We are entering new and dangerous terrain for the right to protest in Britain, in which freedoms of expression and assembly — the basis of any functioning democracy — are being threatened.
This authoritarian turn was made unmistakeably clear last weekend in London, where at the national demonstration held in solidarity with Palestine, the metropolitan police arrested 77 people and misled the public over what happened at the demonstration on Saturday.
The police, ostensibly independent but taking orders directly from the top of government, have come under pressure from pro-Israel organisations to repress and criminalise pro-Palestine protests.
Using the Public Order Act and with the assistance of police forces from across the country, the arrests included the chief steward of the march, Chris Nineham, who was violently pulled to the ground by several police officers before being dragged behind police lines and put in a police van. After 19 hours in custody, he was charged with inciting one person to break conditions imposed under Section 14.
Subsequently, the director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Ben Jamal, was summoned to a central London police station and also charged with public order offences, while MPs Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell were questioned by police under caution. The extraordinary decision to question two sitting MPs will have undoubtedly come from the highest authorities.
But there was no synagogue on the route and organisers offered to direct people away from the synagogue, with the police themselves acknowledging that synagogues have never been under threat from the marches. The organisers then offered to reverse the route, allowing Sabbath services to conclude before the march would arrive at the BBC.
This too was refused by the police, in what was effectively a ban on marching in the vicinity of the BBC, given that Saturdays are the only suitable day for a mass demonstration. Hundreds of prominent individuals signed a statement to protest the ban.
On the eve of the demonstration, the organisers publicly vowed to rally at Whitehall in protest over the repressive restrictions. But on the day, when a delegation of speakers attempted to advance to the top of Whitehall to lay flowers at the BBC — and declared that if the police stopped them, they would lay down the flowers there and disperse — the police claimed that the group had forced its way through police lines.
And yet video footage clearly shows that the police were inviting people to filter through police lines, only then to start aggressively arresting people.
The police have always imposed conditions on the Palestine demonstrations. The previous Home Secretary Suella Braverman called them ‘hate marches’ and attempted to ban the national demonstration on Armistice Day mere weeks after the genocide started.
She failed in part because over 800,000 people turned up to the demonstration. Even the Tories had to concede that people have the right to peaceful protest.
And while the coalition of six organisations leading the demonstrations, comprising Palestine, Muslim and anti-war groups, have consistently challenged various aspects of proposed conditions, trying to ban the march altogether is a serious provocation.
The strength and social weight of the movement has made it difficult for the police to impose more repressive restrictions until now. The Public Order Act has largely been used to arrest and imprison climate protesters, whose sentences have been condemned for being too harsh, and there are increasing calls for it to be repealed.
But successive governments have wanted to attack the movement from the start because, in expressing solidarity with the Palestinians, it not only challenges government support for Israel and its complicity with genocide but a world order rooted in imperialism and war, starting with the Middle East.
The mass nature of the demonstrations in London, in particular — regularly mobilising hundreds of thousands of people — has been a source of irritation for the entire political establishment for this very reason. This time, perhaps the calculation was that fewer people would turn out following the announcement of a ceasefire.
Or indeed, perhaps it was the cumulative pressure from pro-Israel groups, including the Board of Deputies and the Campaign Against Antisemitism, and the chief rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, who has publicly accused the police of failing to protect the Jewish community.
The movement has been clear that Israel is the immediate aggressor ultimately responsible for committing the genocide — and major international legal bodies have ruled as such — but the US, UK, Germany and others have enabled the genocide by continuing to provide Israel with arms alongside diplomatic, political and moral support.
It is no wonder why they want to deny this complicity through partial state media, straight-up lies and the demonisation of protesters.
These are tactics that many governments are deploying in response to Palestine solidarity. But millions of people the world over can see through the lies and corruption. These millions have also been protesting in solidarity with the Palestinians against genocide and for an immediate ceasefire, week after week, in different forms.
The global movement has not only been uplifting but edifying. Millions more know about the history of stolen land, the significance of the Palestinian cause, and the geopolitical consequences of freedom for Palestine. The new Trump presidency will also have to reckon with it.
The Palestine movement in Britain has a proud history and, for the past 15 months, has comprised a vast array of forms of protest — direct actions, occupations, workplace stoppages, school strikes, petitions, vigils and more.
The demonstrations have been an anchor for the movement, educated the public, inspired countless other actions, helped normalise Palestine solidarity and revealed the resolve people have for a free Palestine. Here is a mass movement that exceeds even the Iraq War protests of the early 2000s in terms of cumulative numbers, and which has been sustained on a level unlike anything seen in British history.
The national demonstrations — last Saturday being the twenty-fourth since the genocide began — are now testing our own right to protest. The political policing recently on display is an assault on legitimate, peaceful protest. It must now signal the beginning of a concerted campaign to defend the right to protest, not just by the Palestine movement but with the active participation of the trade union and labour movements.
Repealing the Public Order Act has to be a central demand. If the movements back down, an extremely dangerous precedent is set: the next time we want to march, the police will see fit to impose even harsher restrictions, and will be even more repressive if we defy them.
Fifteen months of live-streamed horror in Gaza, and finally, there is a fragile ceasefire, which should have meant immediate relief for the Palestinians. Only in the days approaching its commencement, Israel continued to drop bombs on Gaza with the depravity of a state that wants to kill and maim as quickly as possible before it is forced to stop. And that merely for an initial six weeks. The Palestine protests are needed more than ever.
Protesters have every right to express solidarity, march against genocide, make demands on the government and criticise the state broadcaster for its reporting. Accountability to the public is a cornerstone of a democratic government.
At some point, Palestine solidarity was going to become about our freedom to give that solidarity. The government is taking great risks in arresting leaders of a mass movement. We must not allow them to win. If we want to defend Palestine, we have to defend our own right to protest.
Source: Tribune