After mass arrests, what occurs subsequent with Palestine Motion ban?

The photographs from final week’s sit-in protest in Parliament Sq. over the banned group Palestine Motion have been unprecedented.

As demonstrators held up placards studying, “I help Palestine Motion”, some 522 of them have been arrested on suspicion of breaking terrorism legal guidelines – greater than double the whole such arrests in 2024.

Their common age was 54, mentioned the police. Some 112 of them have been over 70 years previous.

The battle over the ban on Palestine Motion (PAG) – final month, proscribed as a terrorist organisation within the UK – now feels as a lot a political and PR battle as a authorized one.

And the organisers of the marketing campaign try to capitalise on perceived sympathy amongst among the public by organising one other demonstration in September – hoping to power the state, via numbers, to raise the ban.

How does it finish?

Does it threat changing into an “I’m Spartacus second”? – the phrases of Baroness Shami Chakrabarti, the Labour peer and civil rights campaigner?

That is dependent upon three courtroom battles that may every, in flip, affect how Palestine Motion is publicly perceived and legally characterised.

Let’s begin with the protesters arrested since July for exhibiting help for the group – greater than 700 to this point.

One lawyer says it has been awkward to this point for cops.

“I’ve seen police look extremely uncomfortable with the truth that they’re having to deal with these aged individuals as criminals,” mentioned solicitor Katie McFadden, who suggested many protesters, after their arrests, final Saturday.

“I’ve seen them in police custody they usually’ve actually been thoughtful and seemed, frankly, fairly shocked and horrified that that is what they have been having to do as a part of their job once they’ve signed as much as exit and shield the general public from harmful criminals.”

The actual problem for the police and prosecutors is what number of protesters do they should cost with help of a banned terrorist organisation to ship a message to the general public. And what message do they ship if they do not cost all of them?

Up to now, three individuals have been charged with displaying an merchandise exhibiting help for Palestine Motion in the course of the first demonstration on 5 July. They’ll all seem in court docket subsequent month.

The director of public prosecutions, Stephen Parkinson, needed to seek the advice of the Lawyer Basic’s Workplace earlier than he might go forward with the costs due to further safeguards in some terrorism circumstances.

That signifies that Lord Hermer, the Lawyer Basic and likewise a cupboard minister, or his deputy, might should be concerned in every of the recordsdata that police ship to prosecutors.

That, in flip, means the overwhelming majority of the 700 might not know for months if they will find yourself on trial – in circumstances that might be greater than a yr away from a jury.

Simply assuming they do get charged, historical past suggests the chance of a most of 14-year sentence is low.

Conventionally, a conviction like this would go away careers in tatters and produce other life-changing results.

The equation for some Palestine Motion protesters is totally different.

Many are older individuals who have graduated from involvement in local weather change activism and imagine the ban breaches free speech safeguards. It appears many have fewer fears in regards to the impression of arrest on their day-to-day lives.

So is the ban on Palestine Motion a authorized and PR catastrophe within the making for Dwelling Secretary Yvette Cooper?

Huda Ammori, Palestine Motion’s co-founder, has mentioned on social media: “The system cannot cope when 1000’s resist.”

However ministers hope that the distinction between the organisation she based and different types of protest over Gaza will change into clear due to the second of the three linked authorized battles quickly to take centre stage.

In August 2024 alleged PAG supporters broke into Elbit Programs UK in Bristol, an Israeli defence agency that has lengthy been a key goal.

A repurposed jail van smashed via a safety fence and crowbars and a sledgehammer have been allegedly used to smash up gear.

Three individuals have been injured: a safety guard and two cops.

Palestine Motion promoted video of the harm – however not any photos of the alleged assaults.

These allegations start to come back to trial in November. Some 18 individuals deny prices together with legal harm, assault inflicting precise bodily hurt, violent dysfunction and aggravated housebreaking.

That incident prompted nationwide safety officers and the police to have a look at whether or not a terrorism ban on PAG might be justified, after having beforehand concluded that the overwhelming majority of its extremely disruptive actions amounted to minor legal harm.

Paperwork disclosed to the BBC within the Excessive Court docket present how the considering on a ban had advanced. Palestine Motion was changing into extra militant, mentioned officers. It had allegedly produced an “underground guide” that it was claimed detailed the way to plan a “break-in”, referring to face masks, burner telephones and faux automobile quantity plates.

“With an environment friendly sledgehammer in your hand, you’ll be able to trigger fairly a bit of injury,” the guide learn, earlier than than detailing how to take action.

And that is the place the UK’s huge definition of terrorism is available in. It consists of not simply the menace or use of violence to advance a trigger – but additionally using critical legal harm.

That is as a result of within the Nineties the IRA started inflicting financial harm via bombs, with out taking life.

So when Cooper banned PAG, her determination was largely knowledgeable by what the Dwelling Workplace has described as tens of millions of kilos of legal harm, not an evaluation that it was a gaggle of murderous militants.

“Proscription is about one slender group that has been concerned in violent assaults together with accidents, together with weapons, smoke bombs inflicting panic amongst harmless individuals, main legal harm,” the house secretary mentioned following final Saturday’s arrests.

“There could also be people who find themselves objecting to proscription who do not know the total nature of this organisation because of court docket restrictions on reporting whereas critical prosecutions are below approach but it surely’s actually essential that nobody is in any doubt that this isn’t a non-violent organisation.”

Ms Ammori has contested this characterisation, saying the federal government’s personal papers present that Palestine Motion didn’t advocate for violence.

This brings us to the third of the three huge authorized challenges that may determine this affair: was the Dwelling Secretary proper?

The Excessive Court docket will take into account within the autumn if the ban was a rational and proportionate response to PAG’s actions.

Jonathan Corridor KC, the impartial watchdog of terrorism legal guidelines, has beforehand advised BBC Information that the ban is legally workable as a result of the group had moved from protest into what’s successfully “blackmail” – suggesting it was exerting stress to get what it needed.

However Ms Ammori’s authorized crew have a variety of great arguments round freedom of protest.

Volker Turk, the United Nations’ human rights chief has obtained concerned too, saying the ban is so fallacious it locations the UK exterior worldwide legislation.

The result of that case will outline whether or not Palestine Motion stays banned. If the ban falls, then the 700 arrested to this point are free – their circumstances would collapse. As for the group itself, it might really feel emboldened – however would know that it might nonetheless be banned once more if its actions cross the terrorism legal guidelines line.

If the ban stands, then the benefit can be with the federal government – and arrests and prices will proceed.

That’s the counter-terrorism policing approach: slowly however absolutely, step-by-step, search to comprise and, finally, crush the menace.