George Monbiot will join protesters to defy the terror ban on Palestine Action

This Saturday 26 July, a group of Totnes residents – including award-winning author and journalist George Monbiot and 80-year-old retired nurse Mary Light – will join a nationwide wave of protest as part of the Defend Our Juries’ campaign, ‘Lift The Ban’. They will turn out to oppose the home secretary’s classification of the direct action group Palestine Action as a ‘terrorist’ organisation.

Some of them will be peacefully holding signs stating: “I Oppose Genocide. I Support Palestine Action”.  The same wording has led to police arresting more than 200 people under the Terrorism Act since the proscription order came into force on 5 July.

The group will notify the police of the action in advance and understand the risk of being arrested.

George Monbiot to join Palestine Action protests

George Monbiot said:

The proscription of Palestine Action is the most illiberal thing any home secretary has done for at least 30 years. The result is an Orwellian situation, in which people gently calling for peace are arrested under the Terrorism Act, while the government actively assists Israeli state terror, as it perpetrates genocide in Gaza. This is an assault on free speech, on logic and on human decency.

On Monday, the government admitted in court that Palestine Action does not advocate for violence against people, but only for damage to property used to support the Israeli government’s assault on Gaza.

Since October 2023, Israel has massacred at least 58,000 Palestinians. Nearly 2.1 million people – about 88% of Gaza’s population – have been displaced into just 12% of its territory.

Currently, starvation is acute because Israel continues to deny aid access to the Strip. Israel killed at least 67 Palestinians collecting aid on 20 July. These sit amid the more than 1,000 Palestinians attempting to get aid it has slaughtered since the end of May.

The World Health Organization and UN agencies are warning of imminent famine and breakdown of water and medical services.

Ordinary people who cannot stand idly by

Mary Light said:

I am a retired nurse. I am horrified to see the utter cruelty unleashed by the Israeli government and army. Parents are having to watch their children die from starvation, children seeing a dearly loved parent lying dead, waiting to be buried in a mass grave. As a nurse, I’m also appalled by the targeted destruction of hospitals and the torture, imprisonment and killing of medical staff. Over 1,400 healthcare workers have died – this is a war on Gaza’s healthcare.

Artist and grandmother Ruth Ben-Tovim said:

Resistance is lawful, resisting genocide is not wrong—it is a moral and legal obligation. Palestine Action have been labelled ‘terrorists’ for protest actions including spray‑painting military aircraft to highlight UK arms complicity with Israel’s genocide. Once ‘terrorism’ means “economic damage” or “embarrassment, freedom of expression ceases to exist.

The protest with George Monbiot will bring together ordinary people, who can’t be bystanders and ignore what is happening. They will demand that:

1. The UK government must lift the ban on – meaning to de-proscribe – direct action group Palestine Action.
2. An end to the role of arms and oil industry lobbyists in proposing laws that criminalise those who expose the violence and lies of those industries.
3. An end to the sale of arms to a state committing genocide, as international law demands.
4. The legal right of everyone who has taken reasonable and proportionate measures to prevent mass loss of life to present that as a defence to criminal charges.
5. An end to the jailing of people for taking peaceful action to protect life in accordance with international law.

Standing up to the brutal implications of this law, and opposing genocide

The group of protesters, including George Monbiot, plan to notify their local Totnes police station about the action. Police responses have varied across the country – some respect the Human Rights Act, others enforce the Terrorism Act.

They said:

We await the police’s response in Totnes.

This is just a small aspect of a much bigger story, of international complicity in Gaza’s genocide.

We stand to show solidarity, to make visible the brutal implications of this law, and to oppose our government’s role in genocide.

Featured image via the Canary