ANTI-WAR campaigners and trade unionists are expected to join a Palestine march being held in solidarity with campaign group Defend our Juries (DOJ) this weekend.
Organised by Stop the War (STW) Scotland, Scottish CND, the Scottish Trade Union Congress and others, the march will start at the foot of the Mound and head to the UK Government's Edinburgh offices.
They will reach the Queen Elizabeth House at the same time that activists from DOJ and Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign are planning to defy the terrorism laws by holding up signs in support of banned direct action group, Palestine Action.
The march will begin at 2pm on Saturday, from the foot of the Mound.
The demonstration comes after five DOJ spokespeople were detained in London and a 59-year-old man was charged in Oban this week.
Secretary of STW Scotland Sophie Johnson described the arrests as part of a much wider "clampdown on Palestine solidarity".
She added: "In the last year we have seen restriction orders on marches, protest organisers charged, cultural acts prevented from performing, and now even individuals — including last week Scottish screenwriter Paul Laverty — are being arrested for wearing t-shirts.
"This ban is part of an attempt to divide the movement by creating a false line between acceptable and unacceptable forms of peaceful protest. We do not accept this division."
Johnson went on to say John Swinney had "rightly named" the onslaught by Israel in Gaza as a genocide, but called on the Scottish Government to "cut all ties with Israel and uphold the right to protest against war crimes”.
Co-chair of STW Scotland Jade Eckhaus said that if Police Scotland attempt to detain anyone on Saturday, "they will have to do it in front of hundreds of witnesses".
At a meeting of trade unionists supported by STW in Edinburgh on Tuesday night, the following emergency motion was passed: “This meeting expresses its shock and dismay over the arrest for terrorism of Defend Our Juries spokespeople ahead of a press conference on Tuesday.
"What has happened is clear evidence of the importance of the march on 6 September in Edinburgh.
"The authorities’ actions are a threat to basic democratic rights here and to life in Gaza. Every day that passes, the horrors of starvation and mass killing are intensifying – and our government is supplying arms to help it happen. Here, the rights of everyone are endangered because the authorities label non-violent protest as terrorism.”
