The court appearance on Tuesday of three protesters charged with terrorism offences because they held up signs declaring their support for Palestine Action should shame the government. The decision to proscribe the group, taken in June, was an alarmingly illiberal overreaction to the damage some of the group’s supporters are alleged to have caused to military equipment. Now ministers and the public are seeing the consequences, as non-violent protesters against the ban are brought before judges.
A long and proud tradition of civil disobedience includes campaigners for women’s suffrage, and against nuclear weapons and the burning of fossil fuels. Yet with its rash decision to lump the kind of direct action practised by Palestine Action in with terrorism, ministers have turned their back on this. More than 1,600 people have been arrested since the ban, many of them middle-aged and older. More protests are planned.
