More than 2,350 people have been arrested since the British government banned the direct-action group Palestine Action earlier this year, including over 250 detained during peaceful protests this month alone. Since the proscription in July, people across the country have mobilized against the government’s repression of Palestine solidarity, intensifying their activities ahead of a legal review of the ban scheduled to begin on Wednesday, November 26.

Between November 18 and 29, sign-holding protests are expected in 18 locations across Britain. Several spots in London were chosen for their relevance to the crackdown on Palestine Action and related attacks on free expression, the network Defend Our Juries explained in its announcement.

Read more: British parliament votes to ban Palestine Action despite public outcry

As part of the wave of action, about 50 activists gathered near the Home Office in London on Monday. “The Home Office is the office of state where former Home Secretary Yvette Cooper made her ill-fated decision to proscribe Palestine Action after pressure arms companies and lobbyists for Israel, despite warnings that the move would backfire, deep concerns amongst civil servants, international experts, human rights observers and civil society,” Defend Our Juries stated.

“I will be sign-holding outside the Home Office because I am appalled at the conduct of the government of the country I served for decades,” said one of the participants, 75-year-old retired army officer Chris Romberg, ahead of the protest. “They remain complicit in the genocide in Palestine that continues the sham ‘ceasefire.’ This is shameful and must be resisted.”

Ban’s impact matches earlier warnings

The decision to ban Palestine Action, whose activists organized to disrupt weapons deliveries to Israel and obstruct operations of the company Elbit Systems, was heavily disputed from the very beginning. Human rights organizations, legal experts, and UN rapporteurs warned Keir Starmer’s administration that designating the group as a terrorist organization would have a chilling effect on freedom of expression and undermine basic civil liberties. In a letter to the British government from September, five UN Special Rapporteurs wrote that the “proscription appears to have resulted in precisely the violations of human rights that we predicted in the [earlier] communication would occur.”

But implementing the ban has not gone without complications. On several occasions, police forces have been overwhelmed by the number of people they would be required to arrest. In some parts, specifically the North of Ireland and Scotland, police made arrests sporadically. In contrast, London’s Metropolitan Police upheld the ban with zeal but still struggled with capacity. “Our wave of action has shown that the proscription is both unnecessary and unenforceable in Scotland, the North of Ireland, and in towns and cities across the UK,” Defend Our Juries stated.

The protests are not only demanding the de-proscription of Palestine Action, but also expressing solidarity with Palestinians still facing occupation and genocide, and with dozens of UK-based activists imprisoned without trial for months. In early November, several of these prisoners launched a rolling hunger strike, with more joining on a regular basis. The campaign Prisoners for Palestine said that the strike could become “the largest coordinated prisoners’ hunger strike since the 1981 Irish hunger strike led by Bobby Sands.”

De-proscription could void charges against activists

Meanwhile, Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori confirmed that a judicial review will begin on November 26 and is expected to conclude on December 2, despite government attempts to derail the process. If the review leads to a lifting of the ban on Palestine Action, the arrests made under the proscription since July could be declared unlawful and effectively voided, representing a major victory for the right to protest, Mutahir Ahmed of the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians told Novara Media.

A sign-holding action will also take place on the first day of the review. “The chorus of condemnation against the ban continues to grow, as does the number of principled people standing up against the government’s authoritarian overreach,” Defend Our Juries said in an earlier announcement. “These actions will also, once again, be in solidarity with the people of Gaza and the West Bank. Both Conservative and Labour governments have been shamefully complicit in the horrors unfolding in Palestine, and the use of counter-terrorism legislation to silence their critics must end now.”

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