LONDON: Pensioner Marji Mansfield never imagined she would end up suspected of terrorism for protesting against the banning of a pro-Palestinian group.
But the British grandmother was arrested on July 5 for joining a demonstration in support of Palestine Action just days after it was added to the UK government’s list of proscribed organizations.
“It’s a terrible shock to be accused of potentially being a terrorist,” said Mansfield, 68, who described herself as a “proud grandmother” of seven.
She “was never politically interested,” the former banking consultant from the southern town of Chichester told AFP. “I just worked hard, raised my family, lived an ordinary life.”
In early July, the UK government banned Palestine Action under the UK’s Terrorism Act, after activists broke into an air force base in England and damaged two aircraft.
Since then, the campaign group Defend Our Juries has organized protests around the country to challenge the ban, described as “disproportionate” by the United Nations rights chief.
More than 200 people have been arrested, according to Tim Crosland, a member of Defend Our Juries. They risk prison sentences of up to 14 years.
A new demonstration in support of the group, which was founded in 2020, is planned on Saturday in London. Organizers expect at least 500 people to turn up, and police have warned all demonstrators could face arrest.
People “don’t know what the nature of this group is,” interior minister Yvette Cooper has said, claiming that “this is not a non-violent group.”
But Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori has launched a court bid to overturn the ban and a hearing is set for November.
Mansfield has long supported the Palestinian people, but the start of the current war, sparked by Hamas’s attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, galvanized her into action.
“When it started happening again ... it was the most horrible feeling, that children’s homes were being blown up, that their schools were being destroyed,” she said.
Hamas’s October 2023 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Israel’s subsequent campaign to eradicate the Palestinian militant group in Gaza has killed more than 60,000 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which are deemed reliable by the United Nations.
For Mansfield, the Palestine Action ban was the final straw, fueling her feelings that the government was silencing her political views.
The night before attending the July demonstration, Mansfield said she was “terrified.” But she did not change her mind.
Images on British media showed her being moved by several police officers after she refused to get up from the pavement. An 83-year-old woman was by her side.
Mansfield spent 12 hours in custody, and is now banned from parts of London, meaning she cannot visit some museums with her grandchildren as she would like to do.
“It was just ordinary people,” said Mansfield. “We came from all backgrounds ... we’re not terrorists.”
Alice Clark, a 49-year-old doctor, also does not regret attending the protest where she was arrested in London on July 19.
“Nobody wants to be arrested. I just feel that there’s a responsibility,” said Clark, who also accused the government of undermining “our civil liberties.”
Cooper said the ban on Palestine Action was “based on detailed security assessments and security advice.”
The ban says the group’s “methods have become more aggressive” by encouraging members to carry out attacks which have already caused millions of pounds in damage.
But Clark, a former volunteer for medical charity Doctors Without Borders, said she felt “growing disgust and horror” at the images of starving children in Gaza.
The 12 hours in custody after her arrest were a shock. If convicted, she risks losing her license to practice medicine.
“There were points where I was close to tears. But I think just remembering why I was doing it kind of helped me keep calm,” said Clark.
History student Zahra Ali, 18, was also arrested on July 19, before being released under supervision. None of the three women has been charged.
She is also appalled by the scenes from Gaza.
“The starvation in Gaza, it’s disgusting. And our government isn’t doing anything about that,” she told AFP.
Imagining herself in prison at 18 is “a big thing,” but “if people who are in their 80s can do it, then I can do it,” Ali said.
She also does not describe herself as an activist, but as “a normal person ... who decided that what our government is doing is wrong.”
UK pensioner, student arrested for backing Palestine Action
https://arab.news/ykh9k
UK pensioner, student arrested for backing Palestine Action
- Pensioner Marji Mansfield never imagined she would end up suspected of terrorism for protesting against the banning of a pro-Palestinian group
How decades of deforestation led to catastrophic Sumatra floods
- At least 1.4m hectares of forest in flood-affected provinces were lost to deforestation since 2016
- Indonesian officials vow to review permits, investigate companies suspected of worsening the disasters
JAKARTA: About a week after floods and landslides devastated three provinces in Indonesia’s Sumatra island, Rubama witnessed firsthand how the deluge left not only debris and rubble but also log after log of timber.
