Monday 21st July, CAAT will be in court to support the Judicial Review seeking to overturn the proscription of Palestine Action

Dear Supporter,

On Monday 21st July, CAAT will be in court to support the Judicial Review seeking to overturn the proscription of Palestine Action.

This is a dark time for democracy and a dark time for all those of us wanting to take action against the arms trade.

Prior to proscription, support for Palestine Action was widespread. It crossed movements, ages, classes and ethnicities. People who wouldn’t themselves climb on top of an arms factory roof supported those that did, including those who don’t attend marches or other campaigning events.

This support didn’t disappear overnight. It meant tens, if not hundreds of thousands of people, woke up on the morning of 5th July as potential terrorist sympathisers, confused and afraid about what this means. This is unprecedented.

These are scary times. It is impossible to underestimate the chilling impact of a proscription or predict how different police forces will react. Just in the last two weeks we’ve seen South Wales police detain people holding signs in support of Palestine Action, including two people in their 80s, for 36 hours while house raids were carried out. In Kent, one woman was threatened with arrest under terrorism laws for a legal pro-Palestinian protest. Meanwhile, Police Scotland charged one man with terrorism for wearing an “action is needed for Palestine” t-shirt, and arrested Shut Down Leonardo Edinburgh activists for terrorism for an action at Leonardo’s Edinburgh factory. We urge everyone to read the resources our friends at Netpol are compiling and attend a Green and Black Cross Know Your Rights Training.

We’re not going to lie and say that this fear isn’t felt by all of us at CAAT.

But with this fear also comes determination and affirmation of our commitments to our values and purpose. In September, DSEI – the UK’s largest arms fair – returns to London. We will not let this monstrosity of death and destruction happen without opposition, and Stop the Arms Fair will release details of protests and events happening across the two weeks soon. DSEI is our opportunity to come together across our movements to show how we won’t be deterred from taking action against the arms trade, and we hope as many of you as possible will be able to join us in London to oppose DSEI.

We will not stay silent while our government continues to supply spare parts for F-35 jets, via the global stockpile, even after admitting there is a clear risk that Israel will use them to commit war crimes and that Israel is not committed to complying with international humanitarian law.

The government’s own Export Control Joint Unit found that “it is uncontentious that conduct which could, in principle, satisfy the physical component of genocide continues to take place in Gaza”.

Despite this, the high court ruled that it would not comment on whether the government is breaching international law with this unprecedented exemption because it claims that the relevant international law is not enshrined in domestic law.

Our government and our courts are failing us. Instead of taking the only legal and moral option available to them – imposing a full two-way arms embargo – a Labour government is criminalising people doing what they feel is necessary to stop a genocide as terrorists.

There is a long-standing powerful history of direct action and civil disobedience in the peace and anti-war movement, directly targeting the tools of war and disarmament actions, and these are an important and widely-supported parts of this cause. CAAT is a proud supporter of this movement, one that long pre-dates Palestine Action, and will continue post-proscription.

So our message is clear.

We will continue supporting groups taking action against the arms trade. Direct action against genocide profiteers and accomplices is not terrorism, and our solidarity with the Palestinian people’s freedom and liberation struggle is not terrorism.

We hope you will join us.

In solidarity,

The CAAT team