The era that marched in file numbers towards the Iraq battle realized one factor clearly: respectable protest alone doesn’t work. On the difficulty of Palestine, too, the facility elite has repeatedly ignored the favored will. The media pays little consideration to lots of of 1000’s marching, and the federal government stays unmoved regardless of public polls exhibiting a majority help for an arms embargo on Israel.
This democratic deficit in Britain makes direct motion appear the one highly effective technique to oppose Western battle‑mongering within the Center East. And Britain’s ongoing navy help for Israel’s genocide in Gaza is why I help Palestine Motion – the group the Residence Secretary, Yvette Cooper, is planning to proscribe as a terrorist organisation after its activists vandalised a Ministry of Defence plane.
I, too, have felt morally compelled to take direct motion. In summer time 2014, when Israel bombed Gaza for 51 days – killing greater than 2,200 Palestinians – I used to be a member of the unique London Palestine Motion group. We occupied the roof of a drone‑engine manufacturing facility owned by Elbit Methods, halting manufacturing for 2 days. It stays one among my proudest moments.
However our group burned out and have become dormant till relaunching below a unique title in 2023. In contrast, the nationwide Palestine Motion, based in 2020, has mounted a sustained marketing campaign towards Elbit Methods, taking far larger private dangers.
Impressed by Smash EDO, the Raytheon 9, and the 1996 motion that decommissioned Hawk jets to cease Suharto’s bombing of East Timor, Palestine Motion has destroyed hundreds of thousands of kilos’ value of navy tools. They’ve turn into a critical thorn within the aspect of the navy–industrial complicated. Many – usually younger ladies, queer folks and folks of color – have been imprisoned, sacrificing their freedom as political prisoners.
Crucially, Palestine Motion has by no means harmed a human being. Their actions – non‑violent but disruptive – have saved lives. In contrast, Israel’s genocide in Gaza has killed or maimed a minimum of 200,000 folks, together with tens of 1000’s of kids. This constitutes state terror by any commonplace. These courageous activists are performing to forestall it as a result of their authorities refuses to.
If the British authorities had by no means armed Israel, or had stopped doing so at any time prior to now decade, Palestine Motion would have had no goal and won’t have existed. Maybe then, as I write, Israel wouldn’t be committing genocide in Gaza both. However Britain’s perspective in the direction of Palestinians has been rooted in colonial conceitedness for over a century, originating with the Balfour Declaration.
Palestine Motion’s direct intervention has uncovered the contradictions in Britain’s place on Israel. The Residence Secretary’s plan to proscribe the group as a terrorist organisation reveals the authoritarian nature of the present Labour authorities and the racialised social management underpinning the “battle on terror”.
By branding non‑violent resisters as “terrorists”, the UK has taken a leaf instantly from Israel’s playbook. Simply this month, Israel did the identical to the Palestinian rights group Addameer. This tactic is more and more utilized by authoritarian states around the globe. It’s the street to fascism – and it threatens to additional erode the democratic freedoms we nonetheless have in Britain.
However this tactic won’t work. You possibly can ban a gaggle, however not a motion or an concept. Palestine Motion has engaged acclaimed lawyer Gareth Pierce to problem the proscription in courtroom. And even when the ban stays in place, direct motion will persist so long as Britain helps Israel’s genocide.
But direct motion alone can not finish this atrocity. It’ll take all of us, from inside and past institutional politics, pressuring Britain from each angle. It received’t occur in a single day, however it will probably occur.
And when Palestine is free, historical past will bear in mind clearly: Keir Starmer and his authorities as enablers of genocide, and Palestine Motion as heroic peace activists who laid down their liberty – and their our bodies – to oppose state terror.
The views expressed on this article are the creator’s personal and don’t essentially replicate Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.