FIVE MEMBERS of the Radnor Palestine Links group, who have been organising fortnightly demonstrations in Knighton, Presteigne, Craven Arms and Ludlow over the last 23 months were arrested under the Terrorist Act last Saturday.
They sat down with over one and half thousand other peaceful protesters in Parliament Square on Saturday (September 6) as part of the Lift the Ban protests. The Government has unleashed a wave of repression against people peacefully holding cardboard signs challenging the ban on Palestine Action and opposing the genocide in Gaza. But this has met an even bigger and more powerful force – the defiance of thousands prepared to risk arrest and charges in order to condemn genocide and repression. The protesters have recognised that Palestine Action has been acting lawfully to nonviolently disable the Israeli war machine set up in the UK.
Michael Callaghan, grandfather of four from Bleddfa, 71 years of age, said: “I joined the protest because I cannot stand by while our government twists truth in order to ban a group whose entire aim was to prevent that same government from supporting the genocidal attack on Gaza by Israel.”
Camilla Saunders, musician and composer from Knucklas, 72 years of age, said: “I am sickened by my government’s complicity in genocide.
“I mourn the deaths of all life, especially of those poets, artists and musicians whose creativity and cultures have been despised and destroyed in Gaza and the West Bank.”
Mike Layward, artist from Leintwardine, 73 years of age, said: “We all have to do what we can to help stop the genocide in Gaza.”
Angie Zelter, peace and environmental campaigner from Knucklas, 74 years of age, said: “Defying the monstrous proscription of a peaceful disarmament group who have managed to close down some of the Israeli Elbit factories in the UK is necessary and legitimate.
“Palestine Action were only doing what the government itself should have been doing to stop the genocide.”
Tod, a woodworker from Knighton, 76 years of age, said: “I think we all struggle to believe that our government is really supporting genocide but the ridiculous way they are using their anti-terrorism law really brings it home.”
Nearly 900 people were arrested in Parliament Square in London on Saturday, but hundreds more took part in the action and walked away free as the police could not arrest them all and many elderly protesters went home after sitting in the square for hours without arrest. This brings the total of those arrested since the proscription was declared on July 5 to around 1,600.
In Scotland, one hundred defied the ban on Saturday, surrounded by a “human wall” of solidarity from the 2,500-strong demonstration organised by Stop the War Scotland and trade unionists. Scotland has finally acted in accordance with international law and the police there refused to arrest any of them as well as now stopping their deals with Israeli arms manufacturers.
People are already signing up for an even bigger act of resistance in October.
Angie Zelter’s latest book can be seen by clicking here.
