Sarah Helm, Palestine Action, and the Terrorism Act 2000

We’ve all seen the pictures of the thousands of arrests of peaceful protesters for supporting Palestine Action: an 83-year-old retired priest; a 94-year-old Jewish former human rights lawyer; a blind man who uses a wheelchair. As a result of this absurdity, terrorism arrests went up over 1500% in a year. Because the people in question were holding signs, usually saying “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action”, these arrests have been made under Section 13(1)(b) of the Terrorism Act 2000, which says that (1) A person in a public place commits an offence if he— (a) wears an item of clothing, or (b) wears, carries or displays an article, in such a way or in such circumstances as to arouse reasonable suspicion that he is a member or supporter of a proscribed organisation. Palestine Action, you may recall, was proscribed through the cynical mechanism of bringing forward a three-for-the-price-of-one order that sandwiched Palestine Action between two groups called Maniacs Murder Cult…