{"id":16096,"date":"2025-08-16T06:23:58","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T06:23:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/?p=16096"},"modified":"2025-08-16T06:23:58","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T06:23:58","slug":"im-proud-to-have-made-this-stand-over-60s-arrested-at-palestine-action-ban-protest-explain-their-decision-israel-gaza-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/?p=16096","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I\u2019m proud to have made this stand\u2019: over-60s arrested at Palestine Action ban protest explain their decision | Israel-Gaza war"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/span> Photograph: Jim Wileman\/Alicia Canter\/Christopher Thomond\/Martin Godwin\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, hundreds of people have been arrested for taking part in demonstrations organised by the campaign group Defend Our Juries. Their alleged crime is calling for an end to the ban against Palestine Action, which has been proscribed as a terrorist organisation by Yvette Cooper, the home secretary.<\/p>\n

One striking detail among those detained is their age. Half of those arrested at the largest protest yet, in Parliament Square in London on Saturday, were 60 or older. Some said they had taken part to give a voice to younger people who have more to lose by breaking the law, some simply felt they must challenge the government\u2019s stance.<\/p>\n

The Guardian has spoken to some of these protesters.<\/p>\n

\u2018This is not a terrorist organisation, it\u2019s a direct action organisation\u2019
Deborah Hinton, 81<\/em><\/h2>\n

<\/span>Deborah Hinton at her home in Gorran Haven, Cornwall.<\/span> Photograph: Jim Wileman\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government is looking [like] such idiots,\u201d said Deborah Hinton, a former magistrate. \u201cI mean when people say, \u2018What\u2019s your status?\u2019, and then I say, \u2018Well, I\u2019m on bail for terrorism\u2019, they look at me as if the situation is farcical. I think they [ministers] are making themselves look an absolute joke.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hinton was arrested at a 19 July demonstration in Cornwall arranged by Defend Our Juries (DOJ). A former member of the Parole Board, she was awarded an OBE in 1994 for services to the community. She said she was already involved with DOJ because she was worried about the erosion of free speech and the right to protest, but the banning of Palestine Action was a \u201cred line\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cIn my view, Palestine Action is not a terrorist organisation. I lived through the IRA and the bombing in London when you had to leave shops and leave museums because bombs might go off any minute. Frankly, that is what a terrorist organisation is. This is not a terrorist organisation, it\u2019s a direct action organisation, like the suffragists, like the Greenham Common women, like many other organisations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf people do direct action and they cause criminal damage, then you arrest the people, you charge them [under existing laws], and that\u2019s that.\u201d<\/p>\n

As well as free speech concerns, her longstanding support for the Palestinian cause led her to risk arrest. \u201cWhat\u2019s going on in Gaza has gone beyond anything that one could possibly have imagined,\u201d said Hinton. \u201cI can\u2019t even think about it, it\u2019s too awful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hinton said she was shaking as the officers moved down the line of placard holders arresting each person as they went. An officer then told her that if she put down her placard she could leave without further action.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew I couldn\u2019t do that, but it was such a temptation because it was so terrifying,\u201d said Hinton. \u201cI\u2019ve been a very law-abiding citizen and very respectful of authority all my life but I knew I had to do this and it was my duty to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hinton said it was right that her generation were putting themselves on the frontline. \u201cYoung people are going to jeopardise their careers,\u201d she said. \u201cThey won\u2019t get a visa to go to the [United] States. They won\u2019t get a visa to go to most other countries because they\u2019ll have terrorism on their record.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople like me, who are elderly, we can afford it. I\u2019m very sorry not to go and be able to visit my niece in America but it\u2019s not the end of the world. Young people shouldn\u2019t be doing this, we should be doing this. We should be taking the responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Don\u2019t call these people terrorists\u2019
Father John McGowan, 75<\/em><\/h2>\n

<\/span>John McGowan at St Joseph\u2019s priory in Chalfont St Peter.<\/span> Photograph: Alicia Canter\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

John McGowan, a Catholic priest, said that when Yvette Cooper was in opposition he felt she \u201cspoke for me\u201d. But asked what he would say to the home secretary now, he replied: \u201cFor goodness sake, don\u2019t call these people terrorists because they\u2019re not terrorists.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe focus shouldn\u2019t be on Palestine Action. The focus should be on what the government isn\u2019t doing for the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGowan, a Carmelite and parish priest of St Joseph\u2019s in Chalfont St Peter, was one of 532 people arrested at the demonstration in Parliament Square on 9 August, the largest against the proscription of the organisation to date.<\/p>\n

