Defend the right to protest, drop the charges, free Palestine

Posted: 13th February 2026

On 23 February, PSC Director Ben Jamal will go on trial for peacefully protesting on 18 January last year against Israel’s genocide in Gaza. This landmark case and those of other leaders of the movement are part of a sustained attack on our right to speak out for Palestine. Will you join us this Thursday at 7pm at SOAS, University of London, for an important public meeting in defence of our democratic right to protest?

Faced with growing public outrage at its ongoing support for Israel’s atrocities, Keir Starmer’s failing government has chosen to clamp down on our right to protest and to express our support for the Palestinian people. A whole raft of draconian measures has been unleashed.

This includes the targeting of artists, musicians, health workers and academics, attempting to criminalise chants, deploying unprecedented police powers to restrict marches, the shameful conflation of direct action with terrorism, and the prosecution of protest organisers and participants.

Each of these attacks must be understood as an assault on the Palestine solidarity movement as a whole. Through anti-protest clauses in the Crime and Policing bill, the government now wants to further chip away at our democratic rights. We cannot allow that to happen.

We will be protesting at 9am on 23 February outside Westminster Magistrates Court – at the start of the trial – and next month, on 17 March, we are organising a mass lobby of parliament alongside a wide range of civil society organisations including trade unions, climate campaigns, faith, human rights and solidarity groups.  

This Thursday, hear from Ben Jamal (PSC) alongside Juliet Stevenson, Yanis Varoufakis, Sophie Bolt (CND), Chris Nineham (Stop the War) and Katy Watts (Liberty) about why these cases matter to us all and why these attacks must be fought by all those who value fundamental freedoms.  

Undermining democratic rights will not protect the government from accountability over its complicity in Israel’s ongoing crimes against the Palestinian people. Join us at 7pm at SOAS this Thursday and again at 9am on Monday 23 February outside Westminster Magistrates Court.

Defend the right to protest. Drop the charges. Free Palestine.

In solidarity,

Peter Leary,
Deputy Director, PSC