A just decision

 The High Court has ruled the Palestine Action ban unlawful.Three judges led by Dame Victoria Sharp, president of the King’s Bench Division, concluded that the decision to ban the group was unlawful. However, the ban will remain temporarily in place to allow the government time to appeal.
On 5th July last year membership of or public support for the Palestine Action campaign became a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison. The pro-Palestinian direct action network was placed on the list of proscribed organisations, categorising it alongside internationally recognised ‘terrorist’ groups.
Over 2,700 people have been arrested since the ban took effect, most under section 13 of the Terrorism Act. More than 500 individuals, including members of the clergy, pensioners and military veterans, have been charged.
The court upheld the challenge on two of four grounds. Judges found that the proscription represented “a very significant interference” with the rights to freedom of speech, peaceful assembly, and association. They also ruled that the decision of the then Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, was inconsistent with her own stated policy.
Though Dame Victoria Sharp described Palestine Action as an organisation “that promotes its political cause through criminality and encouragement of criminality” she said that “the court considered that the proscription of Palestine Action was disproportionate. A very small number of Palestine Action’s activities amounted to acts of terrorism within the definition of section 1 of the 2000 Act.
“For these, and for Palestine Action’s other criminal activities, the general criminal law remains available. The nature and scale of Palestine Action’s activities falling within the definition of terrorism had not yet reached the level, scale, and persistence to warrant proscription” .
Or as Jeremy Corbyn put it: “we knew the proscription of Palestine Action was absurd and immoral. Now, we know it was unlawful too. Today’s ruling is a vindication for all those who had the courage to oppose genocide – and a day of shame for those in our government who enabled it”.
The judgement resolutely rebuffs the Starmer government’s attempts to criminalise political dissent and activism aimed at stopping material support for genocide. This is a historic ruling. For the first time an organisation banned under the Terrorism Act has successfully challenged its proscription in court.
Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori said this was a monumental victory.  “We were banned because Palestine Action’s disruption of Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer, Elbit Systems, cost the corporation millions of pounds in profits and to lose out on multibillion-pound contracts.
“We’ve used the same tactics as direct action organisations throughout history, including anti-war groups Keir Starmer defended in court, and the government acknowledged in these legal proceedings that this ban was based on property damage, not violence against people. Banning Palestine Action was always about appeasing pro-Israel lobby groups and weapons manufacturers, and nothing to do with terrorism”.
The ruling, and the court victories of the previous weeks in the Filton cases, show that the Government’s actions were not only immoral but unlawful.
We call for the dropping of all charges against those who have been linked to this unlawful proscription and other cases of protest against British complicity in Israel’s genocide, including the organisers of the national marches for Palestine facing criminal charges. 
We call for the resignation of police commissioner Mark Rowley, as well as former Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and current Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood. And above all, we call for the resignation of the head of the whole rotting edifice, Sir Keir Starmer. 

A walk in the garden

The problem that most incorrigible liars have is their inability to distinguish reality from their own fantasies. Boris Johnson admits he was at a Downing Street lockdown garden party and gives grovelling apology but still seems unaware that the game’s up for his premiership.
    But this isn’t about the genuine wave of outrage at the latest revelations about parties in Downing Street while the rest of us were living under the Covid lockdown regime. Nor is it really about lying in Parliament though this is, to be sure, frowned on by the grandees on both sides of the House, as it gives them all a bad name.
    What it really boils down to is the fact that the key players amongst the ruling class within the corridors of power have no further use for Boris Johnson. He’s incapable of restoring the “special relationship” with US imperialism let alone building a post-Brexit working understanding with Franco-German imperialism. His antics have become an embarrassment and he’s an electoral liability that needs to be replaced before the next general election. Even Sir Keir Starmer is calling on Johnson to go and it’s not often that he gets things right.
    But as usual Starmer is incapable of exploiting the political crisis for Labour’s benefit. Though Labour is ahead, for once, in the opinion polls this is only down to Tory disaffection with their own leader rather than any genuine swing to Labour. No one knows what Starmer stands for apart from supporting Israel and loathing the Corbynistas.
    Johnson clearly is on hjs way out but there’s plenty of leading Tory wannabees ready and able to take Johnson’s place to lead their party into the next election. Starmer also needs to go but who is going to replace him?

Street protests work

The Israeli Elbit arms factory in Oldham has closed following a sustained campaign by Palestine Action that has cost the company millions of pounds worth of damages. While Elbit simply say they’ve sold the plant as part of their restructuring strategy in the United Kingdom the Palestine campaigners say it was their prolonged campaign that forced their hand.
    The Elbit Ferranti factory in Oldham is one of ten owned by Elbit in the UK. A majority of it was sold to British firm TT Electronics for £9 million.The Elbit Group makes drones and it is responsible for 80 percent of Israel’s military drones. The Israeli company’s products have been used to target Palestinians in Gaza and equip Israel’s apartheid wall with surveillance technology.
    Over the past 18 months Palestine Action supporters have blockaded the plant sprayed the premises with blood-red paint, smashed windows and occupied the entry to the factory. Some 36 people have been arrested but no one has been charged with a crime or prosecuted yet.
    This sort of direct action, which is a stage up from sit-down protests, requires the sort of agility and fitness needed to scale buildings and protest in all weathers. Some of us may not be up for this sort of robust protest but we can all support the view of the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network that said this "victory speaks to the successful nature of strong direct action to impose a meaningful and material cost upon the profiteers of the colonisation of Palestine and Israeli war crimes against the Palestinian people".