AROUND 100 protesters defied Labour’s proscription of Palestine Action as a terror group in a silent protest outside the UK Government offices in Edinburgh on Saturday.
On a bell’s ring at 2pm, the protesters silently wrote “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action” on placards which they held in front of the UK Government offices, while surrounded by another 200-300 activists taking part in solidarity.
At 2:30pm, some 1000 people who had joined a Stop The War march from the bottom of Edinburgh’s Mound arrived – with chants and instruments ceasing before they merged with the silent protest outside Queen Elizabeth House.
In London, a similar protest – both in size and message – erupted into frantic scenes after police decided to begin arresting people holding placards.
Met Police officers forced their way through crowds carrying arrested protesters and had screaming arguments with demonstrators in Parliament Square, PA Media reported.
Three arrests were later confirmed in Edinburgh. It is unclear when or where these arrests took place on Saturday, with four major protests spread across the city.
Willie Black, a founding member of Edinburgh Gaza Genocide Emergency Committee, said the demonstration was about opposing the proscription of Palestine Action.
“We want to offer the police a different approach in Scotland,” Black said.
“We want the police in Scotland not to arrest, and we want to encourage them to see that we're perfectly peaceful, that there is no aggression, that the people who are protesting today with their placards and their T-shirts are in fact doing it for the best reasons: they want to stop genocide.
“If we're arresting people for a T-shirt and for a cardboard and placard, then what is the cost of blowing a child to bits? Apparently very little.
“We want to see all those people that are causing the genocide in Gaza and the West Bank, the settlers movement, arrested and put on trial.”
Black said the demonstration was taking place outside Queen Elizabeth House because the UK Government wanted the building to be a sign of their presence in Scotland – meaning it could also act as a focal point to speak back at them.
“We want to see real action,” he said. “We want to see the money withdrawn for the arms companies. We want to see sanctions.
“We want all those things that should have happened a year-and-a-half ago.”
A spokesperson for Defend Our Juries, which organised both the London and Edinburgh protests, said: "A showdown between Holyrood and Westminster seems to be playing out over the enforcement of the ridiculous Palestine Action ban …
"People can see that the 22 members of the UK Cabinet have blood on their hands. Palestine Action’s only crime was to interrupt the flow of weapons during a genocide. Holyrood should play no part in enforcing this ban."
Police Scotland’s handling of the protest seemed to mark a departure from the force’s previous arrests of activists wearing T-shirts bearing the slogan “Genocide in Palestine, time to take action”.
A viral video also showed Police Scotland officers in Glasgow detaining a man wearing a T-shirt professing support for “Plasticine Action” – a slogan which was widely visible at the Edinburgh demonstration on Saturday.
The Scottish Human Rights Commission had intervened with a letter to Police Scotland and the Lord Advocate – the head of prosecutions in Scotland – warning that policing of pro-Palestine protests risked impinging on people’s right to freedom of expression.
Responding, Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain said that prosecutions would only be pursued if they were in the public interest.
However, the Crown Office later rejected calls from former first minister Humza Yousaf to entirely rule out prosecuting anyone for expressing support for Palestine Action, saying it would be “contrary to the Lord Advocate’s obligation to independently enforce the criminal law”.
Palestine Action was banned as a terror organisation in July after the group claimed responsibility for an action in which two Voyager planes were damaged at RAF Brize Norton on June 20.
The Home Office is set to appeal against the High Court ruling allowing Palestine Action’s co-founder Huda Ammori to proceed with a legal challenge over the group’s ban.
Ammori took legal action against the department over then-home secretary Yvette Cooper’s decision to proscribe the group under anti-terror laws, which made membership of, or support for, the direct action group a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
