We will not be silenced: State Repression on Palestine
JVL Introduction
Graham Bash, a member of JVL’s Executive was arrested on Saturday as part of a group opposing the criminalisation of Palestine Action. He was one of c 80 people arrested in London, Manchester and Cardiff that day. Civil rights veterans joined Derry rally after Palestine Action ban and no arrests were made there.
The proscription of the organisation using the Terrorism Act 2000 is up for Judicial Review later this month and we eagerly await the outcome. The proscription has been strongly opposed by a range of organisations that include Amnesty International and the United Nations. As has been said on many occasions, not least in the House of Lords, they have never hurt or threatened people and the damage they cause to property can be dealt with under existing laws. Meanwhile peaceful protestors, like Graham are getting arrested. Jo Grady, General Secretary of the University and College Union has made an excellent Statement on Palestine Action’s proscription, calling for the end to the authoritarian attacks on the Palestine movement.
Here is a link to Skwawkbox’s article about Graham Bash’s arrest and a link to his partner, Jackie Walker discussing the arrest and implications of the clamp down on Sunday’s Crispin Flintoff Show just a few hours after he was let out on bail.
All photos below by Leah Levane.
LL
This article was originally published by Kay Green Blog on Sun 13 Jul 2025. Read the original here.
Saturday in Parliament Square
Loading article text…
I wrote directly to Graham’s arrest and expressed my clumsy solidarity …. on a personal note – the day before he was arrested, detained and denied his medication, I discussed being arrested and decided the risk of being detained without access to my own medication was too great ….. it was just too easy to have necessary medicine confiscated and lost (either wilfully or on purpose) ….. terrible to be outdone by a West Ham fan! Solidarity
Just one correction. The police did not deny me access to my medication. I got to Hammersmith police station with my pillbox full of lots of different pills – about 12 a day! But the police explained they could not check them as they were unidentified because they were separated from the containers they came in. They were concerned about self-harm. I replied I could not do without them. So they went to my home in Catford – the other side of London – and collected my remaining pills in their own boxes. On this occasion the problem was not the police – but the Labour government with their ridiculous proscription of Palestine Action.
Well done Graham! Respect soolidarity!