UK plan to further restrict right to protest condemned by civil liberties groups
میدل-ایست-آی - 1404-07-14 14:02:48
UK plan to further restrict right to protest condemned by civil liberties groups
The UK government’s plan to give police more powers to restrict protests has been condemned by civil liberty groups.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced the plans on Saturday in the wake of the arrest of hundreds of demonstrators in London, who had gathered to protest against the proscription of Palestine Action.
Speaking to Sky News, Mahmood said the police would be given the ability to require protesters to change location if the demonstrators were responsible for "repeated disorder".
"What I will be making explicit is that cumulative disruption, that is to say the frequency of particular protests in particular places, is in and of itself a reason for the police to be able to restrict and place conditions," she said.
She stressed that the new legislation would not be "a ban".
"This is about restrictions and conditions that would enable the police to maybe put further time restrictions or move those protests to other places," she said.
Responding to the announcement, activist group Defend Our Juries said it would escalate demonstrations in support of Palestine Action over 10 days in November.
“The home secretary’s extraordinary new affront to our democracy will only fuel the growing backlash to the ban,” a spokesperson told the Guardian.
Over the weekend, nearly 500 people were arrested in London for expressing support for Palestine Action.
The direct action group was proscribed under anti-terror laws on 4 July, after some of its members broke into RAF Brize Norton and damaged two planes with paint and crowbars, saying they were "used for military operations in Gaza and across the Middle East".
Defend Our Juries has staged a series of protests demanding the proscription be overturned, drawing growing numbers of people willing to risk arrest under the Terrorism Act for holding signs that read: "I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action".
'Police already have immense powers'
Shami Chakrabarti, a Labour peer and former shadow attorney general, warned that Labour’s approach could hand draconian powers to the Reform party leader Nigel Farage.
Farage’s right-wing party is performing well in opinion polls, and he could end up as prime minister within the next four years.
“Street protest that isn’t a bit of a nuisance isn’t usually effective. But any government seeking to further restrict it should think about new powers in Faragist hands,” Chakrabarti told the Guardian.
Tom Southerden, of Amnesty International UK, described the government’s plan as “ludicrous” and perhaps a “cynical” attempt to look tough.
Akiko Hart, director of advocacy group Liberty, said: “The police already have immense powers to restrict protests - handing them even more would undermine our rights further, while failing to keep people safe from violence like the horrific and heartbreaking antisemitic attack in Manchester.”
At least two people were killed and four others wounded in an attack on the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in the Crumpsall area of the city of Manchester on Thursday.
The attacker, a Syrian-British man, Jihad al-Shamie, drove a car into a crowd and started stabbing people at the synagogue at around 9.30am.
British officials and pro-Israel campaigners had called for Saturday's demonstration against the Palestine Action proscription to be cancelled in the wake of the attack.
Defend Our Juries refused to cancel the protest on Saturday, saying it would be a win for "terror" if it did so.
