LONDON: A peer with the UK’s ruling Labour Party has demanded that government ministers do “much more” to explain why Palestine Action was banned as a terrorist organization.
Harriet Harman, the party’s former deputy leader, was speaking after the latest demonstration in London in support of Palestine Action, which saw around 500 people detained.
She told the Sky News “Electoral Dysfunction” podcast that the government has a “number of incredibly important duties,” including upholding freedom of speech, and that it appears instead to be “arresting octogenarian vicars who are worried about the awful situation in Gaza.”
The government has to “support and uphold the right to free speech and the right of protest,” she said, adding: “People have felt so horrified. We all have about the devastating loss of life and suffering in Gaza. And so it’s right that people are allowed to protest.”
Palestine Action was proscribed in the UK under terrorism legislation after a series of incidents, including a break-in at a Royal Air Force base that saw red paint sprayed on two military aircraft in July.
“They’ve got to actually be much clearer in why Palestine Action is a terrorist group and that they’re justified in prescribing them and making them illegal,” Harman said.
