Local Greens have reacted with anger and concern to the Government’s draconian decision to proscribe the political protest and civil disobedience group Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation, and the cynical manoeuvring used to force the vote through Parliament on July 2.
Stroud District Green Party says the decision dangerously conflates direct action with terrorism, and that the Government put MPs in an impossible position during the vote, by lumping Palestine Action together with two extremist organisations which do clearly fall under the definition of terrorist groups.
SDGP coordinator Adrian Oldman said: “Unlike the other two groups, Palestine Action falls far short of the rightly high bar for the definition of a terrorist organisation. But MPs were given the choice of banning all three or none at all.
“Only 26 MPs, including the four Greens, took the courageous step of voting against the blanket ban – and the Greens are furious that in doing so they were forced to vote against proscribing two clearly terrorist groups.”
He added: “We certainly don’t support everything Palestine Action do or say, but the group should not have been banned, a completely disproportionate response. Individual protestors can be sanctioned under existing criminal law if they commit a crime, while maintaining the right to non-violent direct action as a legitimate form of protest in this country.”
He pointed out the hypocrisy of Keir Starmer, who was one of the defence lawyers for the Fairford 5, who broke into a military base in 2004 because of their opposition to the Iraq war. “And we saw Home Secretary Yvette Cooper stand alongside other female MPs to celebrate the suffragettes this week,” Adrian said, “yet they are another group who could have found themselves proscribed as a terrorist organisation under this Government’s heavy-handed approach.”
“We believe the Government has overstepped the line by ignoring the long-held and much-cherished fundamental principle in our country of civil disobedience as a form of political protest. Had the Government merely wanted to deal with the damage caused by Palestine Action at the air base, they could have done so through existing criminal law by bringing charges such as those for criminal damage, violent disorder or aggravated burglary. Clearly they wanted much more than this: to shut down protest against the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
“Once again this Labour Government has cynically, dangerously and wrongly used anti-terrorism law to shut down legitimate dissent.
“The complicity of the British state in the ongoing atrocities in Gaza needs to be exposed. This issue will not go away; Government will not stop the growing groundswell of anger and outrage about the plight of the Palestinians.”
[The picture is a stock photo from a pro-Palestine demo in Stroud earlier this year.]