A GROUP of about 20 people - including a former government lawyer, a nurse and an engineer - are to risk 14 years jail-time by holding Palestine Action signs in protest this weekend.
Campaign group Defend Our Juries has said the action will be the first in a series, and every week, as "more people will show their support for freedom of expression".
It comes after the legislation naming Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation was supported by the Commons, with just 26 MPs voting against the move – although six of these were part of a double vote, which was done as an abstention.
The Terrorism Act 2000 (Proscribed Organisations) (Amendment) Order 2025 is now expected to be debated and voted on by the House of Lords on Thursday before it becomes law.
The protest will take place on Saturday, July 5, at 1pm, in front of the Gandhi statue in Parliament Square. Activists will hold signs saying, “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.”
Thousands of people and organisations, including the Network for Police Monitoring and the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers, four UN special rapporteurs, and 266 solicitors, barristers and legal academics, have condemned this decision from the Home Office.
The group hope to create a dilemma for UK law enforcement, calling the law change "unenforceable".
The group stated: "If they are arrested and charged with Terrorism Act offences, for a statement opposing the genocide of Palestinians, and supporting those who resist it, it will expose the end of democracy and free speech in the UK.
"If they do not get arrested, they demonstrate that you cannot, in practice, proscribe a popular organisation like Palestine Action and stop hundreds of thousands of people across the country from supporting them."
Tim Crosland, is a former government lawyer and director of Plan B, a charity that supports strategic legal action against climate change. He is set to take part.
“There are already 18 Palestine Actionists held in UK prisons without a trial, following lobbying by the Israeli government and Elbit Systems, the leading supplier of the machinery of genocide," Crosland said.
"If we cannot speak freely about the genocide of Palestinians, if we cannot condemn those who enable it and praise those who resist it, then the right to freedom of expression has no meaning, and democracy in this country is dead.”
Leigh Evans, an emergency support worker, who is also taking part, said: “I’m joining the Palestine Action and Defend Our Juries action due to the fact that I’ve seen the genocide in Gaza, and the apartheid and genocide in the rest of Palestine, and it’s the most horrific thing I’ve ever seen in 30 years of emergency work worldwide.”
Anthony Harvey, a retired telecommunications and electrical engineer will be at the protest.
He added: "I just had to stand with Defend Our Juries against this Orwellian government actively aiding and abetting the Israeli government's genocide on the Palestinian people while attempting to ban the wonderful self-sacrificing group Palestine Action who are clearly too often successful for them in slowing this country's flow of arms to that genocide".
Melanie Griffith, an advanced nurse practitioner, will also take part.
She said: “I can no longer stand by as this government strips our democracy out from under us. Peaceful protest has to be the cornerstone of our society, as without it, we will be sliding into an authoritarian regime. I have much to lose, but willingly offer it up to defend our freedom to create the society in which we want to live."
