Four arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences during pro-Palestine protest
Merseyside Police said that material in support of campaign group Palestine Action was reportedly seen in the possession of a small number of protesters at the regular march for Liverpool Friends of Palestine.
More than 100 people were arrested across the country during demonstrations this weekend protesting against the proscription of Palestine Action, which was banned as a terrorist organisation in June.
Police said four people from Merseyside – a 74-year-old woman from Kensington, a 65-year-old man from Brighton-le-Sands, a 28-year-old man from Garston and a 72-year-old man from Mossley Hill – were arrested on suspicion of wearing or carrying an article supporting a proscribed organisation.
All had been taken to police stations for questioning.
Protests were held in London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Bristol and Truro on Saturday as part of a campaign co-ordinated by Defend Our Juries.
The Metropolitan Police said 55 people were arrested in Parliament Square under Section 13 of the Terrorism Act 2000 for displaying placards in support of Palestine Action.
Greater Manchester Police said it had arrested 16 people on Saturday on suspicion of support of a proscribed organisation, adding that they remained in custody for questioning.
Eight people were arrested near Truro Cathedral in Cornwall after protesters gathered to show support for Palestine Action.
And Avon and Somerset Police said 17 people were arrested during a protest in Bristol.
Palestine Action was banned after two Voyager aircraft were damaged at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on June 20, an incident claimed by the direct action group, which police said caused about £7 million worth of damage.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced plans to proscribe Palestine Action three days later, saying that the vandalism of the planes was 'disgraceful' and that the group had a 'long history of unacceptable criminal damage'.
The ban means that membership of, or support for, Palestine Action is now a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison, under the Terrorism Act 2000.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
15 minutes ago
- Telegraph
How Europe turned on Israel over Palestine
Europe's leaders rallied behind Benjamin Netanyahu after the October 7 terror attacks, backing Israel's right to defend itself from Hamas. 663 days of war later, their goodwill and support are running out fast. Britain is the latest European country to turn on Israel, joining many others in condemning the scenes of starvation from the Gaza Strip and the violence of settlers on the West Bank. Emmanuel Macron last week said France would formally recognise Palestine at a September UN meeting. Now Sir Keir Starmer has said Britain could follow suit. It's a policy shift from both Paris and London designed to rebuke Mr Netanyahu and salvage the idea of a two-state solution. There are other moves afoot in national capitals and at EU level, to force Mr Netanyahu to stop what some leaders call his 'genocide'. Donald Trump refuses to put pressure on Israel, telling reporters on Wednesday: 'You could make the case that you're rewarding Hamas if you do that.' Perhaps for that reason, Israel shows no sign of backing down. Mr Netanyahu promptly accused Sir Keir of 'rewarding terrorism' after already lashing out at Mr Macron. There has been a dramatic rise in anti-Semitism in Europe since October 7, but Israel still has friends in Europe. Europe's hard-Right has rallied to the Israeli Prime Minister, including Hungary's Viktor Orban and Marine Le Pen's National Rally, which was founded by her Holocaust denying father But their support does not carry weight compared to the backing from German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who has been instrumental in blocking EU-level action against Israel. Germany and France are the EU's two most influential countries, but are on opposite sides of the argument. Mr Macron's decision to join 130 countries in recognising Palestine, and become the first member of the UN Security Council to do so, could shift the dial in Brussels. But German support for Israel, a legacy of its role in the Holocaust, is ironclad because of its 'Staatsräson' principle, which means Israel's right to exist is Berlin's reason of state. Whether that holds amid accusations of genocide will be crucial in determining the strength of EU action against Israel. European Union The European Commission issued its harshest criticism of Israel this week, accusing Benjamin Netanyahu's government of presiding over a 'famine' and 'violating human rights' in Gaza. Plans were drawn up to exclude the Jewish state from the European Union's £80 billion Horizon Europe research programme as a way of punishment. But divides between member states over how to handle Israel meant a vote on the measure was kicked into the long grass. Berlin was blamed as the strongest hold-out by envoys in Brussels. Ahead of EU talks over a crackdown on Israel, the Jewish state's diplomatic mission in Brussels circulated a note defending its actions in Gaza. The memo insisted that Israel had 'begun implementing significant measures to facilitate humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip'. It accused those claiming there was a famine of supporting a 'false campaign promoted by Hamas and its allies'. A push by Ireland and Spain to suspend the EU-Israel association agreement, a bare bones trade deal, as punishment for human rights abuses in Gaza has also stalled amid EU divides. The EU was united in efforts to put Hamas under pressure. The bloc signed a declaration agreed in New York at a United Nations conference, alongside 17 other countries and the 22-member Arab League, which includes pro-Palestinian countries such as Qatar, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. It was a historic moment because the Arab and Muslim countries signed a declaration explicitly condemning the October 7 attack, many for the first time. It is arguably a shrewd