Met chief shocked by planned Palestine Action protest

The Metropolitan Police chief has said he is "shocked and frustrated" at a planned protest in support of Palestine Action in London on Monday.

Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said while the right to protest is essential, "actions in support of such a group go beyond what most would see as legitimate protest".

It comes as the home secretary is understood to be preparing a written statement to put before Parliament on Monday to proscribe the group, effectively branding it a terrorist organisation.

On Friday, Palestine Action activists broke into RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire and sprayed two military planes with red paint in protest of the UKs support of Israel over the war in Gaza.

The planned protest in central London is supported by 35 groups including various other pro-Palestinian groups, the Stop the War Coalition, Cage and Muslim Engagement and Development (MEND).

Describing Palestine Action as an "organised extremist criminal group," Sir Mark said that until the organisation is proscribed, the Met had no legal power to prevent the protest taking place.

"We do, however, have the power to impose conditions on it to prevent disorder, damage, and serious disruption to the community," he added, saying "breaches of the law will be dealt with robustly".

On Monday Palestine Action confirmed the location of the protest would be moved from outside the Houses of Parliament to Trafalgar Square, due to new rules imposed by the Metropolitan Police.

Under Public Order Act conditions announced by the Met on Sunday, the protest cannot take place within the "exclusion zone" covering much of Westminster and stretching from Millbank to Whitehall.

The conditions also stated that the protest can only take place between 12:00 and 15:00.

In an earlier post on social media, Palestine Action said "the political establishment rush to call us terrorists, whilst they enact the worst crimes against humanity".

One of the groups members, Saeed Taji Farouky, told the BBC on Saturday that government plans to proscribe the group were "absurd".

He said the move "rips apart the very basic concepts of British democracy and the rule of law" and added: "Its something everyone should be terrified about."

Palestine Action has engaged in activities that have predominantly targeted arms companies since the start of the current war in Gaza, with the group claiming responsibility in May for the daubing of a US military plane in Ireland.

Mr Farouky said the groups "whole reason for being is to break the material supply chain to genocide" and said Fridays incident was an "escalation in tactics because the genocide has escalated".

Israel has strongly denied allegations of genocide relating to the ongoing war in Gaza.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer described the incident at RAF Brize Norton as "disgraceful". Counter-terrorism police are investigating the break-in at the base.

The move to ban Palestine Action was welcomed by some in Westminster, including former Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who said it was "absolutely the correct decision".

Others have reacted critically, including independent MP Zarah Sultana, who recalled protests against the 2003 war in Iraq: "A million people marched against the illegal war in Iraq and they were right. Now the same script is playing out again."

Amnesty International UK said on Friday that it was "deeply concerned at the use of counter-terrorism powers to target protests".

Human rights activist and Labour peer Baroness Shami Chakrabarti said she shared the views of Amnesty International that proscribing the group would be a "serious step" and could be "an escalation too far".

She told BBC Radio 4s Today programme she was concerned that anybody loosely associated with the group, including those who attend meetings or support the organisation, could face criminal charges if it is proscribed.

Regular protests related to the war in Gaza have been held in London since Israel began a military campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 55,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then, including more than 15,000 children, according to the territorys Hamas-run health ministry.

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