SNP members will try to use their party’s national conference to push the Scottish Government not to enforce the Palestine Action terrorism proscription north of the border, The National can reveal.
A motion on the provisional agenda for the conference – which will take place in Aberdeen from October 11-13 – says designation of Palestine Action as a terrorist group should “not be implemented or enforced in Scotland”.
It further calls on the SNP leadership at Holyrood and Westminster to “work with progressive allies to oppose the proscription and support its repeal”.
Keir Starmer’s Government designated Palestine Action a terrorist organisation in July, leading the UN human rights chief Volker Turk to intervene and warn that Labour had put the UK “at odds” with international law.
In Scotland, policing of Palestine protests in the wake of the terror legislation has sparked high-level concerns about breaches of human rights to freedom of expression and assembly.
The motion proposed for the SNP conference, put forward by the party’s BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) network, calls on the Scottish Government to “defend the right to protest within Scotland’s jurisdiction”.
It reads: “Conference condemns the UK Government’s decision to ban Palestine Action, a non-violent group protesting against the UK Government’s complicity in Israeli military actions in Gaza and the Occupied Territories.
“Conference also criticises the UK Government’s decision to bundle Palestine Action with two unrelated extremist groups – the Murder Maniac Cult and the Russian Imperial Movement – in a single parliamentary vote, denying MPs the opportunity to assess each case on its own merits.
“In response, conference commends SNP Glasgow city councillors for defending Palestine Action’s right to peaceful protest, at a constituted meeting, and further opposing Keir Starmer’s attempts to criminalise direct action through misuse of terrorism legislation.
“Conference believes this attack on democratic rights is intended to deflect attention from the Israeli military’s mass killing of over 60,000 Palestinian civilians.”
The motion will need to be accepted for the finalised agenda and voted on by SNP delegates before becoming official party policy. However, that would not necessarily mean it will also be taken on by the SNP-run Scottish Government.
This has been demonstrated in the safe consumption space in Glasgow, set up to help people with drug addiction issues.
Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain publicly said she had “concluded that it would not be in the public interest to prosecute people for simple possession offences when they are already in a place where help with their issues can be offered”.
Bain leads the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), which in recent weeks has been cancelling court dates and lifting bail conditions for Scottish activists charged under terror laws following the proscription of Palestine Action.
The COPFS decisions came after the Scottish Human Rights Commission warned of a risk to human rights in the way pro-Palestine protesters were being policed.
On Monday, Bain said in a public reply to the commission: “Cases involving ‘Palestine Action’ reported to the Procurator Fiscal will be considered by a specialist prosecutor, overseen by senior prosecutors. The prosecutor will carefully examine whether there is sufficient evidence and determine what action, if any, should be taken in the public interest.”
