Home Office official raises alarm that Palestine Action ban may ‘overwhelm’ Prevent | EUROtoday

The Palestine Action proscription may overwhelm the anti-terrorism Prevent program and result in folks being wrongly criminalised, a Home Office official has reportedly warned.

Members of counter-terrorism police, and officers in colleges and hospitals had been already experiencing confusion following the proscription of the direct motion group in response to The Guardian.

The authorities made it a prison offence below the Terrorism Act to be a member of or present assist for Palestine Action on 5 July after a bunch of protesters broke into RAF Brize Norton and spray-painted two RAF Voyager planes. The transfer to proscribe the group has sparked controversy and a authorized problem will probably be heard subsequent week towards the choice

A member of the Home Office’s homeland safety group expressed concern to the newspaper that even those that had been concerned in Palestine advocacy, however not supportive of the proscribed group, had been being wrongly labelled as extremist and people being referred to Prevent for supporting Palestine Action didn’t at all times pose a menace.

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Metropolitan Police confirmed at the very least 90 folks had been detained whereas protesting authorities actions banning activist group Palestine Action, on Saturday. Many gathered on the Peace Garden in Tavistock Square, central London, holding placards that learn: “I oppose genocide” and “Support Palestine Action.”

Elderly people had been amongst these detained by officers, receiving applause from onlookers in assist, as they had been led away.

The homeland safety official, who works carefully with Prevent, and spoke anonymously to The Guardianstated: “We have already seen police officers, let alone frontline Prevent practitioners, mistakenly arrest or interfere with people for supporting Palestine, not supporting Palestine Action.

“There is a risk that what’s now the crime of support for Palestine Action might lead to the Prevent system becoming an unwitting sort of gateway for people to mistakenly be criminalised, especially young people who don’t know the law and they don’t know the consequences of expressing what might sound like – or may actually be – support for a group that, overnight, has become proscribed.”

The Prevent programme requires authorities among the many training, well being and native sectors to report considerations about people who find themselves susceptible to radicalisation. Already figures revealed earlier this months confirmed that referrals to the anti-terrorism programme had been the best since data started.

“I’m concerned about a surge in referrals to the Prevent system that might have a link to Palestine advocacy in light of the fact that this very high profile group is now proscribed, and the confusion there might be on the frontline in schools and healthcare settings and all the other places that are expected to make Prevent referrals,” the official added.

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While the Home Office official stated it was early days to see the true impression of Palestine Action’s proscription, they feared Prevent might be “overwhelmed” when it was already below “unprecedented” stress following the Southport assaults.

An extra 120 folks had been notified of fees towards them on Thursday for exhibiting assist in direction of Palestine Action, bringing the whole variety of fees for this offence in London to 254 since July this yr. Counter Terrorism Policing London is constant to analyze these arrested for exhibiting assist in direction of the proscribed group.

The authorities’s determination to proscribe Palestine Action was condemned by the UN Human Rights Chief as misusing “the gravity and impact of terrorism to expand it beyond those clear boundaries, to encompass further conduct that is already criminal under the law” again in July.

Volker Türk warned: “UK domestic counter-terrorism legislation defines terrorist acts broadly to include ‘serious damage to property’. But, according to international standards, terrorist acts should be confined to criminal acts intended to cause death or serious injury or to the taking of hostages, for purpose of intimidating a population or to compel a government to take a certain action or not.”

A Home Office spokesperson stated: “We do not comment on anonymous briefings.

“Supporting Palestine is not the same as supporting a proscribed terrorist organisation. There are many lawful ways to express support for Palestinian rights and sovereignty without being a member of, or associated with, this harmful group.”