Palestine Action protests

Then how do you explain why the Global March to Gaza was going to the wrong place?

Alternatively "it's very obvious the GC/anti trans cause is routed in hatred of gay people/gender non conforming people. It's the same shit that existed around section 28 repackaged. Shame on the women on here who fell for it to appear moral. As further proof look to people like Matt Walsh/religious right who support the same cause."
It isn't always bad to draw lines/similarities between different causes. But you can't just decide you know people's thoughts in one case and therefore they are the same as another group of people you mind read earlier.

Someone with another stance to you could say "people arguing that Gender Critical women are being anti trans and therefore alsogay are THE SAME as people arguing that pro-palestine protesters are anti Israel and therefore anti Semitic". You can basically make any argument you want to fit your stance. You aren't really adding any new information or meaning.

I haven't seen silence around the other conflicts at all, there's lots of activism going on in the UK about conflicts in several regions - you could get involved easily if you want to look into it

Oh come off it...the obsession with Gaza is absolutely off the chart. It's old fashioned Jew hate spruced up a bit to appear palatable...yuk.

There's multiple videos by Konstantin Kisin and others on YT showing how ignorant people on the hate marches are. There's evidence out there, you just need to look for it

If people can't see the difference between supporting PA and supporting people's rights to criticise the government's classification of PA as a 'terrorist group', then we are getting into very difficult territory.

I might have misunderstood, but AFAIU I don't think it is illegal merely to criticise Parliament's decision to classify PA as a terrorist group.

You can do that while not being a supporter of PA – indeed you've just done so yourself.

So there's another difference people need to bear in mind.

So you assert, with zero evidence.

Yet quite a few had no idea what the river is called when they chant "from the river to the sea". Many have very little knowledge or awareness of some of the most basic facts in the long history of this conflict.

But the protestors have already been warned that support of a banned organisation is itself illegal. The police must act. This is not a game.

What a bizarre claim. Anyone with a primary school level education in geography, history, or RE knows where Palestine is.

Of course everyone with an active interest in the ongoing conflict can point to Palestine on a map.

I haven't seen silence around the other conflicts at all, there's lots of activism going on in the UK about conflicts in several regions - you could get involved easily if you want to look into it. I've seen fewer protests against our UK government about them given our government isn't arming anyone in Sudan for example or flying recon missions on behalf of anyone in the Congo or refusing to sanction Russia. Our government hasn't called protestors against any of those conflicts terrorists either or arresting elderly people some of whom are Holocaust survivors for simply holding a sign. This whataboutism that people mustn't care about any other conflict because they feel solidarity with Palestinians is tedious and if it's genuine confusion at why people in the UK would be protesting against this particular conflict so strongly simply reading the news would clear that up pretty quickly.

I'm also glad that it is being tested in court.

Which makes these protests even more stupid. "I'm not happy that Palestine Action has been proscribed" "ok, it's being properly looked into and may be overturned if unreasonable" "I'm going to get arrested anyway because why not".

NB Should add that I'm glad about the legal challenge because I will be happier if the ban is tested in court.

I'm not rooting for a specific result – I genuinely don't know what it should be. I'm well aware I don't have anything like full information.

By the way, this was how Parliament voted on the ban of Palestine Action and two other groups:

https://votes.parliament.uk/votes/commons/division/2078#ayes
Terrorism Act 2000 (Proscribed Organisations) (Amendment) Order 2025
Division 252: held on 2 July 2025 at 17:27
Ayes 385
Noes 26

No Conservatives or Reform voted against.

Re specific MPs it's quicker to list who voted against than for.

Members voting No
Green Party (4)
Berry, Siân
Chowns, Ellie
Denyer, Carla
Ramsay, Adrian

Independent (6)
Adam, Shockat
Begum, Apsana
Corbyn, Jeremy
Hussain, Mr Adnan
McDonnell, John
Sultana, Zarah

Labour (9)
Abbott, Ms Diane
Ali, Tahir
Burgon, Richard
Byrne, Ian
Hussain, Imran
Johnson, Kim
Lewis, Clive
Morris, Grahame
Whittome, Nadia

Liberal Democrat (6)
George, Andrew
Gordon, Tom
Munt, Tessa
Perteghella, Manuela
Pinkerton, Dr Al
Taylor, Luke

Social Democratic & Labour Party (1)
Eastwood, Colum

Because it's being carried about be Jewish people who live in Israel.

