In an in depth briefing forward of the demonstration as a consequence of happen in Parliament Sq. at 12:50pm this Saturday, organisers have shared authorized contacts and urged individuals to “take care of one another” as they doubtlessly anticipate police involvement.
Native healthcare officers declare Israel has killed greater than 60,000 Palestinians since October 2023, with a rising variety of individuals all over the world are calling for an finish to the battle. However some activists within the UK argue that they’re being silenced.
However who’re Defend Our Juries?
Defend Our Juries: What’s it?
Defend Our Juries was initially based by a former authorities lawyer named Tim Crosland to spotlight the “constitutional disaster going down in our courts.”
The group believes that the unbiased rights of juries within the UK are being threatened, significantly in instances heard by judges relating to environmental activists and people arrested for taking direct motion to cease racial injustice or finish the battle in Gaza.
As juries initially discovered many of those activists “not responsible”, the group claims that lobbyists and justices are attempting to wield energy over juries and courts that “violate probably the most fundamental ideas of pure justice and the precise to a good trial.”
An instance of the kind of factor they’re involved about is when a decide discovered two Insulate Britain activists in contempt of courtroom and jailed them for seven weeks for mentioning the local weather disaster of their closing statements. It got here after the decide banned the defendants from telling the jury they had been protesting in regards to the local weather disaster and gas poverty.
Though Defend Our Juries isn’t tied to some other organisation, Crosland was one in every of dozens of people that had been reportedly arrested days after Palestine Motion was proscribed as a terrorist group, when police descended on a gaggle of peaceable protestors holding up indicators calling for an finish to genocide in solidarity with Palestine Motion.
Talking earlier than his arrest, Crosland stated: “In idea, we are actually terrorist supporters and may go to jail for 14 years, which is sort of loopy. I feel what we’re right here to do is simply expose the craziness of that.”
One among their newest campaigns has centred on calls to “carry the ban” which was imposed on Palestine Motion in July 2025 after they had been proscribed a terrorist organisation – a transfer that many rights teams have criticised.
“Following intensive lobbying by representatives of the Israeli authorities and the arms trade comparable to Lord Walney, dishonestly offered to the general public as ‘unbiased advisers’, Palestine Motion have been branded as a ‘terrorist organisation’, for attempting to cease crimes in opposition to humanity and for exposing the British authorities’s complicity in genocide,” Defend Our Juries stated.
They’re now demonstrating in an try to boost consciousness and name for the ban to be lifted.
“It’s critical that our marketing campaign succeeds – not only for Palestine Motion however for democracy,” they stated.
“As soon as the that means of ‘terrorism’ is separated from campaigns of violence in opposition to a civilian inhabitants, and prolonged to incorporate these inflicting financial harm or embarrassment to the wealthy, the highly effective and the prison, then the precise to freedom of expression has no that means and democracy is useless. If we let this go, the unions, and local weather and racial justice actions shall be subsequent.”
What to anticipate from the Defend Our Juries demonstration
There are literally two demonstrations going down tomorrow in central London: Elevate The Ban (LTB) and the Nationwide March for Palestine.
Defend Our Juries has revealed that greater than 500 individuals have agreed to participate in tomorrow’s LTB demonstration, the place they are going to peacefully sit with their placards for round an hour from 1pm.
On the sound of Massive Ben, these participating are planning to write down “I OPPOSE GENOCIDE, I SUPPORT PALESTINE ACTION” on their indicators.
In keeping with the group’s briefing, “there’s a substantial danger of arrest”, however at this level it’s exhausting to inform what’s going to occur subsequent. The Met Police have confirmed to The Commonplace that arrests are seemingly for those who present assist for Palestine Motion.
The police have detained earlier teams displaying such indicators, nevertheless it appears to be like like organisers suspect the sheer quantity of protestors participating this time might make this troublesome.
Organisers are telling attendees: “Anticipate to be arrested.”
The briefing provides: “500 is greater than double the whole variety of individuals arrested below the Terrorism Act in 2024.
“It will be virtually and politically troublesome for the state to answer an motion on this scale. Even assuming it had the bodily capability to arrest so many individuals on the identical day, the political fallout from such an operation could be incalculable, inflicting irreparable harm to the fame of the federal government and the police. Our evaluation is that an motion on this scale may very well be sufficient for the ban to be lifted.”
Their efforts come because the group additionally makes an attempt to demand that the UK authorities carry a ban that’s been imposed on Palestine Action after it was proscribed as a terrorist organisation final month.
In keeping with the group’s briefing, they think that it wouldn’t be “virtually or politically potential for the police to arrest 500 individuals for holding cardboard indicators in opposition to the genocide,” and it’d “be sufficient to make sure the ban is lifted.”
A Met Police spokesperson confirmed to The Commonplace that those that present assist for Palestine Motion “can anticipate to be arrested.”
“We’re conscious that the organisers of Saturday’s deliberate protest are encouraging lots of of individuals end up with the intention of inserting a pressure on the police and the broader prison justice system,” the spokesperson stated.
“The Met could be very skilled in coping with giant scale protests, together with the place the protest exercise crosses into criminality requiring arrests. Whereas we won’t go into the precise particulars of our plan, the general public may be assured that we’ll have the sources and processes in place to answer any eventuality.
They continued: “Our officers will proceed to use the regulation in relation to Palestine Motion as we have now accomplished since its proscription. Anybody exhibiting assist for the group can anticipate to be arrested.”
