This is one of a series of posts about my experience of the Defend our Juries (DoJ) 'Lift the Ban' campaign. See my Lift the Ban page for more.
Note: This is work in progress and I shall be coming back to edit it from time to time.
I was arrested because I wrote 'I support Palestine Action' on a placard in Parliament Square. It was part of the Lift the Ban campaign organised by the organisation Defend our Juries aimed at getting the proscription of the group known as Palestine Action overturned. Part of the defence in court for those of us arrested is likely to be that writing 'I support Palestine Action' did not necessarily mean that we actually 'support' Palestine Action. We wrote those words in order to get the prosciption overturned, not to 'support' the group.
I need to pause to emphasise at this point that what I'm writing here is entirely my personal position. I've not even discussed it with other defendents.
As suggested by the use of the inverted commas earlier, it comes down to what you mean by the word 'support'. What does it mean to support something or someone? This is not a trivial question, as David Renton argued in "What is the meaning of support?" in the London Review of Books (Renton 2025) earlier this year. In what follows I try to work-through what I meant when I wrote 'I support Palestine Action' - starting with an analogy from football.
All my friends know that I support the MK Dons. That is not problematic. Well, for some people it is a problem that I support this particular football team, but there is no confusion about what I mean when I say it. I'm a season ticket holder and attend as many matches as I can. I'm happy when they win and sad when they lose. So far so good, but now suppose in the neighbouring town of Northampton an extreme council comes to power which for some ideological reason outlaws the playing of team games, including football. Not only is Northampton Town Football Club prevented from playing or practicing, but anyone known to be fan of the club is at risk. Northampton Town Football Club Supporters Trust start a campaign to protect the club and call on the support of football fans everywhere to show solidarity. Under these circumstances I might travel to Northampton and display a banner saying 'I support Northampton Town' - and I would support Northampton Town for the purposes of the campaign. But noone would think this meant I was now a fan of Northampton Town instead of the MK Dons. If the ban is lifted by Northampton Council you won't find me on the terraces of Sixfields Stadium singing the praises of Northampton Town. When I said 'I support Northampton Town' I was saying that I support football in general and specifically I support the right of Northampton to have a football club.
And so, and so much more deadly seriously, it is with my support of Palestine Action. I am not a member of Palestine Action (if they even have membership as such) and have never taken part in any of their direct action. I don't have any plans to do so even if they are de-proscribed. But I don't believe it is a terrorist organisation (see below). I believe that its proscription is a significant, a dangerous, over-reach of terrorist legislation. I believe that direct action is a legitimate form of protest. If there is criminal damage as a result of direct action then it should prosecuted as such - those taking part in direct action are aware of that and should be (I assume are) prepared to take the consequences. But they should not be treated as terrorists. That is what I support about Palestine Action.
But there's more to take from the football analogy. I chose football (rather than, say, cricket) for the analogy because I am a football fan and I can empathize with the Northampton Town fans. It is about the cause as well as the method. So it is not just the general principle that direct action should be legitimate form of protest, I also, very strongly, support the cause for which Palestine Action are taking direct action. Like them, I believe that Britain, my country, is complicit in war crimes. As I said when I entered my plea:
[I believe that] my country has been complicit in war crimes, including the slaughter of more than 20 thousand children, some of them buried alive in the rubble. And not only that, the government is trying to suppress opposition to the genocide. I cannot stay silent. I need to act according to my conscience, and so I plead not guilty.
I believe that the proscription of Palestine Action is not being done to prevent terrorism - I don't believe the direct actions of the group is terrorism - I believe it is a political act to suppress opposition.
Next question: how do I know that PA are not using terrorism, and if they were, would I still have taken part in the action and written those words? Starting with the second question with a simple answer: no, if I believed PA was a terrorist organisation I would not done what I did. A simple answer, but even that needs to be qualified by questioning what you mean by terrorism. Mr Justice Chamberlain accepted in the injunction proceedings that Palestine Action is not a terror organisation in the ‘colloquial’ meaning of the term (Renton 2025) and it is that colloquial meaning of the term that I have in mind. Or, indeed, the Concise Oxford Dictionary (7th Edition, 1982) definition of terrorist: One who favours or uses terror-inspiring methods of governing or of coercing government or community. If I believed Palestine Action were using terrorism in that sense, I would not have writtten what I did, even allowing for the nuanced understanding of the meaning of 'support' discussed above. Terrorism in that sense is absolutely what the government of Israel is doing in both Gaza and the West Bank, but is not what Palestine Action are doing.
Why do I think I can say that Palestine Action are not using terrorism in that sense? Because of what Mr Justice Chamberlain has said, for one thing, but also from what I have read of their actions elsewhere. Before they were proscribed there was video available online showing some of their direct action: it did not look like terrorism to me.
Renton 2025 What is the meaning of support? London Review of Books, Vol. 47 No. 14/15
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