Palestine Action

[jon1959]

Re: Palestine Action

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/apr/24/scholars-writers-artists-defy-ban-palestine-action-letter-judges

“Orwell warned that the first step towards tyranny is the abuse and misuse of language by an authoritarian government. Labour’s perverted interpretation of the word ‘terrorist’ in designating Palestine Action and its supporters as terrorists is a case in point.

“It is a travesty of justice and freedom of expression to equate peaceful, placard-carrying people of conscience, like students and pensioners, with violent extremists from groups like Isis [Islamic State] and al-Qaida.”

[JamesWales]

Re: Palestine Action

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...-letter-judges

“Orwell warned that the first step towards tyranny is the abuse and misuse of language by an authoritarian government. Labour’s perverted interpretation of the word ‘terrorist’ in designating Palestine Action and its supporters as terrorists is a case in point.

“It is a travesty of justice and freedom of expression to equate peaceful, placard-carrying people of conscience, like students and pensioners, with violent extremists from groups like Isis [Islamic State] and al-Qaida.”

I don't recollect the guardian being so concerned about language inflation when they spent many years denigrating anyone with any views that don't align with their own as some kind of extremist!

[jon1959]

Re: Palestine Action

I don't recollect the guardian being so concerned about language inflation when they spent many years denigrating anyone with any views that don't align with their own as some kind of extremist!

I don't know if the Guardian is concerned about language inflation at all. They certainly played fast and very loose with 'anti Semitism' for a lot of years and have an inability shared with most of the MSM to describe state murder as 'state murder' if the orders come from Tel Aviv (or Washinton).

As with the BBC and others, they have elevated double standards and hypocrisy into an art form.

However the quote above - which was embedded in a Guardian news item about a letter to the Court of Appeal by 130 prominent people (including Sally Rooney and Brian Eno) - was from Charles Secrett, former head of Friends Of The Earth. He is not on the Guardian payroll as far as I know!

[JamesWales]

Re: Palestine Action

I don't know if the Guardian is concerned about language inflation at all. They certainly played fast and very loose with 'anti Semitism' for a lot of years and have an inability shared with most of the MSM to describe state murder as 'state murder' if the orders come from Tel Aviv (or Washinton).

As with the BBC and others, they have elevated double standards and hypocrisy into an art form.

However the quote above - which was embedded in a Guardian news item about a letter to the Court of Appeal by 130 prominent people (including Sally Rooney and Brian Eno) - was from Charles Secrett, former head of Friends Of The Earth. He is not on the Guardian payroll as far as I know!

Its a news article about a letter though - a rare privilege! All the news that's fit to print I guess!?

[jon1959]

Re: Palestine Action

The retrial verdicts:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm2p99rxr5po

[jon1959]

Re: Palestine Action

https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/article/filton6-retrial/?utm_source=mailpoet&utm_medium=email&utm_source_platform=mailpoet&utm_campaign=today-on-the-jvl-blog-newsletter-total-articles-for-you_1

[JamesWales]

Re: Palestine Action

The retrial verdicts:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm2p99rxr5po

Good. I know we all have various opinions on wider issues about protests, but they have to be non-violent.

The absolute prick who whacked a female police officer in the back with a sledgehammer in particular deserves a lengthy sentence.

[jon1959]

Re: Palestine Action

Good. I know we all have various opinions on wider issues about protests, but they have to be non-violent.

The absolute prick who whacked a female police officer in the back with a sledgehammer in particular deserves a lengthy sentence.

Convicted of GBH without intent. The jury accepted most of the defence case. They were carrying hammers to smash equipment and components for Israel’s military - not to attack people. The injury to the police officer was not planned or intended.

[JamesWales]

Re: Palestine Action

Convicted of GBH without intent. The jury accepted most of the defence case. They were carrying hammers to smash equipment and components for Israel’s military - not to attack people. The injury to the police officer was not planned or intended.

Oh that's okay then!

[jon1959]

Re: Palestine Action

Jonathan Cook post on Facebook (4 days ago):

Former UK ambassador Craig Murray assesses the manifold ways Judge Johnson hearing the case against the Palestine Action activists rigged their two trials to secure a convictions of violence to justify the government's proscription of the group – and yet still the jury saw through his various ruses:

"Judge Johnson ruled that the defendants were not permitted to refer to their motives.

He ruled that the jury may not be informed of their absolute right to acquit.

He attempted to have the leading defence barrister, Rajiv Menon KC, prosecuted for contempt of court for informing the jury of their rights.

He ruled that terms including 'genocide' and 'ethnic cleansing' may not be used in court.

He ordered that the notebooks and other writings of the accused be redacted to withhold from the jury any information related to Elbit’s supply of weapons to Israel.

He enforced the concealment from the jury of the nature of the weapons and equipment that had been damaged.

He granted anonymity to senior Elbit staff and admitted their evidence without the defence being able to cross-examine.

He ruled that the trial had *not* been prejudiced by the Secretary of State [Yvette Cooper] and the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police [Sir Mark Rowley] stating the offences as fact throughout national media.

He allowed the release to the media of highly edited and selective prosecution video footage during the trial which gave a false impression of events.

He permitted the admission of Metropolitan Police video evidence which they had given over to Elbit’s sole custody for an entire year.

He ruled that the jury must not be told of his stated intention to consider adding terrorist aggravation to any convictions – which adds 150% to time served in jail."

Murray rightly concludes: "That is an astonishing list of nefarious actions by Judge Johnson. Read it again. Many people will surely conclude, it is Judge Johnson who should be in jail."

The Achilles' heel in this establishment stitch-up – apart from the independence of juries – is the separate jurisdictions of Scotland and England. Murray has been allowed to bring a judicial review in the Scottish courts of the government's proscription of Palestine Action. The hearing begins tomorrow.

If he wins, he can make the government's efforts to crush our rights to speech and protest – to protect Elbit and Israel's genocide – untenable. You can find ways to support the legal challenge at the end of his post.

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2026/05/palestine-action-scottish-judicial-review-stitch-up-incoming/

[jon1959]

Re: Palestine Action

[jon1959]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gy927jx88o

That is a shocking Court Of Appeal decision.

It will be appealed to the Supreme Court.

Lady Carr's claim that Palestine Action is not like the Suffragettes is true - but for the opposite reasons to the ones she implies. The Suffragettes used more violence and targeted people as well as buildings and equipment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suffra...nt%20buildings.

Starmer and Mahmood will have to build a lot more prisons!