Some MPs have piled pressure on the government to change tack on its proscription of Palestine Action after another weekend of mass arrests.
There were 890 arrests at a demonstration in London on Saturday against the ban on the group, which was proscribed under anti-terrorism legislation by the UK government in July.
The scale of the arrests – at a level not seen since the poll tax riots in the 1990s – and the diversion of police from other areas was criticised by MPs, including many from Labour.
Security Minister Dan Jarvis told the Commons there had been 17 arrests for attacking police officers, as he insisted the experts behind the proscription decision had acted independently of government.
Stella Creasy, the Labour MP for Walthamstow, brought the issue to Parliament as an urgent question, warning “the seriousness of the term terrorism risks losing its meaning, becoming diluted rather than strengthened”.
“Proscription was supposed to be about stopping those inciting direct harm and violence,” she said.
“Going after somebody with a poster, testing the boundaries of liberty, many of whom are clear they don’t support Palestine Action but feel strongly about Palestinian rights or free speech, confuses rather than clarifies the government’s intention.”
However, Jarvis stood firm that the group was not a “legitimate protest group” but one with terrorism connections, according to expert assessment, that should be banned.
He said: “Anyone who wishes to demonstrate about the humanitarian situation in Gaza or the actions of any government, including our own, has the absolute freedom to gather with others and voice their views, provided they do so within the law.”
“But supporting Palestine and supporting a proscribed terrorist organisation is not the same thing,” he added.
“The vitally important issue of Palestinian rights should not be co-opted by one organisation that has shown it’s willing to use violence in pursuit of its cause.”
He contrasted the arrests with the Palestinian Solidarity campaign demonstration in central London, where 20,000 people peacefully marched on the same day.
Liberal Democrat spokesperson Lisa Smart said the mass arrests “set a dangerous precedent” that was “deeply alarming” and that violence, antisemitic abuse or hate speech crimes were already covered by existing law.
She urged Jarvis to urgently review terrorism legislation “specifically as it is impacting the right to protest peacefully to ensure it is proportionate and contains the nuance it so clearly needs”.
He responded “I don’t agree events this weekend have had a chilling effect on our democracy”, adding that tens of thousands of people had been able to demonstrate “in an entirely reasonable and lawful way”.
Kim Johnson, the Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside, described the arrests as “absurd” and “authoritarian”, targeting people for “peacefully holding a placard”.
Dr Simon Opher, Labour MP for Stroud, said several of his septuagenarian constituents had been arrested under legislation he described as “a sledgehammer to crack a nut”.
The Labour MP for Sheffield Central, Abtisam Mohamed, said “several” of her constituents were among those arrested, and urged the ban to be overturned.
“The Terrorism Act wasn’t brought in to arrest vicars, retired grandmothers and NHS consultants for holding a placard,” she pointed out.
Jarvis insisted the actions of the government had been “necessary and proportionate”, adding some supporters of the banned group “do not fully understand the activities that organisation has engaged in”.
Objectors were joined by former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, now independent, who said “the weight of history” was against the ban and urged Jarvis to “not proscribe peaceful protest”.
In response, the minister said he had “a sneaking suspicion” Corbyn was part of the protests, and said: “This government hasn’t done anything to stand in the way of him and his colleagues to do that.”
Labour MP Markus Campbell-Savours suggested the arrests of people simply holding up posters without “clear evidence of an intent to promote a group’s more extreme actions” were “extremely rare” and asked the police to “simply stop” making these particular arrests.
Jarvis praised the police for their action under pressure and said “proportionality” was an important consideration.
However, he added: “We would not tolerate the kind of activity we’ve seen in recent days and weeks from an organisation, for example, motivated by Islamist extremism or an organisation motivated by extreme right-wing ideology, and similarly we cannot tolerate that activity from Palestine Action.”
Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp backed the government’s ban on Palestine Action, saying they had “used a sledgehammer to attack a police officer” and “deliberately sabotaged RAF planes”.
“That is not how we do things in this country,” he said. “We settle things through debate and we settle things through election.”
