Outrage after retired priest arrested for supporting Palestine Action amid UK crackdown on pro-Palestine activism
The Reverend Sue Parfitt, from Bristol, was detained for holding a placard that read: “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.” She was among more than 27 people arrested on Saturday for acts of defiance against the proscription.
the UK is against backing "Palestine Action" which is a group that has sabotaged British military equipment. Surprisingly, the British government doesn't take kindly to that sort of thing.
They're calling these people terrorists for holding signs calling for the end of Israel's genocide. They're not calling the people who have been committing genocide every day terrorists: they're valuable allies. This is the UK Government's morality. I hope it's not shared by the British people.
Technically it's because some members of the group trespassed in a military base and vandalised an airplane. Which is trespassing and vandalism. Not terrorism. Unless Starmer has been watching too much Thomas & the Friends and Pixar's Cars and believes that the poor planes can't sleep at night anymore, because they are terrified.
No they're not. There's a difference between "Palestine Action" (the group) and "actions and other stuff in favour of Palestine". The former has been banned, the latter has not. Protesting is legal in the UK; vandalising Air Force equipment is not.
What if it is an excuse to put people that openly oppose colonialism and authority under control and fear? They maybe don't care that much for Israel but why miss this opportunity?
Just wondering, if I would hold up a sign with 'go isreal, continue the amazing work you do!', would that get me arrested? Surely i'd get beat up but i mean what would the lawmakers think of that? Would it be different if the sign would say 'go isreal, murder those innocent families' or 'go isreal, your genocide rules!' (am i allowed to call it a genocide if i'm not against it?)
go on the telly, then show them a mirror to themselves. talk how excited you are for how many humanitarian volunteers are being slaughtered, how clever is it to stave children so they can take their land....
What really happened here: Members of this Palestine Action group sneaked onto a military base and attacked the aircrafts there. This act of politically motivated vandalism resulted in this group being officially banned by the government. Which is totally ok, no state in the world will and can tolerate some group doing acts of terrorism and/or doing sabotage.
Supporting banned terrorist organizations is of course also not allowed (which really makes sense) and yeah, this priest totally did that on purpose. You are therefore totally fine holding up a sign supporting Israel and you are also totally fine holding up a sign supporting Palestine, but you are not fine holding up signs supporting banned organizations.
Nah, Labeling them as "terrorists" is disproportionate.
Criminals, yes. Terrorists, no.
The definition of terrorism under british law can apply to basically any protest group and if applied retroactively would drag things like the suffragette movement under the umbrella of terrorism.
This move is an assault on all of our freedom of speech
What really happened is already in the article, my questions are about how lawmakers would respond if you openly support the same side they are supporting. That is especially relevant as r i don't expect regular folk to let me walk around showing the same kind of support for genocide. This has nothing to do with the Palestine Action group and what they did or didn't do.
MPs had voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to proscribe the direct action group, alongside the neo-Nazi Maniacs Murder Cult and the Russian Imperial Movement.
Has anyone affiliated with the other two groups been arrested since this went into effect?
A very proactieve protestor and spunky woman of the cloth, who seems to have been arrested 27-28 times already. According to this profile publication she claims she "has militant dna, as a maternal ancestor was accused of sedition in the 18th century".
What a Fucking Legend!!! People such as her should be our icons. Not the plastic ridiculous people that the legacy media and the algorithimc social media keep pushing out like clowns to the circus floor to keep people distracted.
Sue Parfitt. Let's remember her name. In fact I'm gonna save this post.
And while I'm not one to support religion, between her and the reverend that gave that sermon to Trump's face in church, I would say "Lady Priests" (apologies for the reductionism) are having a moment and showing the cloth that apparently only the women in it seem to remember what "their calling" is supposed to be all about.
If anyone knows the name of the woman that gave that sermon, tag it under. Please.
It's not about supporting the church, it's about giving credit where credit is due.
In fact, we should start making a record of the people who are raising to the occasion these days all over the world, and taking the moral stand and give them the space and the limelight, instead of allowing everything to be about the shitty people doing their shitty deeds. That takes so much of the bandwith as it is, and makes us feel alone in the face of it all.
Be it about the atrocities being committed in Gaza, Ukraine, the U.S. or in any place where wrongful actions are occurring, let us make visible the people that raise to face it. Let us put forward the faces and voices of the ones who still truly give the word "humanity" some of its supposed meaning back.
PS: A lot of people here might not be able to read Spanish. But I do and I really liked the article you linked. It was a really nice complement to the one linked in the post. So, thank you for sharing it.
Praising a good priest is not much different than praising a good republican. You can be a good person without associating yourself to corrupted political parties or bigot cults