Speaking to openDemocracy, Barnard said that it was “frustrating” to be accused of blackmail for the common campaign tactic of threatening to protest if a demand is not met.
He added that, while being questioned in relation to this allegation, a senior officer said “you’re not a proscribed organisation yet – don’t you think your actions are akin to terrorism?”.
A spokesperson for LaSalle said the company is “aware of a number of incidents” that have occurred at various of its offices and online, adding: “The incidents have been referred to the police for further action.”
Speaking about her arrest in Holyhead, Ammori accused officers of making assumptions about her based on her race.
“They said if I didn’t answer their questions I’d be charged under the terror act,” she said.
“They asked me a load of racist crap. They asked about my family in Iraq, they wanted to know about all my family in Iraq, all my aunties and uncles.
“They asked if I was Sunni/Shia, I said I’m not religious. They asked if I was Jihadi. It’s very frustrating, being asked if I’m a terrorist.”
Ammori faces trial in Stafford Crown Court on 17 May, charged with criminal damage at a different protest in Shenstone, Staffordshire.
Threatened with proscription
Last week, activists from Palestine Action peacefully occupied the roof of an Elbit factory in Oldham, Greater Manchester, and poured paint over the building, shutting it down for 12 hours.
Milly Arnott, a member of the group who was arrested after the action, says she was told by officers from the Metropolitan Police that the group faced being listed as a terrorist organisation, despite its actions being non-violent, on the grounds that their protests had done ‘more than £2m of damage’ to the arms company.
Arnott, a full-time charity worker, was inspired to take action after studying Arabic for a year at An-Najah university in Nablus, in the West Bank.
“I had my British passport, I was white, I could pass through checkpoints without being worried about being shot,” Arnott, who lived with a Palestinian woman in Jenin during her time in the West Bank, said.
“My Palestinian friends couldn’t leave the city without fearing they would be shot,” she said. “When I thought of my childhood, it was a childhood. They were deprived of that.”
Print
Adam Ramsay | Radio Free (2021-04-20T16:33:50+00:00) Police arrested non-violent Palestine activists under terror legislation. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2021/04/20/police-arrested-non-violent-palestine-activists-under-terror-legislation/
Please log in to upload a file.
There are no updates yet.
Click the Upload button above to add an update.