tactical move designed to counter Israeli claims that by recognising Palestine, the West is rewarding Hamas, which does not believe in a two-state solution or recognise Israel's right to exist. France France's decision to recognise a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September after months of hesitation is a far cry from the 'unconditional' support for Israel it declared after October 7. The humanitarian crisis in Gaza – and in particular, the growing threat of famine – appears to have been a turning point for France, which is home to the largest Jewish community in Europe and the third largest in the world. It marks a significant shift for the country, which went as far as calling for an international coalition to eradicate Hamas after the October 2023 Hamas-led attacks in Israel. Last November, France refused to act on the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant against Mr Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant, both accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity. In April, Mr Macron told journalists in his presidential plane returning from a visit to Egypt that France would recognise the state of Palestine 'in the coming months'. French conditions for recognition included the demilitarisation of Hamas, the release of Israeli hostages, and the reform of the Palestinian Authority. None of these conditions have been fully met. Hamas still controls Gaza and holds 49 hostages, 27 of whom the Israeli army has declared dead. Experts say Mr Macron continues to call for the 'demilitarisation' of Hamas but is no longer making it a prerequisite for recognition. Some analysts say France also changed its tune to align itself more with the Global South and counter claims of double standards in its hawkish stance on Ukraine and silence over Israel's actions in Gaza. They say the pledge of recognition was a strategic move by Mr Macron, who sensed an opportunity to become a playmaker and shift the current stalemate where neither Israel nor Hamas nor the United States appears to be seeking an end to the conflict. Germany Germany is one of Israel's strongest supporters in Europe. However, this week the German government hinted that it was considering a withdrawal from the association agreement with Israel, in a sign of its concern over famine in the Gaza Strip. Friedrich Merz, the German Chancellor, said on Monday that his country 'reserves the right' to pull out of the agreement, when asked by reporters if he was considering such a move. Berlin has not followed Britain in threatening to recognise a state of Palestine in order to increase pressure on the Israelis. Mr Merz's government considers the move to be premature. Germany will only recognise Palestine as part of a broader, long-term peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians. 'The German government continues to view it as one of the final steps toward realising a two-state solution,' German officials said last week, following a phone call between Mr Merz and Mr Netanyahu. Ireland Ireland formally recognised Palestine in May 2024, which was hugely popular domestically in a country that draws parallels between its own struggle for independence and that of the Palestinians. The coordinated announcement with Norway and Spain drew a furious response from Israel, which recalled the Irish ambassador and accused Ireland of having a 'disproportionate obsession' with Israel. To Dublin's annoyance, the media in Jerusalem were allowed to film ambassador Sonya McGuinness being made to watch videos of female hostages being taken in Hamas's October 7 terror attack. In December, Israel closed its embassy in Dublin after Ireland supported South Africa's legal action against Israel in the International Court of Justice. Ireland has pushed for the suspension of the EU-Israel association agreement. It is also pressing ahead with the Occupied Territories Bill, which will ban trade between Ireland and Israeli settlements on the West Bank. Spain Spain's socialist prime minister Pedro Sanchez has, like his Irish allies, been calling for tougher EU action against Israel and insisting on the need for a two-state solution in the Middle East. Mr Sanchez said this week that the 'famine in Gaza is a shame for all of humanity.' On Monday, Madrid announced it would airdrop 12 tons of food into Gaza in a rare example of a European nation joining Middle Eastern countries in sending aid by air. Last month, Mr Sanchez became the most prominent European leader to describe Israel's war on Gaza as 'genocide'. The Israeli embassy in Spain accused him of 'demonising' Israel and declared Spain was on 'the wrong side of history'. Madrid called the statement 'unacceptable' and summoned the ambassador for a dressing down. Netherlands and Belgium The Dutch government imposed travel bans on Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, two far-Right Israeli cabinet ministers, after accusing them of demanding 'ethnic cleansing' in the Gaza Strip on Monday. It also summoned Israel's ambassador to denounce the 'unbearable and indefensible' situation in Gaza and is also supporting moves to impose trade sanctions on Israel. In November, it apologised after visiting Israeli football fans in Amsterdam were attacked in disorder branded a 'Jew Hunt' but it has hardened its position. The Netherlands has a caretaker government because Geert Wilders, the far-Right populist pulled his party out of the coalition, triggering snap elections in October. The fiercely anti-Islam Mr Wilders is a vocal and unapologetic supporter of Israel. As Prime Minister Dick Schoof announced Dutch support for suspending Israeli involvement in Horizon Europe and other measures, Mr Wilders told him: 'Hamas will be proud of you.' In neighbouring Belgium, King Philippe, took the unusual steps of delivering unusually direct criticism of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, calling it 'a disgrace to humanity', in his National Day speech. Its government supports a two-state solution and has not ruled out taking action against Israel in the shape of sanctions, whether at domestic or EU levels.