People are very quiet about the Chinese Uhghurs, the situation in Burma etc.

It is anti-Semitic, and many of those "protesters" have come locally to me to harass Jewish people who have no affiliation to Israel.

People noting the similarities with the tactics of Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil might also want to note that it is the same people involved in both.

One of the co-founders of Palestine Action was also one of those eejits who glued themselves to a tube train for Extinction Rebellion and thus stopped people using public transport when actually that's more environmentally friendly.

The female vicar who has been arrested for supporting Palestine Action is currently awaiting trial for attacking a rare copy of Magna Carta with a hammer for Just Stop Oil.

Basically career agitators and vandals who flit from cause to cause. One wonders if climate change has actually been solved given they've abandoned it (much like Greta appears to) in favour of Gaza.

Yes. I'm glad there is a hearing set for November for Palestine Action to challenge the ban.

I would guess a lot will depend on whether the current serious prosecutions to which Cooper referred are completed by then, and the reporting restrictions can be lifted.

If the court upholds the ban but still can't yet tell the rest of us why, that would be slightly reassuring that Parliament has called it right, but still frustrating.

I wonder what date the trials in question are likely to finish?

I'm amazed at the strength of feeling concentrated on just one of the 100+ armed conflicts going on around the world, and the near-silence about the 99+ others.

What X factor has this armed conflict that all the others lack? Why do all the other starving, wounded, displaced and killed victims around the world not register when it comes to organising demonstrations?

Underlying all of these issues are tribalism, and our tendencies to take sides - very human, and unavoidable, and probably a sensible evolved response to checking for safety and conserving mental resources etc.

But tribalism has a lot of risks, and we need to be constantly aware of them and correct when necessary.

Yep.

Freedom of speech doesn't mean supporting just the speech you agree with.

It's an unpleasant fight to have, or thing to defend because really often you are forced to defend stuff you find stupid, horrible, offensive or wrong.

But the principle is so important that we have to keep doing so.

The very instant we start to think that speech we disagree with should be oppressed on the basis we don't like it, we are undermining our own position and our own freedoms.

I suppose in some ways it's got a similar discomforting factor as safeguarding, because that also goes against some deeply ingrained behaviour.

In safeguarding, we assume the worst of everyone, and keep doing so. This isn't easy for humans to do. We naturally want to give people the benefit of the doubt, and trust certain people. It's mentally taxing to keep suspecting people, running through worst case scenarios, etc. But it's essential to maintain the underlying principle, which is to guard against laxity in safeguarding/loopholes/sacred castes, etc.

When it comes to freedom of speech, I think we have to be doubly careful when looking at groups whose speech we disagree with, because the natural inclination is to say 'shut them up'.

And then of course there's the risk of over correcting.

All of this is complex and not easy, but it's all essential to a functioning democracy, and none of it ever ends. There is never a point you can become complacent about freedom of speech, or safeguarding, it's all a constant, ongoing, ever evolving process.

If people can't see the difference between supporting PA and supporting people's rights to criticise the government's classification of PA as a 'terrorist group', then we are getting into very difficult territory.

(I know very little about PA, and I expect I would disagree with most of their policies/ideas.)

But we need to be able to discuss how the government makes these kinds of decisions. It is a difficult and contentious area, but shutting down all discussion of it and issues surrounding it is never a good idea.

Otherwise we risk the government deciding willy nilly to proscribe certain groups and label them terrorist, and we are not even able to ask questions, disagree, or argue that decision.

No, but protesting the classifying of PA as a terrorist group IS.

Protest the war in Gaza if you want. There is absolutely no need to support dodgy organisations like PA.

Violence, intimidation and destruction is not freedom of speech.

Indeed, there is a crossover....as far as I'm concerned, the trans cause is rooted in misogyny and the pro Palestine stuff is rooted in anti Semitism...the usual shit just repackaged in an attempt to appear moral.

Shame on those who have fallen for it

It is. Freedom of speech underpins all of our other freedoms.

The government have handled this badly.