On Saturday 10August 2025 I was part of a silent march in Leeds to protest against the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people by the Israeli government.
British complicity in Palestinian genocide
The march highlighted Britian’s complicity in this, pointing out that our government:
- Refuses to take measures to stop UK-made components for F-35 fighters from being delivered to Israel. UK firms have exported thousands of military items including munitions to Israel since the government’s limited arms license ban in September.
- Has flown over 500 reconnaissance flights over Gaza since December 2023, officially described as intelligence-gathering on hostage situations, but raising concerns that they may aid Israeli military planning.
- Downplays Israel’s attacks on Gaza, describing claims of genocide as “inappropriate and inaccurate” – while failing to condemn documented war crimes.
- Continues to train IDF soldiers on UK soil during the genocide.
- Maintains £6bn worth of annual trade with Israel on Israel’s economy.
These actions and policies have contributed to the ongoing targeting of millions with bombings, shootings, and enforced starvation.
Leeds march: rain and resolve
The protest, organised by Leeds Palestine Solidarity Campaign, a group which has marched every Saturday since 7 October 2023, led nearly 500 people in a silent walk through the streets of Leeds, to the beat of a drum that rang out like a death knell. The marchers were respectful and dignified, wearing t-shirts and keffiyeh scarfs, carrying tote bags, placards and banners.
Two weeks prior, former Leeds head teacher Mr Farley had been arrested at another march for holding a similar banner. It showed a Private Eye magazine cover, that used satire to drive home a point: what was, and what was not, the definition of Palestine Action. Ian Hislop, editor of Private Eye, described the arrest as “quite blatantly an example of free speech”.
I was at that march and saw what happened.
The day Farley was arrested it was raining. Torrents created rivers, which people stepped over, then splashed through. With the usual six PSCOs on duty and only a few days post Yvette Cooper proscribing Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation, the atmosphere was calm.
Arrests for terrorism offences in Leeds
As we silently passed the train station, bystanders stood and watched us respectfully. Then, as the march rounded the corner by the Corn Exchange, a parked police van came into view. There were no placards directly mentioning Palestine Action, only images of aid that was being denied by Israel to starving, desperate people, and symbolic bundles wrapped in white cloth to represent deceased children.
Suddenly, police officers emerged from the vans and moved through the crowd. Some marchers stopped, confused. Then I saw a man sat on the curb, with officers standing over him. As they took him away, a crowd formed shouting “shame on you” at the police who, having quickly moved him to the police van, drove away leaving an angry and bemused group of people no longer content to remain silent.
Though the march continued in silence tensions remained high. As we made our way back to the Leeds Art Gallery, far-right activists began shouting abusive remarks and comments. Confrontation with hard-core right-wing agitators is not unusual during such events. On this occasion the aggravation came from a group of men with phones on selfie sticks filming marchers while directing verbal abuse at the women marchers.
These remarks included derogatory comments about appearance and gender, and the language was aggressive and explicit. Some women responded by requested the men to stop, only to be met with further hostility. Other women intervened and gently guided their fellow protesters back to the main group. This collective effort proved a reminder of solidarity and purpose.
When symbolism meets suppression
That day I was angry, not only about the situation in Gaza, but with the approach and what is happening under the Trump administration, and to a great extent what is happening within the Labour Party. I was also frustrated with the home secretary, who has in the past been a huge supporter of our Forgotten Women of Wakefield campaign and with whom I had stood alongside at the unveiling of our blue plaque to Baroness Bacon in 2018.
We felt proud when Cooper proudly aligned herself with Baroness Bacon’s legacy, which is intrinsically interlinked with our campaign to embolden female voices, raise awareness of the battles women went through to be ‘allowed to vote’, and highlight the inequalities and inate prejudices women and people of colour today still suffer.
Fast forward seven years and much has changed. On the morning of 5 July, when Cooper stood proudly wearing the suffragette sash, just hours before formally designating Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation under UK law, the contradiction felt like an insult. It looked like she was exploiting the suffragist cause for a photo opportunity and deliberately reframing the past.
The reality of the suffragist movement
The suffragettes and their policy of direct action led to women being recognised in law. Their actions created a precedent for what is understood to be an acceptable form of protest ever since. It has become part of our fundamental human rights and the UN has critised the removal of that right. Suffragettes targeted property to protest the fact that buildings had more legal rights than women. They pioneered a combined political programme of mass action and radical tactics such as window smashing and arson; tried and tested strategies many of which have been adopted by Palestine Action.
Before 1918, the state suppression of women seeking to voice their (well-informed and cleverly expressed) political opinions, was intrinsically linked with a demand for change and a recognition of injustice. The arrest, imprisonment, torture through force feeding, and targeting of women in a deliberate effort to break and silence them, merely made them more determined. And thank goodness it did.
The precurser to the suffagette movement was the suffragist movement – a campaign that pursued women’s political rights through consititutional and non-violent means. Wakefield was home to notable suffragists like Florence Beaumont, a commited advocate for women’s enfranchisement and social reform. The work of these campaigners helped lay the groundwork for later, more militant actions by the suffragttes.
Nuance and creative protest
When the government brought forward changes to legislation in order to proscribe Palestine Action, it placed a group that uses direct action to target property, alongside violent extremist organisations such as the Maniacs Murder Club and the Russian Imperial Movement. Both of these groups have white supremicist views: with the Maniacs Murder Club being a neo-Nazi organisation that explicitly encourages violence against people, and the Russian Imperial Movement linked to the bombings in Sweden. MPs were required to vote on all three groups together, a decision that many criticised in advance, as it felt deliberately manipulative.
Now, people are being arrested for the creative and nuanced use of words, often demonstrating the power of punctuation. For example, does, ‘I oppose genocide. I support Palestine. Action needed now’, mean the same as, ‘I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action. Change needed now.’ It does not. Nuance is something that Britain has long excelled at, and as far as it is known, no one holds intellectual property rights over the phrase ‘Palestine Action’. This became apparent when police arrested Farley for carrying a placard using wordplay on the group’s name. Applying the legal definiton of terrorism to him proved unsustainable, and charges did not hold.
Protesters are a creative and adaptive bunch and will always find a way around how language is being manipulated to control. One example is Miles Pickering who was arrested at a London march on 9 August for wearing a t-shirt that read:
“Plasticine Action. I oppose AI generated animation.”
He was, unsurprisingly, de-arrested.
