URGENT: The Palestine movement is on trial
Posted: 20th February 2026
On Monday, PSC Director Ben Jamal and Stop the War Vice Chair Chris Nineham are on trial for leading a peaceful protest against Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The British state is attacking the Palestine movement and our right to protest.
Our entire movement is on trial on Monday.Will you stand with us?
Yes, I willOver the past two and a half years we have turned up in our hundreds of thousands, taking to the streets to protest Israel’s genocide and our government’s complicity. Since the beginning we have faced increasingly draconian attempts to silence us for speaking out and supporting the Palestinian people.
In January 2025, the Metropolitan Police banned us from marching to the BBC to protest their failure to accurately report on Israel’s crimes. In response, we held a peaceful static protest on Whitehall.
A delegation, including actor Juliet Stevenson, Holocaust survivor Stephen Kapos, and Jeremy Corbyn MP, sought to walk to the BBC to lay flowers representing the dead in Gaza. Instead of allowing this delegation to exercise their right to protest, the police arrested Chris Nineham and dozens of peaceful protestors. Four of the leaders of our coalition, including the Director of PSC, now face trial for alleged public order offences.
These politically motivated charges are an outrageous attack on our right to protest Israel’s war crimes against the Palestinian people. Can you chip in to help us fight back?
Donate to PSCBen and Chris may be the two in the dock on Monday, but this trial has huge implications for every one of us who stands with Palestine.
If we win, we will strike a fatal blow to the arguments used by the state over the past two years to restrict where and when we can march, what we can chant, and how loud we can shout about our government’s complicity in Israel’s crimes.
This case is taking place at the same time as the government attempts to push through new laws to restrict our rights even further. The proposed Crime and Policing Bill would provide the police with powers to restrict or effectively ban protests based on their supposed ‘cumulative disruption’. We are organising a mass lobby of Parliament on Tuesday 17 March against these outrageous proposals, but a victory in this trial would massively increase the pressure on the government to reverse course.
Can you support our campaign to defend the right to protest with a donation?
The Palestine solidarity movement has never been stronger, but has also never been under greater attack. The historic High Court decision last week ruling the government’s proscription of Palestine Action unlawful shows not only that the government will go to outrageous lengths to criminalise those campaigning against British complicity in Israel’s crimes, but also that when we fight back we can win.
No matter what happens we will never stop supporting the Palestinian people, we will never stop speaking out against Israel’s crimes, and we will never stop campaigning until Palestine is free – from the river to the sea.
In Solidarity
Louise Regan
PSC Chair
P.S. You can join our protest outside Westminster Magistrate’s Court at 9AM on Monday.