LONDON: Senior figures in the UK’s ruling Labour Party are sounding the alarm over the government’s banning of the group Palestine Action.
It comes after hundreds of people were arrested in London last weekend under Section 13 of the Terrorism Act.
The protesters had held signs demonstrating support for Palestine Action, which was proscribed as a terrorist organization in July.
Former Minister Peter Hain said the issue “will end in tears for the government,” The Guardian reported on Wednesday.
The former anti-apartheid activist added: “We are seeing retired magistrates, retired and serving doctors and all sorts of people being arrested and now effectively being equated with terrorists such as Al-Qaeda, which is absolutely wrong.”
If the ban is contested through a legal challenge and overturned, it “would be a mercy to all concerned, including the government,” he said.
Hain was one of three Labour peers in the House of Lords who voted against the ban last month.
“It’s going to get worse (for the government) because I don’t see people from that ‘middle Britain’ background who have joined these protests in such large numbers to suddenly decide that all is OK,” he said.
“In fact, I think more are going to come out and face arrest because the approach to Palestine Action is contrary to every form of peaceful protest in British history, whether that’s the chartists and suffragettes, or anti-apartheid and anti-fascist protesters.”
The government has faced mounting pressure over the ban after it emerged that of the 532 arrested under the Terrorism Act on the weekend, half were aged 60 or older.
Hain served as secretary of state for Northern Ireland, a role that gave him great insight into the realities of terrorism.
“There is a battery of other crimes that could be applied to Palestine Action but terrorism is not one of them, while you also devalue the charge of terrorism by equating it with the protests we have seen,” he said.
“I … worked with the intelligence services and others to stop dissident IRA (Irish Republican Army) groups from killing. I have signed warrants to stop other real terrorists, Islamist terrorists, bombing London. So, I am not soft on terrorism. But I am a strong believer that you have to know what it looks like.”
Many Labour MPs and peers are now doubting the decision to ban Palestine Action, Hain added.
The government has justified the proscription by describing the group as a “violent organization” that was planning to carry out extensive attacks.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said court restrictions have prevented the British public from discovering the “full nature of this organization.”
However, Labour peer Shami Chakrabarti warned that the ban could result in an “I am Spartacus” moment, The Independent reported on Wednesday.
She was referring to the 1960 film “Spartacus,” and a situation in which a group of people claim to be one person in an act of solidarity against an authority.
The civil liberties campaigner urged the government to “think again” over the ban, saying her worries are “greater now even than they were before” after last weekend’s mass arrests.
Chakrabarti told BBC Radio 4’s “Today” program: “There are blurred lines now … some people are, as always, protesting about the horrific events they’re watching unfold in Gaza, but others think they’re standing up for civil liberties because this ban was disproportionate.”
She added that a distinction must be made between criminal damage and terrorism, and that “spraying paint on airplanes,” as Palestine Action members did, “is not the same as being the IRA or Al-Qaeda.”
Saturday’s mass arrest of protesters is believed to be the largest of its kind by London’s Metropolitan Police since the poll tax riot of 1990.
Rights groups including Amnesty International and Liberty warned that the arrests were “disproportionate to the point of absurdity,” and that the Terrorism Act is threatening freedom of expression.
Chakrabarti said: “And so we've got more people taking to the streets, a bigger headache for the police. Frankly, I’m very sympathetic to the police on this issue. I think it may be time to think again.”