He said he had written in his diary a week or two before the protest that he would like to be arrested in support of the cause, so when the demonstration was announced it was the opportunity he was looking for.<\/p>\n

He attended wearing his Roman collar, identifying himself as a priest, and met a Baptist minister there who was also arrested.<\/p>\n

After being detained, McGowan was placed in a police van where there were two female officers that he said were \u201cpolite, and almost apologetic. I sat down, and I felt very calm and almost serene.\u201d When the van drove away, he said people cheered in support of him and the two other protesters in the vehicle, banging on the van and making the heart sign to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a strain, but exhilarating as well. It was an extraordinary day, I\u2019ve never had a day like it in my life but I\u2019m glad I did it. In my conscience, I was clear it was the right thing to do so I take that as my guiding light. If I get a criminal record, I don\u2019t care.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he was not expecting any recriminations from the Catholic church and had experienced a moving response from his congregation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in two minds whether to tell the people in my church what I\u2019d done but I\u2019m the kind of person that likes to share these things and so I did,\u201d he said. \u201cI was really nervous but at the end of mass I said: \u2018Look, I went to the demonstration, I got arrested\u2019 and they applauded me. I was almost in tears.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018People are now extremely distrustful of the government\u2019
Chris Romberg, 75<\/em><\/h2>\n

<\/span>Chris Romberg was arrested at the London protest.<\/span> Photograph: Christopher Thomond\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

A former British army colonel and ex-military attache, Chris Romberg cut an unlikely terrorism suspect even among hundreds of other retirees arrested in Parliament Square in relation to Palestine Action.<\/p>\n

Yet it is this background \u2013 along with the fact that his father and grandparents fled Nazi Germany in 1938 \u2013 that motivated him to join the protest, leading to his arrest under the Terrorism Act.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year saw the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp by British forces. What they found shocked the British people,\u201d said Romberg, who himself saw action in the Falklands war with the commando regiment and was mentioned in dispatches.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we are seeing now in Gaza, 80 years on, is equally shocking. As a former officer in the British army, I am horrified that the government is misusing our armed forces to be complicit in the genocide rather than to end it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Claims by Cooper that those protesting \u201cdon\u2019t know the full nature\u201d of Palestine Action have also struck a nerve. \u201cThe impression I get is that people are now extremely distrustful of the government,\u201d said Romberg, who left the army in 2007.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat the home secretary should speak like that and say that she has information but can\u2019t tell us what it is reminds me of the Monty Python sketch about the Piranha brothers, where there is a man who had his head nailed to a coffee table because he had broken an unwritten law but they wouldn\u2019t tell him what it was.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former diplomat\u2019s last two appointments were as defence attache at the British embassies in Jordan and Egypt, and he speaks knowledgeably about the region. Since leaving the army, he became active in supporting the Palestinian cause.<\/p>\n

Recently, he joined the group Holocaust Survivors and Descendants against the Gaza Genocide, other members of which stood together under a banner during the protest on Saturday.<\/p>\n

It was the first time that he has been arrested in his life. Before taking part, he reflected a lot on what he was about to do. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t a decision I took lightly and the organisers, Defend Our Juries, made absolutely sure that everybody realised the implications of what they were doing, and yet people felt strongly enough that they were able and were prepared to take that risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018People have not been listened to on Gaza\u2019
Richard Whitmore-Jones, 74<\/em><\/h2>\n

<\/span>Richard Whitmore-Jones near his home in Chichester.<\/span> Photograph: Martin Godwin\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Richard Whitmore-Jones readily admits he \u201cdoesn\u2019t particularly approve\u201d of the methods deployed by Palestine Action, the direct action group proscribed last month. \u201cI was brought up to respect property,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Yet in his next breath, the retired company director makes an argument few might expect from a former executive at the multinational beverage company Diageo.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was certainly in horror of vandalism but I have to admit that people have not been listened to on Gaza. There have been enormous marches in London and they have not been reported accurately or were kept off the front pages.<\/p>\n

\u201cPalestine Action\u2019s methods sit very uneasily with me. It\u2019s difficult to accept that vandalism is the only way to go. However, I feel we have to do something and I support their stand against genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whitmore-Jones, from East Sussex, was arrested on Saturday having also been previously arrested at another protest organised by Defend Our Juries, returning with the same placard stating: \u201cI oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.\u201d He has been bailed to appear at a police station in October.<\/p>\n

