Is there a chance, do you think, that the new Home Secretary, the rather impressive Shabana Mahmood, might use her first days in the job to reverse one of the most egregious errors of her predecessor? I refer to Yvette Cooper’s idiotic proscription of Palestine Action. That genius idea of treating an activist political organisation as a terrorist outfit has had the entirely predictable effect this weekend of causing the police to make nearly 900 arrests at a march organised by its supporters. That’s an awful lot of police time – paid overtime – and police cells and taxpayer money gone to give activists a useful opportunity for grandstanding. Don’t the police have better things to do? Actually let’s forget the rhetorical question; the police do have better things to do.
If the protesters had committed criminal damage or acts of intimidation or incitement to violence, I’d be all for arresting them in the hope that the courts would deal with actual troublemakers. But the stupid thing about putting them on the same basis as, say, Islamic State, is that they don’t need to do any of these things to get arrested; simply holding up a placard saying I Heart Palestinian Action should do it.
It’s been like that since early July when Yvette Cooper first proscribed the group, telling us darkly that she had information too sensitive to share proving the group was bona fide terrorist. The first effect of this soon after was the arrest of supporters gathered around the statue of that well-known troublemaker, Mahatma Gandhi. The group gave the police half an hour’s notice of their presence, and for ease of identification carried homemade placards. The Met duly arrested them – and among the suspects was a female 83-year-old Anglican vicar. She did seem to be a terminally tiresome person. But being annoying used not to be a criminal offence. Others were arrested for “wearing clothing or displaying articles” indicating membership of a terrorist organisation.
Palestine Action has certainly been responsible for a number of disruptive and dangerous acts; some of its members have been arrested and charged with causing £7 million worth of damage to military jets at the RAF base at Brize Norton. But the law already covers malicious acts of criminal damage.
There are lots of real terrorists out there - and they’re not holding cardboard placards in Parliament Square
And that’s the thing; we should be using the existing criminal law. That was the robust approach judges took towards the members of Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion who blocked motorways and attacked works of art to make their point about fossil fuel. They were a little less active after the likes of Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland were banged up for throwing Campbells tomato soup at Van Gogh’s Sunflowers. That impulse to throw something at a famous painting if you feel strongly about an issue is now less in evidence. Proof, I think, that the use of the criminal law as well as exemplary punishment works, unless you are actually a terrorist.
The problem with Palestine Action is that it is a group that draws to itself conscientious individuals who feel strongly about the actions of the Israeli military in Gaza, and British government involvement with it, as well as outright anti-Semites. And lots of us feel revulsion at the actions of the IDF in Gaza directed at whole civilian populations. Proscribing the organisation risks proscribing its protests; in other words, terrorism legislation is being used to curb free speech and legitimate protest. And that’s not what it is for.
As others have pointed out, there are ways of dealing with organisations who take their protests to the point of causing disruption and damage. Lord Walney, the government’s former independent adviser on extremism, has suggested an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill which would give police more power to curb the anti-social actions of groups which, like Extinction Rebellion or Just Stop Oil or Palestine Action, are disruptive but not actually terrorist. This could directly address their fundraising and livestreaming criminal acts and their social media activity. If we need any further legislation, that is the way to go, not extending the remit of terrorism legislation.
This government’s (as well as the previous government’s) heavy-handedness in dealing with groups that are a public menace may in fact simply have a chilling effect on legitimate free speech as well as wasting a fantastic amount of police time.
So, if Shabana Mahmood wants to get off on the right foot, including directing police efforts to catching criminals, she should reverse this stupid designation of Palestine Action as a terrorist group. As she will now know, there are lots of actual terrorists out there; let’s focus on them.
Melanie McDonagh is a columnist for The London Standard
