Seven charged after protesters and police clash at Palestine Action rally

Yahoo

5 days ago

Seven people have been charged after protesters clashed with police at a demonstration in support of the soon-to-be banned group Palestine Action.
Officers made 13 arrests for offences including assaulting an emergency worker, obstructing a constable and breaching Public Order Act conditions, the Metropolitan Police said.
Of the others arrested at the Trafalgar Square march, one has been cautioned and the remainder either bailed or released under investigation, the force added.
'While the protest initially began in a peaceful manner, officers faced violence when they went into the crowd to speak to three individuals whose behaviour was arousing suspicion,' a Met Police spokesperson said.
'This sequence of events repeated itself on multiple occasions, with officers being surrounded on each occasion they tried to deal with an incident.'
The road at one corner of the square was completely blocked, with a line of police ready to stop the participants from leaving the area.
The protest had initially been planned to take place outside the Houses of Parliament, but the location was changed early on Monday morning when Scotland Yard imposed an exclusion zone.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said in a statement on Monday afternoon that she has decided to proscribe Palestine Action and will lay an order before Parliament next week which, if passed, will make membership and support for the protest group illegal.
Belonging to or expressing support for a proscribed organisation, along with a number of other actions, are criminal offences carrying a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
The decision comes after the group posted footage online showing two people inside the base at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire.
The clip shows one person riding an electric scooter up to an Airbus Voyager air-to-air refuelling tanker and appearing to spray paint into its jet engine.
After Monday's protest, Liam Mizrahi, 25, of no fixed address, was charged with a racially aggravated public order offence, and was remanded to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Tuesday.
Eleanor Simmonds, 31, also of no fixed address, was charged with assaulting an emergency worker and was bailed to appear at Croydon Magistrates' Court on July 25.
Lavina Richards, 37, of Elsdale Street, Hackney was charged with two counts of assaulting an emergency worker and was remanded to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Wednesday.
Bipasha Tahsin, 21, of Pinchin Street, Tower Hamlets was charged with assaulting an emergency worker. She was bailed to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on July 8.
Matthew Holbrook, 59, of Somerhill Road, Hove, Tom Jubert, 40, of Chippendale Street, Hackney, and Hafeza Choudhury, 28, of Berkeley Path, Luton, were charged with breaching Public Order Act conditions and were bailed to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on July 21.
A 31-year-old woman received a caution for assaulting an emergency worker.
Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said he was 'shocked' by Monday's planned protest and described Palestine Action as an 'organised extremist criminal group'.
It has staged a series of demonstrations in recent months, including spraying the London offices of Allianz Insurance with red paint over its alleged links to Israeli defence company Elbit, and vandalising US president Donald Trump's Turnberry golf course in South Ayrshire.
A group spokesman said they would be seeking a legal challenge to the 'unhinged reaction'.
A draft order will be laid in Parliament next Monday, and if approved after debates by MPs and peers, the ban could come into force by Friday.