Lift the Ban

I was arrested as part of the Defend our Juries (DoJ) Lift the Ban campaign on 9 August 2025* and I'm using this blog to report my experiences of the campaign and to explore my both my understanding of what it is all about and how it affects me. I will update this page as I add more posts about it. As things stand, I've entered my Not Guilty plea and my case is scheduled for 1st July 2026 at Stratford Magistrates Court.

*And I was arrested again on 11 April 2026, in Trafalgar Square. I'll write more about that in due course!

As a starting point, my motivation, you can see where I am coming from in a piece that I wrote for Sofia magazine The Notion that the Polite, Western Liberal Ever Stood for Anything At All. In it, I discuss two books: One day, everyone will have always been against this by Omar El Akkad and Christ in the Rubble: Faith, the Bible, and the Genocide in Gaza, Munther Isaac. Basically, I think they have got it right!

Lift the Ban: arrest and bail - an account of my arrest, how I was taken to Kentish Town Police Station and released on bail

Lift the Ban: charged while out on bail I was charged by post. 

Lift the Ban: plea hearing my experience of the plea hearing in Westminster Magistrates Court

Lift the Ban: do I support Palestine Action? A fundamental question.

Lift the Ban: reflections from cell number 6 at Kentish Town Police station. Some thoughts, not written while I was in the cell, but later reflections on what I'm been thinking about in the cell

Lift the Ban: Gaslighting! “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.". George Orwell, 1984

Lift the Ban: Judicial Review of the Proscription of Palestine Action. Part 1, timeline and overview. My notes following the judgement of the Judicial Review. 

Lift the Ban: Judicial Review of the Proscription of Palestine Action. Part 2: the judgment. Some comments no the judgement from the Judicial Review

Lift the Ban: Judicial Review of the Proscription of Palestine Action. Part 3: proportionality. I think something important, crucial, has been missed in the judgement of the Judicial Review. 

Under constructions

Lift the Ban: reflections on my (religious) beliefs.  

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