The proscription of Palestine Action must be “withdrawn”, Green Party leader Zack Polanski has said.
Addressing his party’s conference in Bournemouth, Mr Polanski said the Labour government had overseen a “draconian crackdown on the right to protest” by legally banning and labelling the group a terrorist organisation.
Politics latest: PM welcomes first female Archbishop of Canterbury
It comes as a group that supports Palestine Action was criticised for planning a march in London on Saturday, days after the attack on a synagogue in Manchester that resulted in the death of two men.
The Met Police has called for a planned protest, organised by Defend Our Juries, to be delayed or cancelled after the incident on Thursday, while Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, called a separate protest held on Thursday in support of Palestine as “dishonorable” and “un-British”.
Mr Polanski said he felt Thursday’s attack “deeply” as a Jewish man raised in north Manchester, and that “my heart is with our community more widely”.
But he repeated his belief that Israel’s actions in Gaza amounted to “genocide” and that the UK “must stop selling arms to Israel”.
“We must stop sharing intelligence. We will do everything we can to stop the genocide.”
The government has suspended some arms exports licences to Israel due to concerns they could be used to violate international law.
However, components for the F35 jets were not included in the ban, except when they were sent directly to Israel, as the UK is part of a supply chain that sells the jets to more than 20 countries.
Mr Polanski went on to say that every MP who had supported the proscription of Palestine Action as terrorist organisation should “hang their heads in shame”.
“We cannot talk about stopping genocide without talking about draconian crackdown on the right to protest happening against those taking action for Palestine; using terrorist legislation to arrest hundreds and hundreds of protesters for simply…