As for the decision to put himself in line for arrest not once but twice, Whitmore-Jones cites being part of a generation whose parents fought fascism in the second world war, which in his own case included an RAF father who became a prisoner of the Japanese.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am astonished that we now have a government that has been supporting exactly the sort of actions, in Gaza, which Britain sought to prevent 80 years ago. My father\u2019s sacrifice, which he saw as being to prevent other peoples from being invaded and treated badly, appears to be contrary to what our government is doing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For much of his working life, Whitmore-Jones was with Diageo, rising to become a property manager and office services manager at the company, retiring in 2003 shortly after it was taken over. He \u201ccame late\u201d to activism for Gaza, going on his first ever march when he was 72.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt better for doing something, though I realised I was doing very little really,\u201d he said, before the proscription of Palestine Action changed everything again for him.<\/p>\n

He shrugs off the suggestion that he was now making a sacrifice by facing a potential terrorism conviction and the life-changing limitations that come with it, insisting: \u201cLook, I\u2019m 74, I don\u2019t have a mortgage to get, I don\u2019t have a job. I will be a little bit upset about not being allowed to go to America, but I really will live with that. It\u2019s the young people that are brave.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for his family\u2019s views of what he is doing, Whitmore-Jones said: \u201cIt\u2019s gone from amusement to absolute firm support and I\u2019m very pleased with the attitude of my children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Family, in a way, is also at the heart of his motivation for seeking to oppose Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza: \u201cThis is about children the age of my grandchildren having their limbs and their lives taken away.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Ridiculous judicial overreach\u2019
Trevelyan Evans, 64<\/em><\/h2>\n

<\/span>Trevelyan Evans is a screenwriter who took part in the Parliament Square demonstration.<\/span> Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

After leading a \u201cwonderful, full life\u201d, the TV screenwriter Trevelyan Evans, who has written for a number of BBC sitcoms, is unafraid of being called a terrorist in the courts. \u201cI\u2019m very proud to have made this stand, whether I\u2019m convicted or not,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He was among the 532 people, many of them \u201cold fogies\u201d, arrested last Saturday. \u201cPeople in my demographic are standing up for those people who can\u2019t risk having a conviction on their records for a terrorism offence,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He felt compelled to take part in the protest to stand up for \u201cthe people of Gaza and Palestine who are being massacred\u201d and to oppose the group\u2019s proscription, which he called an \u201cobviously ridiculous judicial overreach on behalf of the government\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey just slapped this ban on them in order to suppress opposition,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Before the demonstration began last weekend, he jokingly said he got his \u201cmaterials for terrorism\u201d ready on the green in Parliament Square. His tools of choice? A pen and piece of paper. \u201cI never realised being a terrorist could be so much fun,\u201d he said. \u201cBeing out in the open air and meeting new people in a nice central location \u2026 it was a convivial atmosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the silent portion of the protest ended, Evans said people were \u201chanding out sandwiches and sun cream\u201d until an officer with \u201cseven of his friends came round\u201d and told him he was being arrested. They then started to carry him out of the square.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hadn\u2019t been carried around like that since I was at school,\u201d he said. \u201cThe policeman said: \u2018You\u2019re a bit heavy.\u2019 He had to call one of his friends over to help carry me. I thought that was a bit of a liberty.\u201d After this, he was placed in a police van, which he had all to himself. \u201cI think, on behalf of the Metropolitan police, it was quite generous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Evans is on bail awaiting charge. He said the government\u2019s decision to ban Palestine Action represented a \u201ckind of creeping authoritarianism [which is] eventually going to hit a wall, because it\u2019s inherently contradictory\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you extend draconian laws, eventually you\u2019re going to look pretty stupid. I can see that the government laid itself a trap and walked straight into it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photograph: Jim Wileman\/Alicia Canter\/Christopher Thomond\/Martin Godwin\/The Guardian In recent weeks, hundreds of people have been arrested for taking part in demonstrations organised by the campaign group Defend Our Juries. Their alleged crime is calling for an end to the ban against Palestine Action, which has been proscribed as a terrorist organisation by Yvette Cooper, the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[919,6058,163,83,3789,5351,9530,1240,560,9529,791,261],"class_list":{"0":"post-16096","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-action","9":"tag-arrested","10":"tag-ban","11":"tag-decision","12":"tag-explain","13":"tag-israelgaza","14":"tag-over60s","15":"tag-palestine","16":"tag-protest","17":"tag-proud","18":"tag-stand","19":"tag-war"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}