As the clock struck noon on Saturday, an estimated 1,500 people in Parliament Square scribbled on pieces of cardboard the following words: “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.”
Starmer’s Labour had given the instructions to impose the letter of the law. The Met Police had been given their marching orders: arrest without fear or favour. All was set for a showdown.
But whilst the police squirreled around the Square – with bated breath to arrest the elderly and disabled – it became abundantly clear how events would unfold.
Despite all the acts of intimidation – Met police chief Sir Mark Rowley issuing stern warnings; alongside counter-terrorist squads conducting house raids and arrests of Defend our Juries (DOJ) organisers in the days leading up to the protest – they were all duly ignored.
The DOJ ‘Lift the Ban’ protest brought out even more people than the one in August. The Square was teeming with protesters, and a sea of Palestine flags. The police were out of their depth. The balance of forces was not in their favour.
This historic ‘day of defiance’, to lift the ban on Palestine Action, was always set to be a crushing humiliation for the British state.
Vicars and priests; descendants of Holocaust survivors; war veterans sat alongside their children – all brandishing signs that, by UK terrorism law, places them in the company of ISIS cutthroats and Al-Qaeda apologists. This was not in the script.
One of the participants we interviewed pointed to this fact:
“All of these arrests are turning the Terrorism Act into a joke. If people are terrorists for sitting in Parliament Square with a piece of cardboard then anyone could be called a terrorist at any point.”
Petrol on the flames
Throughout the day, many of the protesters echoed the same sentiments. They felt compelled to act – to show the government that they are staunch in their opposition to the genocide in Gaza, and will not stand idly by as peaceful protesters are terrorised for their dissent in this country.
One young mother, who had come from outside of London, told us: “The idea that western imperialism has taken these children’s limbs is so incredibly wrong.”
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A retired woman also commented on the impact of these repressive measures for the future of democracy in Britain: “I know democracy isn’t perfect but this isn’t democracy. I’m very scared of the way things are going. I feel compelled to take this action.”
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As the horrifying scenes of grandmas being carted off continued, it became clear that Palestine has become a prism through which their anger and frustrations are refracted not only for the youth, but a whole cross-section of society.
With the government completely at odds with the mood in society, they have sought to crush and repress the Palestine movement. This, in turn, has brought even more anger and hatred towards the entire political establishment.
And as Saturday strikingly illustrated, this problem is not going away for the Starmer’s government.
‘We’re nonviolent, how about you?’
Despite shutting down streets, and creating make-shift processing points all around the Square, the Met police struggled to do Labour’s dirty work. Three hours into the protest, we asked a participant whether he thought this law would be made unworkable:
“I think it’s inevitable with the number of people that support us. With the justice of our cause it is inevitable. The only question is when.”
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Suddenly, the Met police grabbed him mid-interview, and a crowd gathered round. People shouted: “Isn’t he a bit too able-bodied for you?” The disgust and scorn of ordinary people was palpable as he was dragged away by the police.
He was correct. It was inevitable that the police would not be able to arrest everyone that participated.
After eleven gruelling hours of arresting people to shouts of “shame”, the Met police made just under 900 arrests in total. This was no doubt a huge embarrassment for the Met.
In the hope of garnering some public sympathy, they released a statement smearing the peaceful protest as violent and lamenting the “exceptional level of abuse” the officers received.
But as footage shows, the only ones abusing the elderly and infirmed were the police. Videos have since surfaced of them throwing over old men, baring their teeth and wielding their batons as people protested against their thuggishness.
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Before the police began their operation, all was quiet in Parliament Square. Quakers were singing hymns; grandparents were playing rounds of chess on the grass.
It became heated once the police began their smash-and-grab into the crowd, with protesters swarming them chanting: “Met police shame on you, your hands are bloody too!”
As was aptly put by the DOJ in their press statement: “We’re nonviolent, how about you?”
Labour’s Suella moment?
One striking observation was that many – if not an outright majority – of participants in the demo were not involved in Palestine Action before it was proscribed. However, this outrageous attack on the Palestine movement has filled thousands of people with rightful indignation to defy the proscription ban.
For almost two years, we have witnessed a genocide unfold in real time.
Waking up in the morning to see images of children burnt alive. Stories flashing up on our phones of Israel obliterating another hospital. Thinking late at night about the unimaginable suffering of Palestinian mothers, grieving for their babies before they even die.
There is no chance in hell that the Labour government can erase from the minds of millions of people in Britain how far it has gone to sanctify and support the actions of the Israeli terrorist state.
We know who the real terrorists are. It is not those sat peacefully with placards in Parliament Square, but those who have aided and abetted the Israeli death squads.
It is wishful thinking to believe that the Palestine movement is going anywhere. Many participants understood the proscription as the thin end of the wedge:
“First they will come for Palestine Action, then it will be Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and they won’t stop there…”
But a word of warning to this beleaguered Labour government.
First Suella Braverman tried to criminalise the Palestine movement. But as the 200,000-strong national demo this Saturday showed: we are still here, and she is not.
As the Labour government plunges deeper into crisis, bringing forth Shabana Mahmood as Home Secretary the day before the utter embarrassment in Parliament Square, she must be gripped by a horrible foreboding feeling for what is to come.
But she is not alone. With yet another botched attempt to silence and intimidate the movement for Palestine, we can’t help but wonder if Starmer realises that this could be his Suella moment?
