What we know about pro-Palestine Action protest today
The head of the Metropolitan Police has said he is "shocked and frustrated" about a planned protest in London on Monday in support of Palestine Action.
The group is on the verge of being proscribed by the government, effectively branding it a terrorist organisation.
Last week, Palestine Action activists broke into RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire and sprayed two British military planes with red paint in protest against support for Israel in the war in Gaza.
The group has called the government plan to proscribe it as "absurd", but home secretary Yvette Cooper is expected to outline the plan in Parliament on Monday.
Palestine Action is a protest network in support of Palestine that takes direct action against Israeli weapons factories based in the UK, often occupying premises, or causing criminal damage and vandalism.
Palestine Action was founded by Huda Ammori, 31, and Richard Barnard, 51, and was established on 30 July 2020 when activists broke into the UK headquarters of Israeli weapons company Elbit Systems in London and sprayed red paint in the interior.
Ammori, from Bolton, was born to a Palestinian father and an Iraqi mother, and graduated from the University of Manchester, and was a supporter of the Labour Party when it was led by Jeremy Corbyn.
Barnard, raised Catholic, is a former member of the radical Catholic Worker movement and Extinction Rebellion.
Palestine Action has staged a number of protests in recent months, including spraying the London offices of Allianz Insurance with red paint over its alleged links to Israeli weapons company Elbit, as well as vandalising Donald Trump's Turnberry golf course in Scotland.
A spokesperson for Palestine Action said: 'When our government fails to uphold their moral and legal obligations, it is the responsibility of ordinary citizens to take direct action. The terrorists are the ones committing a genocide, not those who break the tools used to commit it.'
A protest in support of Palestine Action is set for midday on Monday in central London.
Originally, protesters had been told to gather at the Houses of Parliament, but this was changed on Monday morning to Trafalgar Square.
But Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said on Sunday: 'I'm sure many people will be as shocked and frustrated as I am to see a protest taking place tomorrow in support of Palestine Action.
'This is an organised extremist criminal group, whose proscription as terrorists is being actively considered.
'The right to protest is essential and we will always defend it, but actions in support of such a group go beyond what most would see as legitimate protest."
Rowley said that until the group is proscribed the Metropolitan Police has 'no power in law' to prevent the protest taking place, adding that breaches of the law would be 'dealt with robustly'.
On Monday, home secretary Yvette Cooper is expected to deliver a statement to be put before Parliament to proscribe Palestine Action, which would effectively brand it a terror group.
She has the power to proscribe an organisation under the Terrorism Act of 2000 if she believes it is 'concerned in terrorism'.
After laying out an order in Parliament, it would need to be backed by MPs and the House of Lords for the group to be banned. If passed, it would make it a criminal offence to belong to Palestine Action or support it.
There are currently 81 organisations that are proscribed, including Islamist terrorist groups such as Hamas and al Qaida.
Palestine Action member Saeed Taji Farouky told the BBC the government plan to proscribe the group was "absurd".
He said it "rips apart the very basic concepts of British democracy and the rule of law" and added: "It's something everyone should be terrified about."
On Friday, Palestine Action posted footage online showing two people inside the base at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire.
In the clip, one person rides an electric scooter up to an Airbus Voyager air-to-air refuelling tanker and appears to spray paint into its jet engine. The incident is being investigated by counter-terror police.
However, former justice secretary Lord Charlie Falconer said vandalising aircraft at RAF Brize Norton would not solely provide legal justification for proscribing the group.
He told Sky News: "Generally, that sort of demonstration wouldn't justify proscription so there must be something else that I don't know about.'
The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) welcomed the government's stance, with chief executive Gideon Falter saying: 'Nobody should be surprised that those who vandalised Jewish premises with impunity have now been emboldened to sabotage RAF jets.'
The group has previously targeted Jewish-owned businesses that it says are linked to Elbit Systems, commenting: "We treat all businesses which work with Israel's biggest weapons firm equally, whether they're 'Jewish-owned' or not."
Former home secretary Suella Braverman said banning the group was 'absolutely the correct decision'.
However, Tom Southerden, from Amnesty International UK, said: 'Terrorism powers should never have been used to aggravate criminal charges against Palestine Action activists and they certainly shouldn't be used to ban them.
'Instead of suppressing protest against the UK's military support for Israel, the UK should be taking urgent action to prevent Israel's genocide and end any risk of UK complicity in it.'
And former shadow attorney general Baroness Shami Chakrabarti told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Monday: 'They certainly committed acts of criminal trespass and criminal damage, painting planes at Brize Norton and so on, but I think that's not what most people would understand as terrorism, and to proscribe Palestine Action on the information that we have all seen, I think would be a new departure."
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