Pro-Palestinian groups announce ‘siege' on Labour MPs
The Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) has sent an eight-page booklet of instructions to 'solidarity groups' across the UK to take part in a national day of action against the Labour Party for its 'partnership in Israel's genocide on Gaza'.
The document, titled 'Siege on Labour', sets out tactics for how supporters should target the offices of their local MPs, their regional Labour Party headquarters and Labour councillors. It says that now is an 'opportune moment' to 'exacerbate the political crisis in the party' after Sir Keir Starmer's announcement that Britain will recognise a Palestinian state.
The document, seen by The Times, dismisses that announcement as 'meagre', arguing that recognition will be only of 'the puppet regime of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank'.
In a set of four demands, it says the government must go significantly further. It also demands that David Lammy, the foreign secretary, be immediately sacked and tried as a war criminal atthe Hague.
The document vows to make 'Zionism a political crisis for the political class in this country' and calls on its supporters to 'identify and target their weakest pressure points'.
Labour MPs, peers and groups campaigning against antisemitism have condemned the plans as a sinister attempt to intimidate elected politicians and their staff, and called on the police to protect them.
Luke Akehurst, the Labour MP for North Durham, said: 'These intimidation tactics targeting our offices and staff are completely unacceptable. Harassment by threatening a 'siege' towards elected representatives and their hardworking caseworkers — who serve all constituents in their public service — crosses every line of democratic debate.
'Threats like these disrupt democracy by preventing constituents from being able to safely access their MP — which is everybody's right.
'This bullying does nothing to help Palestinians or Israelis and only serves to undermine the constructive dialogue needed to advance peace. MPs will not be intimidated into abandoning our principled approach to this complex issue.'
The PYM is an international group of pro-Palestinian young people who played a key part in the campus protests that targeted universities across the United States last year. The Anti-Defamation League, an international non-governmental organisation founded to combat antisemitism, has warned that the PYM has expressed support for terrorism, including the Hamas-led attacks in Israel on October 7, 2023.
Hamas is a proscribed terror group in the UK. Support for it is illegal and carried a maximum of punishment of 14 years in prison.
PYM's members have praised as 'martyrs' those who have died in the conflict with Israel. The PYM said it was 'time for us to escalate' to take advantage of public opinion and the establishment of Jeremy Corbyn's new left-wing party.
It said: 'The Labour Party is under immense pressure from the public, the media and from their voting base (with the announcement of the new left party) to take a stronger stance on Gaza.'
It set out four demands for its 'siege' on Labour politicians and officials, including for Lammy to be tried. Its other demands are a full two-way arms embargo on Israel; an end to RAF reconnaissance surveillance flights over Gaza, which the it claims are 'gathering intelligence for the Israeli Defence Forces'; and for the British government to impose more sanctions and pressure other United Nations countries to do the same to force Israel to allow aid into Gaza.
The document says: 'If the Labour Party is committed to facilitating the siege on Gaza, we, the people, declare a Siege On Labour.'
The 'toolkit' includes tactics on staging sit-ins, pickets and rallies, and advice on how to 'mobilise widely'. It also suggests 'key messages' to print on posters for bus shelters and buildings and to post on social media. It advises supporters on how to behave after being arrested, instructing them to ignore police officers because 'there is no such thing as a friendly chat with a police officer'.
It adds: 'Targeting Labour offices across the country allows us to take mass, co-ordinated, national action against a common target that is directly complicit in the genocide and wields power to grant our demands.'
• Undercover with Palestine Action: 'Damage as much as possible'
Alex Hearn, the co-director of Labour Against Antisemitism, said the PYM's demands showed that the government could never satisfy the more extreme pro-Palestinian groups. 'This sinister call to escalate and lay siege to Labour Party offices shows that despite the drive to recognise a Palestinian state, there is no pleasing extremists,' he said.
'Dismissing the Palestinian Authority as a puppet regime reveals the pro-Hamas leanings of this group, whose key messages amount to nothing more than disinformation. The danger of appeasement has been exposed.'
Lord Walney, a cross-bench peer and the government's former adviser on political violence, said: 'Calling for a 'siege' is designed to intimidate MPs and is totally unacceptable. The threat level facing political representatives has increased greatly since the Gaza conflict began … the fact that the material refers to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank as a puppet state suggests sympathy with Hamas's objectives or foreign state influence.
'I hope my colleagues will be vigilant and police forces will appropriately enforce the boundary between legitimate protest and criminal intimidation.'
The PYM also accuses the Labour Party and the government of being 'complicit in the massacres in Gaza' through trade, intelligence-sharing and diplomatic relationship with Israel.
The PYM has been approached for comment. The Labour Party declined to comment and said it would not share any information on security advice given to MPs and staff.
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