UK Gives More Power to Cops to Disperse Demonstrators

British Police have been granted greater powers to clamp down on repeated protests, the UK Home Office announced Sunday, after hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists were arrested in central London for supporting the banned activist group Palestine Action, reports CNN. Nearly 500 people were arrested on Saturday in Trafalgar Square in central London for demonstrating in support of the group, according to London’s Metropolitan Police. The Home Office announcement comes after police and lawmakers asked organizers to call off Saturday’s “Lift the Ban” protest, which came just days after the Manchester synagogue attack where two people were killed on Yom Kippur, Judaism’s holiest day.

Protest organizers Defend Our Juries rejected those calls, saying “canceling peaceful protests lets terror win.”

Jewish activists were among the 493 people arrested Saturday, including Elizabeth Morley, a 79-year-old daughter of a Holocaust survivor who was arrested for the third time, and a 79-year-old Jewish man with a terminal illness, organizers said.

Like most of the other demonstrators arrested, the Jewish activists carried signs that read: “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.” The 83-year-old Reverend Sue Parfitt, an Anglican priest, was also among those arrested for a third time Saturday. Video from the protest showed the elderly and people with disabilities among those arrested, including a blind man using a mobility cane and two people in wheelchairs.

Citing Saturday’s mass arrests in its announcement, the Home Office said the expanded police powers – which will be brought in “as soon as possible” – would allow extra conditions to be put on what they called “repeat protests.”

The powers will give senior police officers the authority to ban or relocate protests based on their “cumulative impact.” Since Palestine Action was designated a terror organization in July, more than 2,000 people have been arrested at similar demonstrations across the United Kingdom.

Organizers of Saturday's protest, Defend Our Juries, had been asked to reconsider their plans following the killing of two men at the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue on Yom Kippur - the holiest day in the Jewish religious calendar.

But organizers said in a statement beforehand it hoped police "choose to prioritize protecting the public from real terrorism, and not waste resources on enforcing the absurd and ridiculous ban on Palestine Action".

Former Tory MP and minister Dame Penny Mordaunt, who co-wrote a cross-party report on antisemitism, said there was "no doubt" some people at the rallies were "violent antisemites stirring up hatred", while Conservative Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen said those standing alongside them were "useful idiots".

Labour MP Lucy Powell called for a "tougher regulatory regime" to stop the spread of antisemitism online, where she said the spread was phenomenal.

Adrian Daulby and Melvin Cravitz were killed after Jihad Al-Shamie drove a car into people and stabbed others outside a synagogue in Manchester. Al-Shamie then tried to force his way into the building before being shot dead by armed police.

Police later said that one of the men died after being struck by police gunfire. Three others were injured in the attack.


Kara Fox is a Senior Reporter
at CNN International. 
Courtesy: CNN