Defend our Juries protest must proceed as planned
JVL introduction
Defend our Juries, organisers of mass non-violent civil disobedience against proscription of Palestine Action, have told the Metropolitan Police that Saturday’s long-planned protest will go ahead.
Following the murderous attack on Jews attending Yom Kippur prayers in Machester on Thursday, Met Assistant Commissioner Ade Adelekan asked DoJ to cancel their action because it would “place a significant pressure on policing and draw officers away from communities they serve to be in central London.”
The group reminded him that the decision to arrest hundreds of peaceful protesters opposed to genocide was the Met’s choice, ignoring advice from Amnesty International that it breached international law and fundamental rights.
Their case was underlined by cogent arguments from Green Party leader Zack Polanski – the only prominent Jewish figure so far to speak out against weaponisation of the Manchester tragedy by those determined to ban protest for Palestine.
Polanski said: “We need to not conflate the Jewish community & the ongoing genocide in Gaza. You can both be absolutely clear that antisemitism & Islamophobia in our country is totally unacceptable & you can stand against the genocide & our govts complicity.”
It’s not rocket science.
NWI
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Statement from Defend Our Juries responding to Metropolitan Police suggestion to consider postponing this Saturday’s mass action. Thursday October 2.
Defend Our Juries has today written to Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Ade Adelekan in response to his letter earlier this afternoon asking us to consider postponing our long-planned protest this weekend in the light of the Manchester attacks.
In his letter the Assistant Commissioner said, “as you know your previous large-scale protests and other concurrent protests, place a significant pressure on policing and draw officers away from communities they serve to be in central London. This means less neighbourhood and response officers in their communities and less officers focussing on police crimes.”
“Your last three events in central London have required over 2500 to police including dedicated Counter Terrorism officers as a result of the Terrorism offences observed at your previous events.”
In reply Defend Our Juries wrote:
First let us say that we utterly condemn the attack on the Jewish community in Manchester today.
This is what genuine terrorism looks like and we join with others in condemning it unreservedly.
As we have pointed out in our, sadly unacknowledged and unanswered, letters to Met Commissioner Mark Rowley, it has always been the choice of the Metropolitan Police whether or not to make arrests at our protests. Amnesty International has advised Mark Rowley that these arrests fall foul of international law and our fundamental rights.
As you know we are making two demands of the government: that it reverse the ban on a domestic protest group that poses no risk to the public; and secondly that the government take action in line with its obligations to prevent genocide.
It is unfortunate that the Home Office has not decided to rescind the ban in the wake of the ever-growing defiance and has chosen instead to put an increasing and unnecessary strain on police resources. According to your letter, it appears the political oversight in proscribing Palestine Action, which aimed to save lives in Palestine, is taking away from the police protecting the community from those who seek to take lives.
As I’m sure you will understand, the protection of our democracy and the prevention of countless deaths are critical issues. Therefore, our protest will go ahead as planned for this Saturday.
We urge you therefore to choose to prioritise protecting the community, rather than arresting those peacefully holding signs in opposition to the absurd and draconian ban of a domestic direct action group.
We hope you make the right choice to not arrest those taking part, and correctly deploy counter-terrorism resources this weekend.
Please understand that some 1,500 people have given deep consideration to committing to this nonviolent action which, as the Met has repeatedly pointed out, comes with serious risks. We hope you respect our fundamental right to peaceful protest and freedom of expression.
Our full response to the Metropolitan Police can be found below.
Ade Adelekan
Assistant Commissioner
Metropolitan Police
By email only
2 October 2025
Dear Assistant Commissioner,
First let us say that we utterly condemn the attack on the Jewish community in Manchester today.
This is what genuine terrorism looks like and we join with others in condemning it unreservedly.
As we have pointed out in our, sadly unacknowledged and unanswered, letters to Met Commissioner Mark Rowley, it has always been the choice of the Metropolitan Police whether or not to make arrests at our protests. Amnesty International has advised Mark Rowley that these arrests fall foul of international law and our fundamental rights.
As you know we are making two demands of the government: that it reverse the ban on a domestic protest group that poses no risk to the public; and secondly that the government take action in line with its obligations to prevent genocide.
It is unfortunate that the Home Office has not decided to rescind the ban in the wake of the ever-growing defiance and has chosen instead to put an increasing and unnecessary strain on police resources. According to your letter, it appears the political oversight in proscribing Palestine Action, which aimed to save lives in Palestine, is taking away from the police protecting the community from those who seek to take lives.
As I’m sure you will understand, the protection of our democracy and the prevention of countless deaths are critical issues. Therefore, our protest will go ahead as planned for this Saturday.
We urge you therefore to choose to prioritise protecting the community, rather than arresting those peacefully holding signs in opposition to the absurd and draconian ban of a domestic direct action group.
We hope you make the right choice to not arrest those taking part, and correctly deploy counter-terrorism resources this weekend.
Please understand that some 1,500 people have given deep consideration to committing to this nonviolent action which, as the Met has repeatedly pointed out, comes with serious risks. We hope you respect our fundamental right to peaceful protest and freedom of expression.
Yours sincerely,
Defend Our Juries
I wonder why it’s always the protesters who are expected to give the government an easy escape route when it’s the government’s stupid and wrong decisions that have caused the problems?
Why haven’t the Met asked the government to give them a “pass” this weekend NOT to arrest peaceable people quietly holding up signs, protesting about Israel’s genocide?
In fact, why hasn’t the government itself already offered the Met that “pass”? Especially as the looming judicial review may well force a change of heart over the legality of proscribing Palestine Action…
Good response by Defend our Juries.
The hypocritical try-on by the repressive authorities is despicable.
What a brilliant letter which explains so clearly that it isn’t the peaceful protests that need the policing. The metropolitan police choose to over police such an event which is only trying to highlight the genocide occuring in Gaza.
The Women’s Suffrage Movement put on hold their demonstrations and pressure for the vote during the first world war and for a time afterwards. Look where that got them.
I wholeheartedly support Defend our Juries and the decision to go ahead with the action today. Every person who attends is supporting the democratic rights of all UK citizens.
Glad to say the Chair of the Police Federation (Paul Dodds) agrees with me!!!!
When talking about today’s Palestine Action demo he said:-
“Enough is enough. Our concentration should be on keeping people safe at a time when the country is on heightened alert from a terrorist attack. And instead officers are being drawn in to facilitate these relentless protests. There aren’t enough of us…
What are the POLITICIANS [Starmer & Cooper) and SENIOR POLICE OFFICERS (Sir Mark Rowley) going to do about it?”
The weaponisation of this awful tragedy began within hours of it taking place. Antisemitism must be defeated, the Jewish community must be protected, all the usual tropes, which are perfectly right in principle, but less so when they are used as guns to point at those who are demanding that Israel stops its genocide. A major issue, that antisemitism is on the rise directly as a result of that genocide, is one that the government completely fails to even dare think about. And with its developing policy of limiting not just what it classes illegal protests but legal ones as well, we can see that Starmer’s and Lammy’s real feelings about Israel have not substantially changed despite their clear knowledge of what Israel is doing. I don’t know exactly why the Manchester attack took place; but it has been added to the arsenal of weapons the government can use on Israel’s behalf, and that is a very sad thing.
We should remind Margaret Johnson (Oct 4 above) that the Women’s Social and Political Union (Suffragettes, NOT the Suffragists, who did not use the tactics Y Cooper has described as terrorist) concentrated on supporting the British Empire’s unprovoked war against its German competitors, e.g. by distributing white feathers to men not in uniform…Working class women got the vote only in 1928…