The Metropolitan Police Commissioner has slammed Palestine Action as an “extremist criminal group” ahead of a protest in support of the group, which is expected to be banned by the government under counter-terror laws.
Sir Mark Rowley said he was “shocked and frustrated” by the expected protest in Westminster after Palestine Action targeted RAF Brize Norton and damaged two military aircraft last week.
The Prime Minister described the attack on Brize Norton as “disgraceful”.
Yvette Cooper will deliver a ministerial statement later today about plans to make it illegal for individuals to become members of the group. The new legislation will be debated and voted on by MPs.
Palestine Action supporters have planned a protest in Westminster against the proposed proscription. The Met Commissioner said that until the government bans Palestine Action, the force had “no power in law” to block the protest.
Referring to Palestine Action members who are alleged to have caused “millions of pounds of criminal damage, assaulted a police officer with a sledgehammer and last week claimed responsibility for breaking into an airbase and damaging aircraft”, Rowley said the force had laid out the “operational basis” to proscribe the group.
“Multiple members of the group are awaiting trial accused of serious offences,” he went on.
Last month, Palestine Action claimed responsibility for vandalising a shop in Stamford Hill, which the Met Police treated as “racially aggravated criminal damage” .
While he acknowledged the right to protest as “essential”, Rowley suggested that "actions in support of such a group go beyond what most would see as legitimate protest.
“Thousands of people attend protests of a different character every week without clashing with the law or with the police. The criminal charges faced by Palestine Action members, in contrast, represent a form of extremism that I believe the overwhelming majority of the public rejects.”
He outlined measures in place for today’s protest to “prevent disorder, damage, and serious disruption to the community, including to Parliament, to elected representatives moving around Westminster and to ordinary Londoners.
“Breaches of the law will be dealt with robustly.”
The Met stated that the protest could start before midday on Monday and had to end by 3pm, and could not take place within an exclusion area around Parliament.
Announcing plans for the protest against proscription, a post shared on social media by Palestine Action said: “For breaking the tools used to commit genocide, the British government plans to proscribe the group.
“A rushed banning of a protest group is unprecedented, draconian, and is an attack on the movement as a whole. Mobilise with us en masse to show solidarity and stand against the British state's attempt to repress us all!”
Cage International also shared a post calling for a protest against proscription.
