Three women from a group of mostly Croydon-based protestors were among the record 532 people arrested at Saturday’s protest in support of Palestine Action and free speech outside the House of Commons.
Police force: six officers carry 62-year-old charity worker Ita Gallagher away from Saturday’s protest
They included one 62-year-old charity worker who said that before Saturday, “I’d never had as much as a parking ticket.
“Now I’m classified as a terrorist.”
All three women were released on street bail, and are to report to a south London police station in October.
The Met had called in extra officers from across the country to police the protest, where hundreds held up placards with a message which the Labour government and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper had proscribed using anti-terror legislation.
Few arrests were made during the hour-long protest, but many more were detained in the aftermath. Among the arrestees were NHS workers, Quakers and a blind man in a wheelchair.
The 75-year-old Sir Jonathon Porritt Bt, famous as an environmentalist and mate of King Charles III, was also arrested on Saturday. “Very privileged to be amongst those arrested in Parliament Square,” he tweeted yesterday.
“An astonishing moment,” Sir Jonathon called it. “Opposing genocide is not terrorism.
“Yvette Cooper made to look an authoritarian idiot.”
Labour peer Peter Hain, who got arrested once or twice in his younger days for attending demos and protesting against gross injustices, yesterday described himself as “deeply ashamed” of his own government, saying that their treatment of Palestine Action “is intellectually bankrupt, politically unprincipled and morally wrong”.
Only three people have been charged with any offences: 71-year-old Jeremy Shippam from West Sussex, Judit Murray, also 71, of Surrey, and Fiona Maclean, 53, of Hackney. They are to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on September 16.
The average age of those arrested was 54. The number of people transported to custody was 212.
There were a further 10 arrests: six for assaults on officers, one for obstructing a constable in the execution of duty, two for breaching public order conditions, and one for a racially aggravated public order offence.
Friends of Palestine: Ita Gallagher (right) with Sharon Rigby (left) and Barbara Browne at Saturday’s protest
It has been reported today that the highest number of arrests made at the same protest by the Met was previously 339 at the Poll Tax riots in 1990.
Defend Our Juries was the civil rights group who organised latest Saturday’s protest in Parliament Square.
At an agreed time, hundreds of people simultaneously unveiled handwritten signs stating: “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action”.
Amnesty International had warned Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley that any arrests would be in breach of international human rights law.
Defend Our Juries says that they will “refer these gross violations of our democratic rights and freedoms to the High Court”.
Plans are already being made for further protests in September, around the time that Cooper’s ban’s legality will be tested by a Judicial Review to be held at the High Court.
The three women arrested from the Croydon-based protesters’ group are all members of Crystal Palace Friends of Palestine: Ita Gallagher, Sharon Rigby and Barbara Browne.
Gallagher was carried away from the sit-down protest by six of the Met’s finest.
“I’m 62, and never had so much as a parking ticket, and now I’m being classed as a terrorist,” Gallagher told Inside Croydon.
Gallagher posted on social media: “I was arrested, along with my two friends Barbara and Sharon under Section 13 of the Terrorism Act 2000.
“Our crime was holding up cardboard signs in Parliament Square opposing the genocide being committed in Gaza and the proscription of Palestine Action, a non-violent direct action group.
“Our government has a legal obligation to prevent genocide. Instead of arresting concerned elderly citizens, the Met should be nicking Keir Starmer, David Lammy and Yvette Cooper who are up to their eyeballs in complicity in Israel’s slaughter of the Palestinian people.
“We will not be silent and we will not comply with their unjust laws. Free Palestine.”
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In their enthusiasm to be America and Trump’s lapdog and blindly support Israel regardless of what they do to everyone else in the Middle East, the UK government are eventually going to be forced into an embarrassing climb-down, if they persist in enforcing this ridiculous “anti-terrorism” legislation…….
The UK is turning into a fascist state. Since when was peaceful protest an arrest-able offence?
So the number of people arrested on Saturday exceeds the number arrested at the Poll Tax riots in 1990. We know what happened to the Poll Tax. Let’s hope Yvette Cooper’s ridiculous and authoritarian law meets the same fate.
Our Government and MPs should be ashamed. These are not terrorists – they are defending our basic rights. I salute them as I salute the suffragettes and climate protestors unjustly imprisoned
‘What a total f*up – what a bone-headed decision to ‘proscribe’ Palestine Action. This is as bad as Maggie’s Gerry Adams voice ban. No, it’s worse, because it plays into Hamas’ hands.
I am so sorry for these aged and infirm Croydonians who only want to do what’s right. But, ffs, where is the appalling Alistair Campbell when you need him? This would never, never, have happened on his watch.
Speaking as a pensioner myself, it seems to me that these old fossils are desperate to prove that they are still relevant in some way. They are not.