As-salamu alaykum - UK pro-Palestine groups, including many Muslim communities, say they’ll keep protesting despite new limits
As-salamu alaykum. Pro-Palestine groups in the UK - with many Muslim communities among them - have reacted angrily to government plans to give police more power to limit repeated demonstrations, and they say they’ll keep organising, Insha'Allah.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood recently said police could take into account the “cumulative impact” of past events when setting tougher conditions on protests. Campaigners call the move a draconian attack on the right to protest and worry it could be used to stop people from coming back to the streets.
Ben Jamal, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said the change is a serious blow to protest rights and warned it could be used to argue “you have already protested once, so you can’t protest again.” He added that police have previously used similar arguments to block routes near synagogues, and that the Palestine Coalition - a group of organisations behind recent marches - is ready to challenge the new rules in court.
Organisers point out that the mass demonstrations over the last two years were extraordinary in scale, drawing numbers not seen since movements like the suffragettes, and that they were a response to a unique situation being widely livestreamed and debated. Israel denies accusations of genocide in Gaza.
Tens of thousands marched through central London recently, the day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect. The PSC has said more actions are planned, including a large student walkout later this week and a boycott of Barclays next Saturday.
Mahmood has said the changes wouldn’t be a total ban on protesting but would allow restrictions and tougher conditions, arguing that repeated big demonstrations have caused “considerable fear” in the Jewish community. No date has been set for any new rules, though the review of protest laws is also looking at powers to ban demos outright.
Lindsey German of the Stop the War Coalition questioned the logic of the “cumulative impact” idea, saying demonstrations are supposed to have impact and keep an issue in the public eye. She said they expect to keep protesting over the coming months and are worried it’ll get harder to do so in London - a worry many campaigners share.
We’ll see how this review develops, but organisers say they’ll keep mobilising and using legal routes where needed, and many in the Muslim community say they’ll stand in solidarity, Insha'Allah.
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