Police arrest protesters outside Labour party conference in Liverpool
Police have begun arresting protesters supporting the banned group Palestine Action outside the Labour Party conference in Liverpool.
About 100 people have gathered silently to hold signs reading: “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action,” protest group Defend Our Juries said.
Palestine Action was banned as a terror organization in July after the group claimed responsibility for an action where two Voyager planes were damaged at RAF Brize Norton the previous month.
A Merseyside Police spokesperson said: “We can confirm that officers are present at a Defend Our Juries protest near The Wheel of Liverpool this afternoon, Sunday, 28 September.
“Some of the people in attendance have displayed material in support of Palestine Action.
“Officers are in the process of making arrests on suspicion of wearing/carrying an article supporting a proscribed organization.”
A spokesperson for Defend Our Juries said: “We’ve come to remind everyone that the Labour Party is in breach of its duty to act to prevent genocide under international law.
“Instead it made the cowardly decision to ban the direct action group that was trying to prevent genocide.
“Labour members and trades unions are overwhelmingly against their party’s complicity in genocide and the ban on Palestine Action.
“Yet party officials have shut down all the debates that members wanted to have on these issues during their conference."
One of the protesters, Keith Hackett, 71, said: “I’m risking arrest today under terrorism legislation because as a former Labour councillor in Liverpool I am deeply ashamed of how Labour are acting.
“If they want to start turning the party around and win back the support they have lost they need to stop their complicity in this genocide and end the ban on Palestine Action.
“They need to recognize that direct action has been a fundamental part of the gains that have been in the labour movement.”
Kerry Moscogiuri, Amnesty International UK’s director of communications and campaigns, said: “These arrests should not be happening. It is clearly both ridiculous and seriously disproportionate for police to be targeting and arresting people for sitting down, quietly holding a sign."
World Affairs Correspondent
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