Lift the Ban: second arrest 11th April 2026

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.

Things haven't got any better. There is supposedly a ceasefire in Gaza but the killing of Palestinians continues almost daily. Alongside the assault in Lebanon and the hostilities with Iran, Israel continues its policy of ethnic cleansing in both Gaza and the West Bank. World opinion seems less and less sympathetic to Israel, and more and more commentators and politicians in the UK are condemning what they are doing, but that doesn't lead to real pressure on Israel. They were even allowed to participate in Eurovision (unlike Russia) and their football teams are still welcome in international matches (again, unlike Russia). But more importantly Britain continues to allow arms exports to Israel.

Palestine Action remains proscribed (despite the Judicial Review saying the proscription was unlawful), and brave and idealistic young people have spent months in prison before even coming to trial. Some of them eventually found not guilty: more than 18 months in prison and not guilty of anything! 

So on 11th April 2026 I participated in the DoJ 'Everyone Day' action. After the Judicial Review judgement the Met Police initially said they wouldn't make any more arrests pending the outcome of the Home Secretary's appeal of the Judicial Review, so originally DoJ thought we wouldn't be arrested on Everyone Day - but the Met changed their minds and we were 😒.

I sat in Trafalgar Square and on the stroke of 1pm, wrote on a placard "I oppose Genocide. I support Palestine Action". I was duly arrested, put in a police van (a 'Pixie': no-one seems to know why they are called that!) and taken to the triage point. Then, because I again managed to remain anonymous (so they couldn't give me Street Bail) was taken to a police station for processing. This time it was Peckham.

There isn't a lot more to say about it really. I could do some comparisons between Kentish Town and Peckham (perhaps I should put them up on Trip Advisor)! The cell was cleaner in Kentish Town, in Peckham they didn't take the staples out of my London Review of Books, they phoned the solicitors for me quite quickly in Peckham (they didn't at all in Kentish Town) but were very slow in letting me make my own phone call, so it was a long time before Joy knew where I was. They didn't have the computer problems in Peckham that they'd had in Kentish Town so I was locked-up much sooner and released quite a bit earlier, allowing me to get to Euston before the last train home.