disclaimer: I do not support Palestine Action

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 image Yui Mok/PA Wire, The Independent

But Starmer is very wrong...


Proclaiming the protest group ‘Palestine Action’ a proscribed organisation and any support for it a crime punishable by up to 14 years in prison has caused a bit of a stooshie in the UK and in Scotland. Dragging away elderly ladies who are clutching a placard stating that genocide is being committed in Gaza and that they support the Palestinian effort for peace and freedom is not good optics for any politician who asserts him- or herself on the left of the political spectrum. In the last few weeks hundreds of people have been arrested for flouting the ban. What is this ban, why is it in place and why is it wrong?

‘Ban’ comes from the Proto-Germanic bannan ‘to speak publicly’, and via Old High German bannan ‘to command or forbid under threat of punishment’. There is a bit of Old Frisian in there as well: bonna, which translates as ‘to order, command, proclaim’. [1]Which is, in this context, an interesting journey for a word.

The UK Government doesn’t use the word ‘banned’. It uses the word proscribed. The UK Home Office website states that Under the Terrorism Act 2000, the Home Secretary may proscribe an organisation if they believe it is concerned in terrorism, and it is proportionate to do. For the purposes of the act, this means that the organisation:

· commits or participates in acts of terrorism

· prepares for terrorism

· promotes or encourages terrorism (including the unlawful glorification of terrorism)

· is otherwise concerned in terrorism


‘Terrorism’ as defined in the act, means the use or threat of action which: involves serious violence against a person; involves serious damage to property; endangers a person’s life (other than that of the person committing the act); creates a serious risk to the health or safety of the public or section of the public or is designed seriously to interfere with or seriously to disrupt an electronic system.[2]

Palestine Action has tried to disrupt the arms industry in the United Kingdom with direct action – throwing red paint at military planes. No humans were hurt in the action. Now looking at what this group protests against: war crimes in the Gaza, people displacement, restricting aid including food aid and medical aid to name but a few. What did it say in the description of terrorism again?

Protest should never be unlawful in a civilised society – whether right-wing or left-wing. Crimes against persons such as violence should be punished. We can’t ban thoughts; it is far better to have it out in the open, so a debate is possible. Banning is not the answer. Remember the Suffragettes? They planted the occasional bomb and committed crimes against property. In the current political climate, they would surely be banned or, to use the correct terminology: proscribed.

I know where my sympathies lie, but I am not allowed to express it. As a non-British national I run a greater risk than my fellow Scots and Brits: a jail term would see me deported to my home country. So no: I do not support Palestine Action.








[1] https://www.etymonline.com/




[2] https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/home-office




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