Press release from Sheffield Palestine Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid.
SIX people from Sheffield returned home yesterday after being arrested and detained for taking part in a peaceful protest in Parliament Square, London.
The protest, organised by national group Defend Our Juries, was part of the wider Lift The Ban campaign to end the ban on Palestine Action – a non-violent group recently designated as a terrorist organisation by the Labour Government in a move criticised by international human rights organisation Amnesty International, and the United Nations.
“More than 20,000 children have been killed in Gaza by the Israeli Occupation Forces since October 2023. For demanding that this slaughter stop, I am arrested,” said Jonathan Feldman, from Sheffield Jews Against Israeli Apartheid.
As Big Ben struck 1pm on Saturday, August 9, more than 1,000 people revealed hand-written signs that said “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action” and sat peacefully outside parliament as police began making arrests, despite clear warnings from Amnesty International that any arrests would be a breach of international human rights law.
“We six from Sheffield and Grindleford, as well as 1,000 other people, are showing peaceful support for others who want the slaughter in Gaza to stop and whose only crime, if indeed it is a crime, is to interrupt the supply of weapons to Israel,” said Mr. Feldman
“For this, we are arrested while people complicit in genocide are able to go free.”
Palestine Action was proscribed on July 2, 2025 for taking direct action to disrupt the supply of arms to Israel – this included breaking into RAF Brize Norton and spray painting military aircraft. The ban means that membership of, or support for, Palestine Action is a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison under the Terrorism Act 2000.
Controversially, the vote against Palestine Action was bundled together with votes on two neo-Nazi groups – forcing MPs and Peers to vote for all of them to be proscribed or none of them. The move was described as “sneaky” by member of the House of Lords Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb, and criticised by several MPs at the time.
More than 500 of the estimated 1,000 participants were arrested, according to the Met Police, and almost half of those arrested were over 60 years old.
Since the proscription, public support for Palestine Action has been increasing, with hundreds of arrests across the country of people holding signs.
“I oppose genocide. I do this for Shahd Abusalama. Over 30 of her family have been massacred by the Israeli military and the survivors are now facing starvation,” Hilary Brown, from Nether Edge, Sheffield said. “I do this for the Al Farra family. So many of the family have been massacred. And Keir Starmer and the UK Government are all complicit in this genocide.”
As she was being arrested and detained on Saturday, Steph Howlett, also from Nether Edge, Sheffield, said: “I am here to take a stand against the slaughter and starvation of thousands of innocent people in Gaza. I am acting on my conscience. I am not a terrorist.
“I am standing for justice, humanity and love.”
Sean Ashton, from Walkley, was also among those arrested and detained.
“I’m here to oppose the genocide in Gaza because the alternative, to be a bystander and just watch as men, women and children are starved and murdered, is unconscionable,” he said.
Izzy Price, from Heeley, said “My conscience dictates that I am here to oppose genocide!”
Alongside the Lift The Ban protests, a national demonstration in support of Palestine marched through London, ending outside Downing Street. According to the UK’s Palestine Solidarity Campaign, an estimated 300,000 people took to the streets of London, including delegations from across Yorkshire.
Next week, Saturday, August 16th, the Yorkshire March for Palestine will take place in Sheffield, starting at 2pm from the Sheffield Amphitheatre by the train station.
Here are some social media posts about the arrests.
Lady in her 90’s arrested
https://www.facebook.com/reel/734557742812546
Message from Bianca Jagger
https://www.facebook.com/zoe.broughton.16/videos/1410579856679994
Theo Simon arrested
https://www.facebook.com/reel/730875476384221
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So Mr Wroe, you are defending a group that smashed up 19 businesses, £7 million worth of damage to our defense systems, which ironically wee used to drop aid in their last mission, the smashing up of a London business after they learnt that the owner was Jewish, and millions of pounds worth of other damage, and Mr Wroe is now fully supporting the people who supported this kind of action, can anyone really feel safe around people who support such action, I understand that one of the local people arrested works around children, lets all hope that he never goes near any children again when the employment is removed, , and Mr Wroe supports this .
The estimated cost to the British tax payer in times of hardship for this publicity stunt is around £53,000,000 , but Mr Wroe , the Sheffield Green Party, XR who after all are the same people simply laugh at this.
What a vile and nasty group of people they are.
The lesson is , never , ever vote for the Sheffield Green Party, the party and people that hate the UK and hate the people of Sheffield.
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I would suggest it is completely lazy, dangerous and incorrect to state that PA targetted a business on the basis of the owner being Jewish. I would suggest that it is entirely ignorant to imply that dropping aid is an acceptable way of responding to the starvation in Gaza, it is so dangerous for people on the ground and completely unsatisfactory in terms of distribution. I would suggest it is also completely ignorant and rather puerile to imply that someone holding a sign opposing genocide and supporting a direct action group who aim to disrupt the arms of support of a genocide is somehow unsuitable to work with children. That sounds very much like someone who has run out arguments. I would suggest that the tired old line of people “hating the UK” and the rather surprising new line of “hating the people of Sheffield” are peculiarly unimaginative, completely blinkered statements and without any basis in reality. I would suggest that (most) British people, not just taxpayers, are facing hardship due to the deliberate policies of austerity which continue to be deployed by successive governments. I would suggest that people risking their liberty to take direct action are not engaging in a publicity stunt but to keep the issue of genocide in the public eye. It has certainly worked on you. And I would end by saying that humanity does not spin on an axis of the UK economy. The utter destruction of the Gaza strip dwarfs the damage caused by PA in monetary terms and is in turn insignificant in relation to the unthinkable human cost to the Palestine people in terms of the numbers horrifically murdered, bloodlines lost, people buried and generational trauma caused.
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