Yvette Cooper has repeatedly lied about Palestine Action in an attempt to justify her decision to ‘proscribe’ (ban as a terrorist organisation’ the anti-genocide direct action protest group Palestine Action at the (boasted) behest of pro-Israel lobby groups. Journalist and former ambassador Craig Murray has obtained a declassified version of the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) report on Palestine Action and its activities – and it acts as a ‘smoking gun’ nailing Cooper’s lies.
As Murray notes (emphasis added):
Cooper and other government ministers have repeatedly claimed:
• Palestine Action attacks people, not just weapons-making equipment
• Palestine Action is funded by Iran or another hostile power
• Palestine Action attacks Jewish-owned businesses based on racism
• Palestine Action has plans for future unspecified appalling terrorist actsIn fact none of this is backed up by the assessment of the government’s Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre which forms the basis of the proscription of Palestine Action.
JTAC is a permanently staffed organisation inside MI5’s London HQ made up of representatives of police and intelligence services, the Home Office, Foreign Office, Ministry of Defence, Department of Transport and others. It issues reports on a consensus basis.
Murray obtained a version of JTAC’s report on Palestine Action that has been sanitised for declassification and use in court and has published what he obtained in full, because of the obvious and overwhelming public interest in doing so, apart from a section deleted because it is relevant to an impending trial. He concludes:
In fact there is nothing whatsoever in the JTAC assessment which backs up any of the claims being put out in a panic by government ministers.
The JTAC report makes absolutely clear that its assessment of Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation is based only on the definition in the Terrorism Act, of a group that commits serious damage to property in order to influence government policy.
I pause here to note that the United Nations has intervened in the case to state that this does not meet international standards for defining terrorism. Damage to property should only be terrorism when the intent is to endanger life, such as damaging an air traffic control centre.
The JTAC report in fact notes that Palestine Action stresses its philosophy of non-violent action against people. Much is however made of one single attack (out of 385) where substantial violence against persons is alleged (though hotly denied).
But even here the JTAC report notes that the sledgehammer and axe were intended for use against machinery, an obvious fact.
Completely contrary to Cooper’s claims, the report makes no mention of Palestine Action receiving any foreign funding, attacking Jewish businesses in general, or committing or planning any acts of violence against people. As Murray observes, if JTAC thought it could say that PA had, it would. Nothing Cooper claimed is justified by the evidence presented to her by JTAC and the agencies of which is consists.
Yvette Cooper and the other government mouthpieces parroting her lines lied and continue to lie, to pander to the Israel lobby of which they are part – and not just against the specific Palestine Action group but as a cudgel with which to beat the anti-genocide movement in general, against the specific ruling of a High Court judge that such anti-genocide protest is a legal right, while the Starmer regime continues to collaborate in Israel’s extermination of the people of Gaza.
Read Murray’s full report, including the addenda and appendices to the JTAC report, here.
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We all know why Keith wanted PA disarmed. It had everything to do with the country to whom he shows 100% allegiance.
It’s for the same reason he’s not keen on trial by jury. You can’t rely on them not to acquit PA activists!
Presumably, such Treason is still a capital offence?
Unfortunately not, and even the maximum sentence is a joke – SEVEN years! Or half that for “supporting” an organisation that campaigns against genocide!
Is that a large fire I see coming from the direction of the Right Honourable Minister’s underpants?
Does the Right Honourable Minister understand the gravity of engaging in providing not only Parliament but also the Courts with blatant terminological inexactitudes?
There will now be a pause in proceedings to allow time for a collection to be taken to enable the Right Honourable Minister to afford the boat fare from the House to the Tower via the gate..
Home Secretary perks aren’t what they used to be!
