Photo: Courtesy of Laura Wirtz.
Quakers arrested at Palestine Action ban protest
At least sixteen Quakers were among more than 500 people arrested at the London protest on 9 August
Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) has joined four civil liberties organisations in urging the attorney general to delay prosecuting peaceful protesters arrested at a demonstration against the Palestine Action ban.
At least sixteen Quakers were among more than 500 people arrested at the London protest on 9 August. Palestine Action has been proscribed since 5 July, making it a criminal offence to show support for the organisation.
The five signatories – BYM, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Human Rights Watch and Global Witness – recommend that Richard Hermer waits until the judicial review of the proscription order has concluded to avoid having to undo a potentially major miscarriage of justice, if the proscription is deemed unlawful. The letter highlights the argument in the judicial review that the proscription of Palestine Action constitutes a disproportionate interference with human rights.
Paul Parker, BYM’s recording clerk, said: ‘Even before the proscription order, Quakers were concerned that there is a creeping repression of dissent on the part of the state… Sometimes, after deep spiritual searching, Quakers find that this requires us to take action that is against the law. Whilst we respect the laws of the state, our first loyalty must always be to God’s purposes. These criminal proceedings are based on unsafe law and should be paused until due judicial process has addressed this.’
Laura Wirtz, from Blackheath Meeting, told the Friend that forty of the sixty Quakers who attended a separate witness on the same day in London’s Russell Square went on to the protest in Parliament Square. Quaker Palestine Solidarity coordinated two blocs of Friends at the earlier witness on 9 August, following a Meeting for Worship at Friends House. ‘Forty then met up at Embankment and went to Parliament Square to witness with Defend Our Juries,’ said Laura, a coordinator for Quaker Palestine Solidarity.
Overall there were 532 arrests at the protest organised by Defend Our Juries. All but ten were under Section 13 of the Terrorism Act for displaying supportive placards or signs for the banned Palestine Action group. Police figures reveal that of the 519 arrested people with confirmed dates of birth, 49.9 per cent were sixty years or older. Nearly 100 of those detained were in their seventies and fifteen were in their eighties. Amnesty International described the arrests as ‘deeply concerning’. One of those arrested was Jonathon Porritt, a former government adviser who was arrested under Section 13 and bailed until 23 October. He told The Guardian that the proscription of Palestine Action was a ‘a measure of the government’s desperation’ and ‘entirely inappropriate’.
Defend Our Juries has received legal advice that the arrestees could bring cases of wrongful arrest should the proscription be overturned.
Yvette Cooper, home secretary, said: ‘The right to protest is one we protect fiercely but this is very different from displaying support for this one specific and narrow, proscribed organisation.
‘Palestine Action was proscribed based on strong security advice following serious attacks the group has committed, involving violence, significant injuries and extensive criminal damage.’ The group has denied these allegations.
Quakers arrested were: Maris Vigar (Stourbridge Meeting); Rajan Naidu and Fran Wilde (Selly Oak Meeting); Jim Newmark (Rugby Meeting); Jonathan Hill (Canterbury Meeting); Kitty Bishop (Forest Hill Meeting); Steve Hornby (Central Manchester Meeting); Heather Bacon and Chayley Collis (Huddersfield Meeting); Chris Winters (Bethnal Green Meeting); Lesley Grahame (Norwich Meeting); Julia Bush (Bristol Meeting); Shayne Mitchell (Cambridge Jesus Lane Meeting); Martin Drummond (Norwich Meeting); Trudi Warner (Hampstead Meeting and Walthamstow Meeting); and Lin Patterson (Bath Meeting).
Comments
I am not in a position to judge whether Palestine Action is a terrorist organisation. However there is a pattern to some of their actions that I find disturbing both as a Jew and a Quaker.
Buried in the 360 acts of vandalism against various institutions have been three attacks that have nothing to do with influencing arms sales to, or investment in Israel.
Palestine Action explicitly claimed responsibility for slashing and spraying Philip de László’s 1914 portrait at Trinity College, Cambridge in March 2024.
In November 2024, they again publicly claimed responsibility for the theft of a bust of Dr. Chaim Weizmann from Manchester University, timing the action with the 107th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration. Dr. Weizmann was Israel’s first president and a key figure in the movement for Jewish statehood.
Also in November, Palestine Action sprayed red paint over the offices of the Jewish National Fund - a Zionist charity originally established to purchase land under Ottoman rule and still closely associated with Jewish nation-building and the identity of the State of Israel.
These actions cannot be understood as efforts to disrupt arms supplies or influence present-day policy. They had no practical effect on Israeli military activity or British foreign policy. But they were not random. Balfour and Weizmann are not military figures - they are foundational icons of the creation of the State of Israel, as is the Jewish National Fund.
To target them is not an attack on the actions of the current Israeli government, but the very idea that the State of Israel was ever legitimate. These were symbolic acts aimed at delegitimising Israel’s existence, not protesting its conduct. That distinction is crucial - and dangerous to ignore.
In Minute 30 of Britain Yearly Meeting 2025, Friends declared:
“And so, we cannot say clearly enough: it is this current Israeli government that we are led to say we believe is committing genocide. Jewish people are not committing genocide. The Israeli people are not committing genocide. We abhor, and will challenge, any attempt to exploit our words to incite, fuel, or commit anti-Jewish and antisemitic hatred or violence. We abhor, and will challenge, any attempt to use our words to question the existence of Israel or the Israeli people’s right to live in peace and security.”
By Ol Rappaport on 21st August 2025 - 15:04
I was with a group of Quakers who hadn’t managed to connect with the Quaker Palestine Solidarity group at the event on 9 Aug - and Abigail Maxwell (Brighton Meeting) was also arrested, as she anticipated. The other two of us were witnesses.
Disturbingly, a friend who came with us was also arrested - despite not at any point carrying a placard or saying anything in support of Palestine Action.
I’m now in touch with QPS and hope to be back in Parliament Square with them at the next event!
Kate
By katemackrell on 28th August 2025 - 20:54
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