As in a game rehearsed with the cat and mouse, the agents of the London Metropolitan Police have begun to arrest from 13.00 this Saturday (one more hour in peninsular Spain) to dozens of concentrated activists against the British Parliament.
On a sunny day, the hundreds of tourists who wore around Westminster were part of a strange landscape that mixed hundreds of police and hundreds of protesters with Palestinian flags. Many of the latter waited, in the esplanade of grass of the center of the square, to arrive the time agreed with white cards and markers in the hand.
One o’clock, marked the Big Ben watch, all congregates have begun to write the same slogan in their banners: I oppose the genocide. (I Oppose Genocide. I Support Palestine Action). Enough for the agents to have begun to arrest, and on many occasions to take in volandas, to all those who wielded the poster.
The Keir Starmer Labor Government has decided that, and all those who support it much more harder than those of a mere crime of damage to public or private property, or sabotage, are applied to its members, as has been attributed to the organization.
In mid -June, two of its activists crossed the safety metal fences of the Brize Norton military base, the largest in the United Kingdom, and led their electric motorcycles to two transport aircraft and refueling of Voyager Kc fuel. With the help of stuffed paint stones, the engines of the two aircraft stuffed red, and caused some damages in their structure with iron bars. Everything was conveniently recorded and disseminated in the networks.
It was the drop that filled the glass. Interior Minister Yvette Cooper, with the support of Starmer, gave the step to qualify the terrorist organization, for scandal of many Labor Deputies, Humanitarian Organizations and Voters of the Left.
“It is an absolute shame, and a watershed in British democracy. If they continue with this, it will be the end of democracy and freedom of expression in this country. It is that simple,” says David Nissen, 72, a 72 -year -old Jew, a Jew originally from London who has been part of the Jewish voice movement of Labor, and who firmly opposes the
The London police have mobilized about 3,000 agents for this weekend, many coming from outside the city. Some ultra -right groups plan to make demonstrations against hotels that give refuge to asylum seekers. But the act of protest that caused the most suspicious to the authorities was that of support to Palestine Action.
“Anyone who shows his support for Palestinian action must expect to be arrested. He would suggest again to people who consider the seriousness of the infraction. An arrest under the anti -terrorist law can have long -term consequences when traveling, seeking employment or requesting a loan,” the Chief Deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police had warned.
Despite the pressure campaign exercised, there have been hundreds of activists who have challenged the authorities. The agents have mounted a cord to surround them, and have proceeded with the arrests, which have reached almost 200.
“They have sabotaged some places, they have destroyed material and have broken windows. But they have not hurt anyone, and all these actions do not make them terrorists. And if I come here to say that already protest against the government, I risk a 12 -year sentence. This is a fucking madness,” Martin Drummond protest, one of the first activists to reach the Plaza del Parliament.
Many of them sat down, to protect themselves from the sun, under the statue of Mahatma Gandi, or that of the suffragist Millicent Garrett Fawcett, with its famous poster that displays the legend “the courage calls the courage everywhere.”
There was no face of terror in the activists who allowed themselves to behave for the security forces towards one of the vans parked around the square. “Shame, shame,” the protesters shouted to the police every time one of theirs was arrested and evicted. The agents tried to keep a poker face, but more than one was complicated to hide how unpleasant the task imposed by a labor government was carried out.
“The prohibition of Palestinian action has nothing to do with Palestine, nor does it affect the right to demonstrate in favor of the rights of the Palestinians. It only affects a small and specific organization whose activities do not reflect thousands of people throughout the country that continue to exercise their right to protest,” said a spokesman for the Interior Ministry to the increasing discomfort, among the ranks of the Labor Party displayed by the Starmer government.
Dozens of academics and intellectuals, among which are Naomi Klein or Angela Davis, have claimed Downing Street, through a public letter, which reverses their decision to qualify as terrorist the Palestine Action group.
