Defend Our Juries has launched an official online pledge, seeking 1,000 commitments to take part in the next mass action in Parliament Square on 6 September against the Labour Party government’s unprecedented proscription of Palestine Action.
Defend Our Juries protest: pledge to take action
Over 2,500 people signed up to say they wanted to take part in the next Lift the Ban action before the 6 September date was announced. The action will only go ahead if 1,000 people make this official commitment to ensure a critical mass of people holding “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action” signs on 6 September.
The new online tool, launched Friday 22 August, requires signees to pledge:
I am committed to attending the mass-participation sign-holding action on September 6th 2025
It also asks signees to confirm that they:
understand that joining this action comes with risk of arrest and other legal consequences.
Defend Our Juries is also publishing a new action briefing document in tandem with this. The online pledge requires those making that commitment to confirm they:
have read, in full, the Action Briefing Document relating to September 6th Lift The Ban action.
The group will hold online briefing calls twice a week in the build up to September 6. This is to ensure it has fully briefed and answered the questions any sign holders may have about the action.
Non-compliance with charade of ‘street bail’
The action briefing document advises protesters to “not comply” with street bail.
The “non compliance” section of the Briefing, states that:
non compliance with the police is an aspect of principled nonviolence. As Amnesty International have made clear, the police in arresting peaceful protestors for quietly holding signs against the genocide, are acting in violation of international human rights law. Unlawful arrests are acts of violence. While we will not resist arrest, nor will we assist the police in the process of unlawful arrest.
The briefing explains that police were able to arrest more than 500 people at the last action on 9 August because they processed many using ‘street bail’ on the side of the road. It meant they bailed them to attend a police station on another day – which denied those people the right to immediate legal advice. The police can only do this if the person they’re arresting agrees to provide their personal details and ID at the protest.
If a sign-holder refuses to comply with the process of street bail, the police have to take that person to a police station in order to carry out the arrest. The briefing states:
had more people insisted on the right to be taken to a police station, which ensures the provision of immediate legal advice, the police would not have been able to complete so many arrests.
Therefore, the briefing urges those taking part in the 6 September action to refuse to give their details to police at the scene. In doing so, they will avoid complying with the ‘charade’ of street bail, which the Met used to arrest hundreds of people on 9 August.
Refuse to assist the police in the process of unlawful arrest
The briefing document also advises protesters to “go floppy” when the police is arresting them and to avoid walking with the police. While the briefing acknowledges that this will not be possible for all protesters because of disability or injury, it urges those who can ‘go floppy’ to do so in order to:
refuse to assist the police in the process of unlawful arrest.
It adds that:
if they insist on arresting us, they will have to carry us.
The 6 September action is conditional on 1,000 official pledges. This is four times the total number of people the state arrested under the Terrorism Act in 2024. Non-compliance with unlawful arrests through ‘going floppy’ and rejecting street bail, will make it practically impossible for the police to enforce the unjust law against 1000 participants.
Defend Our Juries action to last indefinitely
Defend Our Juries has also announced that the action on 6 September will last indefinitely.
On 9 August, the protest was initially scheduled to last one hour (from 1-2pm). However, the police took several hours to arrest more than 522 people. Around half of those held the signings saying “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action”.
Many sign holders left the protest at the scheduled end time of 2pm and were not arrested. The new briefing, published today, says:
for as long as police are arresting people, we ask you to remain in place, until arrested, to maintain the collectivity of the group… Please come prepared to stay for as long as it takes.
The Met Police had complained that they faced “entirely unrealistic” challenges in policing the protest on 9 August because of the number of people expressing support for Palestine Action. Meanwhile, senior government officials have reportedly said the “vast majority” of those protesters are likely to avoid jail time. This is purportedly for:
avoiding clogging up the UK’s already overcrowded prisons.
Citing criticisms of the arrests and the waste of police resources, including from conservative voices such as Andrew Neil, Nick Ferrari, and Richard Madeley, the briefing document says Defend Our Juries does not believe that:
arrests on an even greater scale on 6 September will be politically sustainable
Labour party turns against proscription
The announcements come as the pressure mounts on Yvette Cooper from within her own party. In their podcast, The Rest Is Politics, Rory Stewart and Alistair Campbell claimed that the vast majority of Labour MPs are now opposed to proscription and feel “tricked” by the Home Secretary [1A].
The Financial Times reported:
This is causing division and concern in the highest level of government.
A new poll, reported in the Telegraph, shows that more than 70% of Labour Party members are against the proscription. This comes as The Liberal Democrats call for a review of the terrorism law the government has used to arrest hundreds of supporters of the banned group Palestine Action. It has warned that it risked having a “chilling effect” on free speech.
Jewish Voice for Labour published a letter from Defend Our Juries to the Attorney General, alleging contempt of court against Yvette Cooper. It commended the “sterling work” of Defend Our Juries.
Scottish prosecutors break rank over Defend Our Juries
It has now emerged the Scottish prosecutors have cancelled court dates for those charged with expressing support for Palestine Action. It has lifted bail conditions, following advice from the Scottish Human Rights Commission (SHRC) that the arrests of peaceful protestors risked breaking the law.
SHRC chair professor Angela O’Hagan said:
It is vital that Police Scotland and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service remember that there are very narrow circumstances under which political speech and ideas can be lawfully restricted, under European Convention on Human Rights [ECHR].
Cooper’s misleading claims debunked
It follows the release of the security services assessment by former diplomat and whistleblower Craig Murray. This debunked the misleading statements Keir Starmer, Yvette Cooper, and cabinet ministers have made about Palestine Action.
Defend Our Juries has filed a complaint with the Attorney General. This argues that such misleading statements, ahead of criminal prosecutions, are a contempt of court, as liable to prejudice the jury.
Spokesperson for Defend Our Juries Tim Crosland said:
Yvette Cooper seemed to think arresting people en masse would be a deterrent but it’s had the opposite effect, provoking public outcry and inspiring thousands of people to sign up on our website to say they want to take part in future actions to overturn this utterly dystopian ban on those taking meaningful action to stop the unlawful supply of arms to Israel.
The fact that the police only arrested around half of the protesters who held the signs already shows the Orwellian ban on Palestine Action is unworkable. The police were only able to arrest as many people as they did because of their trick of using ‘street bail’ on a mass scale, meaning people arrested of terrorism offences were denied the free legal advice they are entitled to when taken to a police station.
The Government’s monumental waste of policing resources to criminalise cardboard sign-holding against genocide, has already been been widely condemned by politicians and public figures across the political spectrum, including conservative figures, and even the Met Police complained that it was “entirely unrealistic” to expect them to be able to enforce the ban. Now the Labour Party has turned against the ban, with more than 70% of its members opposed to it, and MPs claiming to have been tricked by Cooper.
If 1,000 people sign the pledge to take part on 6th September, ensuring we have the critical mass we need for the action, and hundreds of them insist on their right to receive immediate free legal advice at a police station, the charade will be exposed. It will be practically impossible for the police to arrest 1,000 people taking part. Any law that is so obviously wrong that it meets mass public opposition quickly becomes unenforceable, as it was with the poll tax in 1990, and the Government will have to scrap it.
Featured image via the Canary