The Guardian
15 minutes ago
- The Guardian
We are Israeli human rights activists. Our country is committing genocide
The question keeps gnawing at me: Could this really be it? Could we be living through a genocide? Outside Israel, millions already know the answer. But many of us here can't – or won't – say it aloud. Perhaps because the truth threatens to unmake everything we believed about who we are, and who we wanted to be. To name it is to admit that the future will require reckoning – not just with our leaders, but with ourselves. But the cost of refusing to see is even higher. For Israelis of my generation, the word 'genocide' was supposed to remain a nightmare from another planet. A word tethered to our grandparents' photographs and the ghosts of European ghettoes, not to our own neighborhoods. We were the ones who asked, from a distance, about others: How could ordinary people go on with their lives while something like this happened? How could they let it happen? What would I have done in their place? In a grotesque twist of history, that question now circles back to us. For nearly two years, we've heard Israeli officials – politicians and generals alike – say out loud what they intend to do: to starve, flatten and erase Gaza. 'We will eliminate them.' 'We will make it uninhabitable.' 'We will cut off food, water, electricity.' These weren't slips of the tongue; they were the plan. And then, our military carried it out. By the textbook definition, this is genocide: the deliberate targeting of a population not for who they are as individuals, but because they belong to a group – an attack designed to destroy the group itself. We told ourselves other stories to survive the horror, stories that kept guilt and grief at bay. We convinced ourselves that every child in Gaza was Hamas, every apartment a terrorist cell. We became, without noticing, those 'ordinary people' who keep living their lives while 'it' is happening. I can still recall the first time reality cracked open for me. Two months into what I was still calling a 'war', three of my B'Tselem colleagues – Palestinian human rights workers we'd worked alongside for years – were trapped in Gaza with their families. They told me about relatives buried under rubble, about not being able to shield their children, about the paralyzing fear. In the frantic efforts to extract them from Gaza, I learned something that has seared itself into my mind: at that moment, a living Palestinian in Gaza could be 'ransomed' for roughly 20,000 shekels – the cost, at the time, of leaving. Children cost less. Life priced in cash, per head. These were not abstract statistics; these were people I knew. And that was when I understood: the rules had changed. Since then, the surreal has become routine. Cities reduced to ash. Entire neighborhoods flattened. Families displaced, then displaced again. Tens of thousands killed. Mass starvation engineered, with aid trucks turned away or bombed. Parents feeding animal fodder to their children, some of whom die waiting for flour. Others are shot – unarmed civilians, gunned down for approaching food convoys. Genocide does not happen without mass participation: a population that supports it, enables it or looks away. That is part of its tragedy. Almost no nation that has committed genocide understood, in real time, what it was doing. The story is always the same: self-defense, inevitability, the targets brought it on themselves. In Israel, the prevailing narrative insists this all began on 7 October, with Hamas's massacre of civilians in southern Israel. That day was a true horror, a grotesque burst of human cruelty: civilians slaughtered, raped, taken hostage. A concentrated national trauma that summoned, for many Israelis, a profound sense of existential threat. But 7 October, while catalytic, was not enough on its own. Genocide requires conditions – decades of apartheid and occupation, of separation and dehumanization, of policies designed to sever our capacity for empathy. Gaza, sealed off from the world, became the apex of this architecture. Its people became abstractions, perpetual hostages in our imagination, subjects to bomb every few years, to kill by the hundreds or thousands, with no accountability. We knew more than 2 million people were living under siege. We knew about Hamas. We knew about the tunnels. In hindsight, we knew everything. Yet somehow we were incapable of understanding that some of them might find a way to break out. What happened on 7 October was not only a military failure. It was a collapse of our social imagination: the delusion that we could corral all the violence and despair behind a fence and live peacefully on our side. That rupture arrived under the most extreme rightwing government in Israel's history, a coalition whose ministers openly fantasize about Gaza's erasure. And so, in October 2023, every star in our darkest nightmare aligned. This week, B'Tselem released a report, Our Genocide, compiled by Palestinian and Jewish-Israeli researchers together. It is divided into two parts. The first documents how this genocide is being carried out: mass killings, destruction of living conditions, social collapse and engineered starvation, all fueled by incitement from Israeli leaders and amplified through media. The second part of the report traces the path that led here: decades of systemic inequality, military rule and policies of separation that normalized Palestinian disposability. To confront genocide, we must first understand it. And in order to do so, we – Jewish-Israelis and Palestinians – had to look at reality together, through the perspective of the human beings living on this land. Our moral and human obligation is to amplify the voices of the victims. Our political and historical responsibility is also to turn our gaze to the perpetrators, and to testify, in real time, to how a society transforms into one capable of committing genocide. Recognizing this truth is not easy. Even for us, people who have spent years documenting state violence against Palestinians, the mind resists it. It rejects the facts like poison, tries to spit them out. But the poison is here. It floods the bodies of those who live between the river and the sea – Palestinians and Israelis alike – with fear and unfathomable loss. The Israeli state is committing genocide. And once you accept that, the question we have asked ourselves all our lives rematerializes with urgency: What would I have done, back then, on that other planet? Except the answer is not rhetorical. It is now. It is us. And there is only one right answer: We must do everything in our power to stop it. Yuli Novak is the executive director of B'Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories
Leader Live
17 minutes ago
- Leader Live
Palestine Action High Court challenge can go ahead, judge rules
Huda Ammori made a bid to challenge Home Secretary Yvette Cooper's decision to proscribe the group under anti-terror laws, announced after the group claimed responsibility for action in which two Voyager planes were damaged at RAF Brize Norton on June 20. The ban means that membership of, or support for, the direct action group is a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison. Earlier this month, lawyers for Ms Ammori asked a judge to allow her to bring the High Court challenge over the ban, describing it as an 'unlawful interference' with freedom of expression. And in a decision on Wednesday, judge Mr Justice Chamberlain said that two parts of the arguments on Ms Ammori's behalf were 'reasonably arguable'. In his ruling, he said that it was 'reasonably arguable' that the proscription 'amounts to a disproportionate interference' of Ms Ammori's rights to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly. He said: 'That being so, the point will have to be determined at a substantive hearing and it would not be appropriate for me to say more now.' The judge continued that a second argument, that Ms Cooper failed to consult Palestine Action 'in breach of natural justice', was also 'reasonably arguable'. He said: 'As a matter of principle, I consider that it is reasonably arguable that a duty to consult arose.' He continued: 'Having considered the evidence, I also consider it reasonably arguable that there was no compelling reason why consultation could not have been undertaken here.' Following the ruling, Ms Ammori said: 'This landmark decision to grant a judicial review which could see the Home Secretary's unlawful decision to ban Palestine Action quashed, demonstrates the significance of this case for freedoms of speech, expression and assembly and rights to natural justice in our country and the rule of law itself.' She continued: 'We will not stop defending fundamental rights to free speech and expression in our country and supporting Palestinian people against a genocide being livestreamed before our eyes.' Raza Husain KC, for Ms Ammori, previously told the court at the hearing on July 21 that the ban had made the UK 'an international outlier' and was 'repugnant'. Mr Husain added: 'The decision to proscribe Palestine Action had the hallmarks of an authoritarian and blatant abuse of power.' The Home Office is defending the legal action. Sir James Eadie KC, for the department, said in written submissions that by causing serious damage to property, Palestine Action was 'squarely' within part of the terrorism laws used in proscription. He said: 'There is no credible basis on which it can be asserted that the purpose of this activity is not designed to influence the Government, or to intimidate the public or a section of the public, and for the purpose of advancing a political, religious, racial or ideological cause.' Previously, Ben Watson KC, for the Home Office, said Palestine Action could challenge the Home Secretary's decision at the Proscribed Organisations Appeal Commission (POAC), a specialist tribunal, rather than at the High Court. Sir James said that an 'exceptional case' would be needed for it to go to the High Court, rather than the POAC. Mr Justice Chamberlain said on Wednesday that a High Court challenge could take place in the autumn of this year, whereas an appeal to the specialist tribunal would take much longer. He said: 'If it were necessary to appeal for deproscription, it is very unlikely that an application before POAC would be listed before the middle of 2026.' In his judgment, he said: 'If the legality of the proscription order can properly be raised by way of defence to criminal proceedings, that would open up the spectre of different and possibly conflicting decisions on that issue in magistrates' courts across England and Wales or before different judges or juries in the Crown Court. 'That would be a recipe for chaos. 'To avoid it, there is a strong public interest in allowing the legality of the order to be determined authoritatively as soon as possible. The obvious way to do that is in judicial review proceedings.' Ms Cooper announced plans to proscribe Palestine Action on June 23, saying that the vandalism of the two planes, which police said caused an estimated £7 million of damage, was 'disgraceful'.
