Unity Against Genocide stands against injustice and UK complicity

A group of Muslims, Jews, Christians and people of no religious faith will display placards outside the Supreme Court and the Home Office, in an act of peaceful civil resistance to injustice. They are calling for an end to the Genocide and an end to the government’s appeal of the judicial review ruling that the proscription of Palestine Action was illegal and disproportionate.

They stand as a group outside the Supreme Court at 1pm and the Home Office at 2pm on Monday 16 February.

Unity Against Genocide

As a multi-faith group, Unity Against Genocide stands in solidarity with the people of Gaza and the West Bank. Unity Against Genocide is standing in part to counter a narrative that seeks to divide us and silence opposition to the genocide.

Participants also continue to stress that the UK’s complicity in the continuing genocide of Gaza and annexation of the West Bank and Jerusalem must stop.

They support the thousands of people arrested after displaying signs in the Defend Our Juries campaign for the de-proscription of Palestine Action.

The Judicial Review ruled in favour of Palestine Action on 13 February. However the government has stated that it will appeal this decision.

Unity Against Genocide will stand outside the Home Office to send a clear message to Shabana Mahmood, that this appeal will be met by continued and escalated protest against the proscription of Palestine Action, and the unwarranted curtailment of free speech and for our right to jury trials.

Unity Against Genocide is separate from the group Defend Our Juries, which has taken regular action since the ban on Palestine Action was enforced. But the activists have taken a stand in solidarity against increasingly oppressive government legislation.

Holding the UK government accountable

Unity Against Genocide demands that the government:

• Drops the appeal against the judicial review which ruled in favour of Palestine Action.
• De-criminalises support for the rights of the Palestinian people.
• Issues immediate bail for the Filton 24.
• Stops foreign interference in government & institutions.
• Refuses to participate in Trump’s “Board for Peace” in Gaza.

Unity Against Genocide acts to hold the UK government accountable for war crimes. And it demands an end to the corrupting influence of Israeli lobbyists and their proxies on UK government policy.

Since 7 October 2023, over 71,000 Palestinians have been killed; some estimates give a far higher figure. While Hamas has released all hostages, Israel continues to detain nearly 10,000 Palestinians, including children and medical workers, most without charge.

Israel has violated the ceasefire more than 1,200 times, reduced Gaza to rubble, and escalated illegal settlement expansion and settler violence in the West Bank, displacing thousands and killing dozens.

Anti-Zionism is not antisemitism

In the UK, those who speak out against the gross human rights violations being committed by Israel continue to face growing censure. Journalists, academics, healthcare workers, teachers, and authors, among the many Jewish critics of Israel and Zionism, have been disciplined, dismissed, surveilled, and criminalised.

Criticism of Israel, or of the settler colonialist ideology pursued by its leadership, is being increasingly conflated with antisemitism by those seeking to silence dissent and erase legitimate political debate.

Dishonestly conflating anti-Zionism with antisemitism is clearly being deployed as a means of weaponising antisemitism and creating a tool to silence legitimate criticisim and condemnation of atrocities being committed by Israeli operatives.

Groups like Unity Against Genocide and Defend Our Juries are not the cause of increased antisemitism and Islamophobia; it is due to the genocide in Gaza and the West Bank.

There is a significant and growing number of Jewish people who define themselves as non- or anti-Zionist. They do not believe that Israel’s systematic commission of crimes against humanity have anything to do with Israel’s right to self-defence or protecting Jews in the diaspora.

Why take action?

The Jewish people taking part in this action say, loudly and clearly, “Not in our name!”  To suggest, as some seek to do, that there is but one Jewish community and that community is composed entirely of supporters of Zionism, settler colonialism, illegal occupation, illegal annexation, ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their homeland, infanticide, and genocide is, in itself, anti-Semitic.

Muslim people taking part in the action are standing in solidarity with those who have for decades in the UK been disproportionately stigmatised and targeted by terrorism legislation, being subjected to mass surveillance, ‘Prevent’ referrals, and policing that treats whole communities as inherently suspect. Presented as neutral security measures, these laws have normalised Islamophobia and caused lasting harm to Muslim communities.

We are witnessing a terrifying erosion of civil liberties in the UK. The continued imprisonment of the Filton 24, prolonged detention without trial, and the criminalisation of peaceful protest, mark a ratcheting up of authoritarianism and repression by the state.

Participants explain their motivation

Nasreen Ahmed:

As a Muslim I feel a strong responsibility to stand to stand against the genocide, especially when my government is complicit. If we do not continue to speak up, there is a real danger that all Palestine solidarity activism in the UK will be criminalised.

Mike Laywood:

It is so important as a Jew to not only be supporting Palestine Action and opposing genocide, but to be acting together with Muslims and Christians.

Rajan Naidu (75, Quaker):

It is our responsibility, as people who want justice and peace for all, to do all in our power, peacefully and determinedly, to end the genocide being inflicted on the Palestinian people of Gaza and the West Bank by the occupying forces of the State of Israel.

I concur with this statement, re Palestine Action, from Quakers in Britain.

The proscription of a direct-action protest group continues a worrying trend of state repression against dissent including the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and the Public Order Act 2023. The UK is the only country in western Europe to have its civic freedom classed as “obstructed” by Civicus.

Featured image via Defend Our Juries