were held aloft in silence as the protesters were surrounded by police officers and members of the media.
Some demonstrators could be seen lying on top of each other on the ground as police searched their bags and took away signs.
Officers could then be seen carrying away a number of protesters who were lying down, lifting them off the ground and into waiting police vans parked around the square.
The official designation earlier this month of Palestine Action as a proscribed group under the Terrorism Act 2000 means that membership in the group and support for its actions are punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
Some 81 organizations are already proscribed under the U.K. act, including the militant groups Hamas and al-Qaida.
The government moved to ban Palestine Action after activists broke into a Royal Air Force base in Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, England, on June 20, damaging two planes using red paint and crowbars in protest at the British government's ongoing military support for Israel in its war in Gaza.
Police said that the incident caused around 7 million pounds ($9.4 million) of damage.
Four people between 22 and 35 years old were charged with conspiracy to commit criminal damage and conspiracy to enter a prohibited place for purposes prejudicial to the interests of the U.K. The four are scheduled to appear on July 18 at the Central Criminal Court in London, better known as the Old Bailey.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
30 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Not priority to devolve probation says UK minister
A UK government minister has been accused of pouring "cold water" on the prospect of the Welsh government taking control over probation and youth justice. The Labour-led Cardiff administration has been pushing for further devolution on criminal justice - calls that Westminster colleagues have promised to consider. But Prisons Minister Lord Timpson has told a committee in the Welsh Parliament it is not "a priority" while the criminal justice system is "in crisis". Labour MS Jenny Rathbone said the comments were very disappointing. Lord Timpson says the criminal justice system faced "huge pressures" and there needed to be "stability" before "further changes" were considered. Senedd should not get control of police: Labour MP Westminster to keep policing under Labour plans Under the system of devolution established in 1999, the Senedd and Welsh government have never had control over criminal law. Various reports, including one from the former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown, have called for more devolution on criminal justice including youth justice and the probation service. Last summer's Welsh Labour manifesto said the party would "explore" the devolution of probation "to enable them to be more locally responsive". It was planned as part of a strategic review into probation and added it would "consider" the devolution of youth justice. Speaking to the Senedd's equality and social justice committee, the Prisons' Minister Lord Timpson told MSs that "we need to be in a much more stable position before we can think about further changes". Mick Antoniw, the former chief legal adviser to the Welsh Government, says there are "volumes of evidence" that devolution of probation "needs to happen and quickly". The Labour former counsel general told the committee that there was "no logical response to that other than we've had a decade of delay on actually looking at the enormous accumulation of evidence". Questioning Lord Timpson, he said: "What you seem to be suggesting is that we are going to go through that process of just continually looking at the evidence without ever really coming to a proper conclusion." Former Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price added: "Are you ruling out for the foreseeable future the full devolution of executive and legislative powers?". Lord Timpson said he wanted to "stabilise" a "bruised" service but added: "I'm not ruling anything out, I'm not ruling anything in. "What I'm focused on is trying to sort out the crisis in our justice system." After the meeting committee chair, Labour MS for Cardiff Central, Jenny Rathbone said the committee was "very disappointed". "The Welsh government has already started the groundwork to prepare because it believed there was a realistic prospect that these aspects could be devolved soon," she said. "This is in stark contrast to Lord Timpson's evidence before the Committee today which seemed to pour cold water on the prospect."