They were the first thing that she saw when she arrived in the Beutong Ateuh Banggalang district of Aceh, where at least two villages were wiped out by floodwaters.
“We saw these neatly cut logs moving down the river. Some were uprooted from the ground, but there are logs cut into specific sizes. This shows that the disaster in Aceh, in Sumatra, it’s all linked to illegal forestry practices,” Rubama, empowerment manager at Aceh-based environmental organization HAKA, told Arab News.
Monsoon rains exacerbated by a rare tropical storm caused flash floods and triggered landslides across Aceh, North Sumatra, and West Sumatra in late November, killing 969 people and injuring more than 5,000 as of Wednesday, as search efforts continue for 252 others who remain missing.
In the worst-hit areas, residents were cut off from power and communication for days, as floodwater destroyed bridges and torrents of mud from landslides blocked roads, hampering rescue efforts and aid delivery to isolated villages.
When access to the affected regions gradually improved and the scale of the disaster became clearer, clips of washed-up trunks and piles of timber crashing into residential areas circulated widely online, showing how the catastrophic nature of the storm was compounded by deforestation.
“This is real, we’re seeing the evidence today of what happens when a disaster strikes, how deforestation plays a major role in the aftermath,” Rubama said.
For decades, vast sections of Sumatra’s natural forest have been razed and converted for mining, palm oil plantations and pulpwood farms.
Around 1.4 million hectares of forest in Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra were lost to deforestation between 2016 and 2025 alone, according to Indonesian environmental group WALHI, citing operations by 631 permit-holding companies.
Deforestation in Sumatra stripped away natural defenses that once absorbed rainfall and stabilized soil, making the island more vulnerable to extreme weather, said Riandra Purba, executive director of WALHI’s chapter in North Sumatra.
Purba said the Sumatra floods should serve as a “serious warning” for the government to issue permits more carefully.
“Balancing natural resource management requires a sustainable approach. We must not sacrifice natural benefits for the financial benefit of a select few,” he told Arab News.
“(The government) must evaluate all the environmental policies in the region … (and) implement strict monitoring, including law enforcement that will create a deterrent effect to those who violate existing laws.”
In Batang Toru, one of the worst-hit areas in North Sumatra where seven companies operate, hundreds of hectares had been cleared for gold mining and energy projects, leaving slopes exposed and riverbeds choked with sediment.
When torrential rains hit last month, rivers in the area were swollen with runoff and timber, while villages were buried or swept away.
As public outrage grew in the wake of the Sumatra floods, Indonesian officials, including Environment Minister Hanif Faisol Nurofiq, have moved to review existing permits and investigate companies suspected of worsening the disaster.
“Our focus is to ensure whether company activities are influencing land stability and (increasing) risks of landslides or floods,” Nurofiq told Indonesian magazine Tempo on Saturday.
Sumatra’s natural forest cover stood at about 11.6 million hectares as of 2023, or about 24 percent of the island’s total area, falling short of the 30 to 33 percent forest coverage needed to maintain ecological balance.
The deadly floods and landslides in Sumatra also highlighted the urgency of disaster mitigation in Indonesia, especially amid the global climate crisis, said Kiki Taufik, forest campaigner at Greenpeace Indonesia.
Over two weeks since floods and landslides inundated communities in Sumatra, a few villages remain isolated and over 800,000 people are still displaced.
“This tropical cyclone, Senyar, in theory, experts said that it has a very low probability of forming near the equator, but what we have seen is that it happened, and this is caused by rapid global warming … which is triggering hydrometeorological disasters,” Taufik told Arab News.
“The government needs to give more attention, and even more budget allocation, to mitigate disaster risks … Prevention is much more important than (disaster) management, so this must be a priority for the government.”
