Thoughts on an arrest

Apparently it took me only an hour to become a terrorist

On Saturday 29 November I was arrested in Bristol city centre along with 30 other so-called ‘terrorists’ for sitting silently wearing a cardboard sign.

It has come to something when peacefully expressing an opinion becomes a serious criminal offence, worthy of an arrest under the Terrorism Act, especially in the week we learned that the judge appointed to judicially review the government’s proscription of an anti-genocide action group was replaced by a triumvirate of judges with problematic associations with the issue. 

And that was the same week in which a Labour Justice Secretary announced the end of jury trial for all but the most serious cases, taking us back to the 1970s and the ‘Diplock courts’ in Northern Ireland where a single judge decided outcomes and sentences.

It was also the week in which the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) continued to breach the alleged ceasefire in Gaza with attacks on Rafah, Khan Younis, Deir el-Balah and Gaza city, and video emerged of their colleagues in the occupied West Bank calmly kicking then shooting in the back two unarmed men who had just surrendered to them.

And yet we are the criminals for objecting to the fact that at least 70,000 Palestinians have been killed in the last two years with some 10,000 of their relatives still buried beneath the rubble of their homes.

And who are the people who will be adjudicating on the fate of Palestine Action? They will replace Sir Martin Chamberlain who granted the protest group permission to take the government to judicial review in the first place, and who also ruled as unlawful the Metropolitan police ban on Extinction Rebellion protests in 2019. 

Well one of them, Sir Jonathan Swift, despite the irony of sharing a name with a celebrated satirist, is no joker. In 2023 he rejected Julian Assange’s appeal against extradition to America, putting the founder of Wikileaks at risk of life imprisonment. He also ruled that the Tory government’s deportation flights of asylum seekers to Rwanda should go ahead. 

Swift is joined on the panel by Dame Karen Steyn, who also replaced Chamberlain to rule that the export of F-35 fighter jet components to Israel was lawful, despite the government’s admission that they might be used in ways that would breach international laws.

The third person is Dame Victoria Sharp who studied at Bristol University, and is the first woman to become President of the King’s Bench Division. Her appointment has been criticised for her longstanding links to Israel including acting for Robert Maxwell, father of jailed Ghislaine, a corrupt publisher alleged to have been a Mossad agent. 

Emily Apple of the Campaign Against Arms Trade called these sudden replacements “deeply alarming”. She went on “It is even more concerning that his replacement has family links to banks and other institutions targeted by Palestine Action because of their connections to the arms trade and their complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza.”

The establishment has laid itself open to claims of cherry picking those reviewing the legality of the government’s decision on Palestine Action, at a time when a major IPSO poll shows that more than half the UK population object to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, 

Meanwhile, back in Bristol those locals arrested on Saturday have been banned from entering their city centre for three months, or taking part in demonstrations. 

Police had been drafted in from Taunton and Shepton Mallet to support Avon and Somerset’s shut down of the silent, peaceful protest. In general they were polite and respectful when dealing with the mostly elderly protestors. Some reminded police that Bristol is home to arms manufacturers and that UK planes have flown over Gaza collecting intelligence for Israel. One daughter of a Holocaust survivor made it clear what Israel is doing to Palestinians is not in her name.

Mine was an entirely silent protest, and I went limp when it was my turn to be lifted, at about 2pm. Officers were considerate of my painful hip condition, and my groans ensured that I was treated with care. However, despite my beard and moustache I was briefly misidentified as a woman, simply for wearing a pink and grey ‘beanie’ hat. 

By the time we reached Patchway I was desperate for the loo, and it was a relief to be ushered into a cell. However it would be two hours before I was given the painkillers I had been requesting. 

My only means of identification was a prescription with my medications, and once they had all my particulars, I was thoroughly searched as were all my belongings. I was a little peeved that the police, like so many institutions, insist on offering skin colour as an ethnicity but my challenge sailed over their heads. At my request they did provide a copy of the Police & Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) Codes of Practice. It is an arrestee’s right, and always worth asking for if only for something to read in the cell. 

Providing I agreed not to attack anyone or harm myself with it I allowed me to keep my crutch in the cell, along with Private Eye and my book. They even brought me a chair as the bench was too low for someone in my condition. I had to ask for loo paper, though I never had to use it. High in the ceiling noticed a helpful compass point telling me where North was. My request for a call with a friend was answered, but not with family, but someone looked in on me regularly and after two hours I did get the Paracetemol I had been asking for. I also got two cups of tea and two cinnamon cereal bars.

Taken out for photographs, DNA samples and fingerprints by a curiously incurious young officer, who acknowledged that my questions were valid but he didn’t know the answers and hadn’t thought about them before. He just knew how to use the technology. I was equally puzzled that on saying I was Irish his computer offered first Northern Ireland (which would make a person British in UK terms), then the Irish Free State (!) before we settled on the Republic. 

The five hours I spent in custody ended with a round of applause from a welcoming crowd of supporters who braved the freezing weather with hot drinks and snacks and offers of lifts home for us. Some would stick around until all 31 miscreants had been processed. I had to wait a while as the police needed to view CC footage to check what had happened to my bag of food (in the fridge) and another two bags containing my house keys, my money and my medication.

Then it was back home check that the media had registered our protests and to pray that our efforts do make a difference. End the genocide! Free Palestine!