Your report that armed police threatened to arrest a protester for holding a Palestine flag, citing grounds that she might support a proscribed terror organisation (Report, 17 July), is truly chilling. It shows that the police are either completely ignorant of the law or – more likely – that they are using the proscription of a peaceful, non-violent direct action group, Palestine Action, to try to criminalise the movement as a whole.
What an indictment of our policing, and indeed this Labour government, that peaceful campaigning against a genocide in Gaza is now treated as a crime on a par with terrorist activity.
On Saturday, tens of thousands will once again take to the streets of London in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Like all previous ones, the demonstration will be diverse, massive and peaceful. We refute any idea that protesting over Palestine is a crime. It is our right in a democracy and one that should be respected. Our civil liberties are under attack through arrests, bans and proscriptions, and that cannot be allowed to happen.
Lindsey German
Convener, Stop the War Coalition
