LEGENDARY film director Ken Loach has joined an Edinburgh demonstration against the UK Government’s decision to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist group, a move the double Palme d’Or winner called a “legal monstrosity”.
Speaking to media after joining with activists from the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC), Loach said the Labour administration was “in breach of international law” for failing to take steps to prevent a genocide being perpetrated by Israel.
Activists around Loach, including his long-time screenwriting partner Paul Laverty, wore T-shirts with the slogan “Genocide in Palestine time to take action”. The garment led to a man being charged under terror laws in Glasgow in July, and further charges against others have followed for the same reason.
Loach said he supported “everything that's on the T-shirts here and I'm proud to stand with them, I think they're very brave”.
Asked why he had joined the protest, The Wind That Shakes The Barley director said: “We know the genocide that is happening against the Palestinians in Gaza, and now it seems in the West Bank, perpetrated by Israel and colluded in by our government, being that they won't take the action. They should.
“There's a legal responsibility on them under the genocide convention to prevent genocide. They are not doing that. They're in breach of international law. And the ban against Palestine Action is to intimidate anyone who opposes them.
“The suppression of Palestine Action is a legal monstrosity and we have to oppose that ban.”
Asked if he was concerned about a terrorism charge if law enforcement deemed he was supporting a proscribed group, Loach said: “No, I think there are thousands upon thousands of people who are doing the same.”
Told of the charges against others for wearing the T-shirt, Loach said he believed there was “no legality” to the police action.
"I'm not a lawyer. But to prevent weapons of war being made or being used, it's hardly terrorists, it's anti-terrorist, it's anti-state terrorist, and that is what this government is colluding with,” he said.
“This government is still supplying weapons to Israel. It is trading with Israel. It is giving every moral support to Israel.
“[Keir] Starmer has declared himself a Zionist, and we know what that entails. It is the ideology on which Israel is based, that there should be a Jewish state in Palestine. What does that mean? The prioritising of one ethnic group over another, and that's racist to me.
“We are being governed by politicians who seem to have no respect for international law, no moral compass, and the people have to rise against them. It is intolerable.”
“In the face of that, I think these institutions, generally speaking, have not done enough … Our universities, Francesca Albanese, the special rapporteur [for the Occupied Palestinian Territories], has pointed out, Edinburgh in particular is colluding with the apartheid state.
“We see even in our pension funds, we see it in the financial district too, they say it's not significant. That's for the Palestinians to decide. When there is a genocide, there is a clear obligation to prevent it, to stop it and not to collude with it.
“Actually what we've seen again and again is the conscience is on the streets. Many of these people I see around me today, they've been on the streets from day one, from day one.
“So, I think really we have to listen to the streets because the institutions have failed us.”
Loach and Laverty were speaking outside an Edinburgh International Film Festival event alongside Rebecca O’Brien, another of their creative partners.
Loach said it had been a “privilege” to attend. “Festivals like Edinburgh are very important to keep independent cinema alive and to remind us that cinema doesn't have to have an American accent,” he said. “You can have a Scottish one or an English one or, whatever reflects our culture.
“Cinema is a much bigger medium, a more exciting medium than commercial cinema, and that's the value of festivals like Edinburgh – and Edinburgh's one of the best.”
Elsewhere, best-selling Irish author Sally Rooney has also risked the UK Government's anger by speaking out against the proscription of Palestine Action.
The Normal People writer said she would continue to use her payments from BBC productions of her work to fund the group.