I see that Keith has managed to halve the Labour Party[sic] poll ratings to 20%. With a turnout similar to July 2024 that would translate to about 4m votes. The sort of result the old Liberal Party got in 1979, when they won 11 seats. All those who rejoiced that Corbyn “only” got 10.2m in 2019 will be eating a large dose of humble pie ……
This reminds me of the situation in El Salvador after 4 missionary nuns
were murdered in 1980 by govt troops and the Reagan Administration covered it up –
along with much other human rights abuse. This is from the Wiki which features
that atrocity:
‘ Reagan’s foreign policy advisor Jean Kirkpatrick declared her ‘unequivocal’ belief that the Salvadorean army was not responsible, adding that “the nuns were not just nuns. They were political activists. We ought to be a little more clear about this than we actually are.” ‘
I seriously hope that if there is a Palestine Action Demo in London this Saturday that the peaceful protesters don’t carry a copy of an ICJ international arrest warrant with them in the name of Keir Starmer & the UK Labour Government and the police, on a charge of Complicity in Genocide.
And if the police try to arrest them that they then fill in the space for their police officer’s number then serve them with this in a citizens arrest.
The headlines would be dreadful:
Palestine Action London Demo Update:
500 Police Served With Citizen Arrests!
The next Lift the Ban event organised by Defend our Juries is set for Saturday September 6th.
Register here.
https://actionnetwork.org/forms/lift-the-ban-september
Add: For complicity in Genocide.
On the subject of “designated terrorists”, former CIA analyst Larry Johnson provides yet another compare and contrast analysis:
“Who is the Real Terrorist Organization: Hamas or Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham?”
https://sonar21.com/who-is-the-real-terrorist-organization-hamas-or-hayat-tahrir-al-sham/
Here’s a taster:
“the Israeli Foreign Ministry, which lists all suspected Palestinian terrorist attacks during the 23-year, four-month period (i.e., 2000 to April 26, 2024). During this period, the Israeli Government identifies 672 terrorist attacks blamed on the Palestinians. . . .
Now here are the really interesting numbers. 105 of the attacks are attributed to Hamas. 58 to Islamic Jihad and 5 to Hezbollah. In other words, only 25% of the attacks are associated with a specific Palestinian group. The remaining 75% are blamed on nameless culprits. The total number killed by Palestinian violence during this 23-year-plus period is 1,455. That is the number of victims listed at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs site. And, as I noted in my recent article (Hamas is a Third-Rate Terrorist Organization), the Israelis killed 7,065 Palestinians during the same period of time. In other words, the Israelis killed almost five times the number of Palestinians. This may explain why the Palestinians carried out “terrorist” attacks — they were seeking vengeance, retribution.”
Moving on…….
“Now let’s look at the statistics for Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, [The new “Government of Syria]……..
……2018 through 2023 — HTS was credited by the CIA with 674 incidents and killed 2,143 people.
So let us compare: Hamas, over a 25-year period, was credited with 105 attacks, an average of 4.2 per year; HTS, in just six years, launched 674 attacks, which is an average of 112 per year. In other words, HTS was carrying out 27 times the number of attacks per year compared to Hamas. Yet the US (along with the rest of the Collective West – including the UK) embraces and funds HTS while facilitating the genocide of the Palestinians. Yeah, makes sense….”
Continuing:
“……We see similar results when it comes to fatalities: According to the IFM stats, the Palestinians killed 1,521 Israelis over the 25-year period, which is an average of 61 per year; HTS, by contrast, ended the lives of 2,142 people, which is a yearly average of 357. While the Palestinians fight to survive the Zionist genocide, HTS continues to slaughter Christians, Shia and Alawites in Syria, and the US, along with Europe and Turkey, funnel money and diplomatic support to HTS. This is the definition of obscenity.”
—————————————
The designation of “Terrorist” is very clearly completely arbitrary to serve what is also conveniently designated but never explicitly defined as [check’s notes] “Western Interests”.
Just as the term “Western Values” is also bandied about without being made explicit with an assumption that the term is somehow not only sacrosanct but everything noble, true, just, legitimate and superior to the values of everything else out there in “The Jungle” outside “The Garden” so that no one can check whether those dishonestly using and abusing the term are actually doing what it says on the tin.