Protesters arrested hours after specific group banned as terrorist organisation
Palestine Action was banned as a terrorist group after a late-night legal bid to delay it failed. MPs overwhelmingly voted in favour of Home Secretary Yvette Cooper's decision to proscribe the protest group under the Terrorism Act 2000 on Wednesday and Lords have approved the move.
A group gathered in Parliament Square in London holding signs supporting the newly proscribed Palestine Action.
Leslie Tate, 76, a Green councillor from Hertfordshire, said: 'Palestine Action are not a violent organisation, and the proscription is wrong. You do know, of course, that they were prescribed by Parliament with two other groups involved – all three at once so that was a trick to make sure the Bill went through.
'The evidence from their actions that they've taken from the start of Palestine Action is that they all have been non-violent. This protest is necessary to defend our democracy, and this is the creeping edge of totalitarianism, frankly.
'We thought they (the police) would probably take pictures of people. It's the obvious thing to do, to photograph them, then they have their identity, rather than make arrests.'
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