In September I sat in Parliament Square for seven hours holding a flimsy placard on which I’d scrawled the forbidden words, I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action. Arrested as the heat of the day was declining, I fell foul of the law for the first time in my long and otherwise unremarkable life.
This would be the first of five arrests for holding a placard bearing the same inscription. A sixth occasion, outside Woolwich Crown Court, displaying slightly modified wording though still expressing support for the outlawed group, failed to attract an arrest, when the police abandoned the hunt after having arrested a hundred or so placarders.
In the course of my arrests, I’ve been processed and locked up in three police-station cells – two in London and one in Birmingham. Experiences vary, but I’ve found police personnel in both cities to have been polite, friendly, almost apologetic. A fellow arrestee, when asked by her arresting officer if she would repeat the offence, replied ‘Probably.’ ‘Good for you!’ replied the policeman.
I have no doubt that the law against Palestine Action is a law that cries out for protest from anyone who considers themselves a patriotic Briton. Our country is facilitating a genocide and protecting the perpetrators, in both word and deed. Many of my compatriots feel the same compulsion to protest against this complicity by following the course of action that I am taking.
Indeed, the most encouraging thing about the whole experience is the bevy of young volunteers who greet you when you emerge from the police cell, offering you pizza, soft drinks and – most heartening of all – a round of applause.
Unfortunately, the government has engineered a judicial farce that ended with a ‘terrorist connection’ being added to the sentence of four activists for incapacitating drones destined for the killing fields of Gaza. So, the struggle for the soul of Britain – and, possibly, humanity itself – must continue.
John Garrett