Yahoo
35 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Omagh inquiry seeks secret 15-year-old transcript from Commons archive
Parliament's rules watchdog has three-and-a-half months to decide whether to release a secret transcript, amid efforts to establish whether a 1998 bombing could have been prevented. Omagh Bombing Inquiry solicitor Tim Suter has asked for information about an allegation 'that police investigators into previous attacks in Moira, Portadown, Banbridge and Lisburn did not have access to intelligence materials which may have reasonably enabled them to disrupt the activities of dissident republican terrorists' in the Co Tyrone town. The allegation is thought to have been made during a private session of the Commons Northern Ireland Affairs Committee almost 16 years ago, on November 11 2009. Conservative MP Simon Hoare warned there was 'no wriggle room' in Parliament's rules to hand over the information to the inquiry without MPs' say-so, because it previously went 'unreported'. Commons committees can refrain from reporting evidence in certain circumstances, for example, if it contains information which is prejudicial to the public interest. MPs tasked the Commons Privileges Committee with looking at the 2009 transcript. This seven-member group has until October 30 to decide whether to report and publish the evidence, which was originally given to the House by former senior police officer Norman Baxter. 'It is very hard for the House to decide whether or not to release evidence it has not seen and cannot see before the decision is made,' Mr Hoare warned. 'It is particularly difficult in this case, as that evidence may contain sensitive information.' The North Dorset MP added that the Privileges Committee 'might simply decide to publish it'. But the agreed motion will give the committee power to make an alternative recommendation 'on the desirability or otherwise of the release of the evidence to the Omagh Bombing Inquiry'. Privileges Committee chairman Alberto Costa, the Conservative MP for South Leicestershire, told MPs that his organisation 'stands ready to deal with this matter'. The independent inquiry chaired by Lord Turnbull will consider whether the Omagh bombing 'could reasonably have been prevented by UK state authorities'. The dissident republican bomb exploded in the Co Tyrone town on August 15 1998, killing 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins. Mr Hoare agreed with DUP MP for Strangford Jim Shannon, who was born in Omagh, after he told the Commons that 'justice' should be at the 'forefront of all right honourable and honourable members' minds during this process'.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Munroe Bergdorf says ‘conversation is always the solution – it enables a sense of freedom' (EXCLUSIVE)
Munroe Bergdorf – model, author and advocate for trans rights — has long been a vital voice in the fight for equality. Her documentary , which screened on 10 and 11 June, explores 'a documentation of how we got to this point' in the fight for . Here she calls for more empathy and meaningful conversation in an increasingly divided world. Lately, it feels as though we have reached a point in history where we are collectively overwhelmed by information, content and an incessant and rapidly changing news cycle. Whereas in the past something sensational might happen once a month, now every single day there's something mind-blowing occurring, and we're all encouraged to have an opinion on it. However, we're also now living in a society that's becoming increasingly polarised, to the point that many of our conversations aren't conversations at all. So often, we're encouraged to simply pick a side, rather than find a solution or a compromise. We're so concerned with being 'right' that we fail to meet each other with respect, understanding and empathy. We don't seek to understand how somebody landed on the views that they have, and this lack of genuine conversation is one of the biggest barriers we face to achieving real progress. Understanding how a viewpoint is formed is key to this. For example, in the UK, women's fear of violence at the hands of a man has been weaponised against trans people. But there are different kinds of transphobia. There's active transphobia, where people are actively invested in dehumanising and targeting trans people in a violent and incessant way. And then there are people who have ended up parroting transphobic rhetoric they've heard from others, driven by their own fears. It's for this reason that I believe it's so important that we first try to understand where people are coming from when we find ourselves engaged in a debate or an argument, be it online or in person. None of us was born with perfectly shaped politics. We don't come out of the womb saying, 'I'm voting Green.' We've all, in our lives, absorbed negative opinions or oppressive ideologies until we have a conversation which has helped us understand why that point of view is harmful. In my new book Talk to Me, I write about how it is crucial that we offer each other more grace in order to get to a better place, rather than just demonising each other for what is often the result of a lack of education, or in some cases the product of manipulation by those with an ulterior motive. Now, of course, when it is your own human rights that are somehow up for discussion, it's not always easy to offer grace to the person you're speaking with, but we must remember that it's all about intention. Sometimes it's important to choose peace over being right, which I often practise when it's clear that somebody isn't willing to see my humanity, and thus won't be able to understand what I'm saying. Give people chances, but when you find yourself in a conversation where you're constantly being presented with a brick wall, then I think you need to protect yourself, take some breaths, and remind yourself that not everybody wants to — and therefore not everybody will — see your humanity. I believe that conversation is always the solution, and so it's deeply concerning when we see attempts to shut communication down, because that's when we end up in a state of fascism or autocracy. Conversation enables a sense of freedom. For example, many people believe there should be no discussion of politics in a workplace, but you can't detach people from politics. Trans people are facing the potential introduction of segregation laws, whereby if you're a trans woman who has had gender-affirming surgery or care, and you look 'too much like a woman', then you can't use the women's toilet, but you can't use the men's either. That leaves you in the workplace with no access to a toilet. These issues are inherently politicised, so to suggest there should be no politics in a workplace simply upholds oppressive structures — which is inherently political. There's no getting away from politics, even if we try. Everybody should always be able to talk about their experiences and not feel silenced about what they're going through. Conversely, we must keep in mind that an opposing viewpoint is not necessarily a sign of bigotry, and jumping to hurl this accusation at someone is usually not conducive to progress. We must all interrogate how we choose to communicate and interact with the world around us. We must accept that someone with an opposing viewpoint is not always necessarily a bigot, and resist the urge to simply write someone off or cancel them. Only when we are able to focus on the humanity of the individual we are speaking to can true progress be made. Talk To Me by Munroe Bergdorf is out now. The post Munroe Bergdorf says 'conversation is always the solution – it enables a sense of freedom' (EXCLUSIVE) appeared first on Attitude.
