Do the people being arrested for Palestine Action not know about the sledgehammer attack?

[noblegiraffe]

With 500-odd people having been arrested for expressing support for proscribed terrorist organisation Palestine Action, I'm just baffled as to why they are willing to get a criminal record which could bar them from travel to the USA and work in education for an organisation whose members attacked police officers with a sledgehammer.

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/disturbing-sledgehammer-attack-police-during-9463071

Regardless of whether this group should be proscribed as a terrorist organisation, surely no one should look at that and think 'yeah, that's a group I think should be allowed to continue to do its thing, attack a few more police officers with sledgehammers, that's the hill I'm willing to die on.'

Wouldn't you think 'I'm not sure if they should be proscribed as terrorists, but given the sledgehammer attack, I'm not going to turn up with banners in support and be arrested for them, I'll just get on with protesting the genocide instead because that's a better cause'.

So do they not know about the violence? Or do they not care and are willing to support violent organisations?

(note this is not a thread for debating Gaza, I want to talk about British people who are absolutely legally allowed to protest genocide but aren't allowed to support proscribed terrorist organisations - which is also not allowed on MN).

Apologies I thought you were the same person 🥴

And my answer to your question is, yes I believe from the info I saw circulating asking people to participate beforehand that a large proportion of people did know about the incidents you mention however they drew different conclusions/believe a different narrative about it to you

If and when these cases get to court we will hear more about the reasons why people participated but I really don't think the majority are going to plead that they had no idea about Palestine actions activities and now they know they totally agree with the group being proscribed by the government and feel a bit silly that they didn't check out Wikipedia or other sites more thoroughly

The UK literally just shook the hands of the former leader of Al Qaeda in Syria. So it's okay for British Politicians to support terrorism then? 😂😂😂

Oh I doubt anyone is thrilled about it and the word 'former' is doing an awful lot of heavy lifting but if we can help Syria improve on the situation under Assad then that is also beneficial to the UK. That's diplomacy.

Can you explain the different narrative where it is acceptable to commit GBH and ABH on police officers responding to a crime please?

If people want to genuinely discuss why HMG have taken a hard line with PA they need to widen their world view, look beyond Gaza and Bristol, GBH etc and look at the Brize attack.

The UK air to air refuelling tanker force is small (because..defence cuts). Those tankers we have are used to support patroling/defence of UK airspace.

In some circumstances reducing the number of tankers, even by two airframes, could hinder the RAFs ability to do that policing.

That will be the direct action that has really put PA in the security services' crosshairs...

The Telegraph had a story where they attended a PA training meeting where several other RAF bases were given as potential targets for attack. They weren't going to stop at those planes.

I’m not sure what we would be protesting our government about in terms of Sudan? The protests in Britain, and by Palestine Action are against our government and its involvement in genocide - the Sudan situation is awful but I’m not sure what protesting our government would of to improve it. Whereas the government need to know the strength of public opinion on their continuing to support Isreal.

No, absolutely not diplomacy. The President of Syria was not voted in. He self appointed himself.
The current President of Syria still has ties to Al Qaeda and atrocities being committed there as we speak. And yet the UK brazenly show their support and shake his hand? (And hand his party huge amounts of money) And, If 'former' was heavy lifting then how do the UK still regard Shamima Begun as a threat (She was a 'former' member of ISIS)
Politicians are very selective who they class as terrorists.

You're thinking of democracy. Diplomacy is shaking hands that you really don't want to shake for the sake of international relations and to mutual benefit.

Want to stop the boats? Starting in Syria isn't a terrible idea.

That’s great. You’re, presumably, an adult with the wherewithal to do that.
Late primary school aged children very often aren’t. (Many adults aren’t!)
OP of course said that she tries to steer her pupils towards fact-checking too with reliable sources. Who decides which of these sources are reliable? OP? I don’t know her from Eve, she could be steering her pupils towards any old batshit website.

I shall be appalled if I find out that Wiki is indeed an endorsed source of information approved by the DfE for use in schools.

(Wouldn’t wipe my bum on the DM, btw. Not sure about Guardian, tbh, haven’t read it in yonks, not sure where it stands these days).

Not sure why the use of Wiki has become the central issue for some (actually I am pretty sure) or is even of that much relevance...

Both the Bristol event and the Brize event were covered in the MSM, and including the much loved BBC who mentioned PA involvement.

If people went on the weekend march claiming ignorance of PAs methods in those two events they were either incurious, very naive or deliberately maintaining their ignorance of the less savoury side of the organisation.

Here's the Telegraph article I mentioned about future targets for Palestine Action

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/06/26/palestine-action-plans-strike-next-raf-bases/

"At the start of the online “direct action workshop”, an unidentified female activist told the group of around 50 potential recruits that they would be required to make “sacrifices” for the cause.
The participants were told they would be part of a new, sustained wave of attacks targeting military bases.
The organiser said that the proposed proscription was “draconian and dangerous” and Palestine Action would “continue to operate” even if designated as a terror group."

How many people are comfortable with repeated attacks by a group on our military bases? Does it make a difference if they are British?

I was just making the satellite point, since a pp refused to accept that information about Palestine Action on Wikipedia should be trusted, that Wiki is actually very good. Limited as all sources are, but still very good.

So I’m willing to accept that what’s said about PA on Wikipedia is likely to be substantially true.

Yes I'd agree with that, my comment was aimed elsewhere.

IMO Wiki is generally OK to very good, certainly if used as a primer of sorts..doesn't tell the whole story but it can give you the gist and point you in a suitable direction if you want to dig deeper.

@notimagain Yes... Unfortunately, that didn't stop the PP from subtly threatening OP's career over it, a new low by MN standards.

You don’t agree that The Telegraph is a somewhat politically biased publication, Noble?

Don’t be ridiculous.

Lucy letby and Harold shipman are not representative of NHS staff. Wayne Couszins is not representative for the police.

But the NHS doesn’t run training days on how to kill your patients where Palestine action do run training days on how to cause extensive criminal damage. Criminal damage is something they actively promote doing.

So these people have been charged but not convicted? Should you be discussing open court cases where youve already determined their guilt?

If you look at the Gov.uk link posted by a previous poster you will see that they also caused £1 million pounds worth of damage during an attack on a factory in Glasgow producing submarine parts. During that attack they threw pyrotechnics and smoke bombs into areas where staff had been evacuated.

I would say that at the very least they were reckless as to whether anyone would be injured.

I don't know enough about proscription to say whether the government are justified or not in proscribing them but they do seem prepared to use violence and have no concern if innocent people are hurt.

I’m finding it pretty funny tbh.

do they run courses on how to create criminal damage?