On 19th of July this year in Leeds Jon Farley was taking part in a Palestine Solidarity Campaign march with fellow Unite Community members when a group of police officers dragged him from the march.

They restrained, handcuffed, placed him in a police van and arrested him, fingerprinted him and took a DNA sample, then detained him for a little over six hours before releasing him on bail and telling him his case would be referred to CPS as he was charged under Section 12 of the Terrorism Act, which could carry a penalty of up to fourteen years’ imprisonment.  The next day to his relief he was told that charges would be dropped but he would still need to apply for the record to be deleted as this would not happen automatically.

The placard reproduced a satirical item from that week’s Private Eye:

“PALESTINE ACTION EXPLAINED”

X Unacceptable Palestine Action

Spraying military planes with paint

+Acceptable Palestine Action

Shooting Palestinians queuing for food.

Copyright Private Eye no. 1653

Nowhere does it say “I support Palestine Action”.  There was a reason for choosing the Private Eye item.  Leeds PSC marches occur on most Saturdays in Leeds and on many occasions focus on a specific issue.  That week a silent march focussed on the lack of access to aid for people in Gaza, resulting in the risk of starvation and the treatment by the IDF of crowds gathering in the hope of getting food.  The words quoted on the placard were particularly relevant to that march.

Despite the fact Jon is an seasoned political campaigner the experience was alarming:  he had not set out to break the law and finding himself being interrogated lying flat on his back in a police van and suspected of being a terrorist was frightening to say the least – so much so that when the question “Did you blow it up?” was put to him he initially thought he was being accused of something more serious before he realised the question referred to him enlarging the Private Eye item to make a placard.

The previous week a hundred people demonstrated support for Palestine Action holding placards that stated “I support Palestine Action”; they were aware that they risked arrest for taking part and many were arrested.  Nobody at the Leeds event courted arrest and Jon Farley’s arrest came as a shock both to him and those around him.  A full account including a detailed interview with Jon Farley forms a major part of a Private Eye podcast numbered page 94.  It is worth listening to as is the discussion which follows it.

From the outset there had been major concerns about the proscription of Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act.

Though the relevant amendment to the Act had been passed with only a small number of votes against it is likely that this was because the other proscribed groups consisted of two highly dangerous right wing organisations; the individual proscriptions were voted on together rather than individually.  Early on Amnesty International UK expressed concerns at the use of counter-terrorism powers to target protests.  Before the amendment was presented to Parliament the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) based within MI5 concluded that “the majority of direct action by Palestine Action would not be classed as terrorism … but does often involve criminality.”  Even so the Home Secretary decided to proceed with the amendment containing the proscription.

By the weekend of 19th July the proscription had been in force for a fortnight during which time 160 people had been arrested. This included over 100 people who had specifically mentioned support for Palestine Action. 

Many of the others had not done so and were arrested because of a lack of understanding of what was being proscribed.  There was considerable evidence of confusion amongst members of some police forces and people were arrested or threatened with arrest for a range of statements in support of Palestine despite there being no mention of Palestine Action.

Given the serious nature of the proscription and the possible outcomes of arrest under the Terrorism Act there should have been more accurate advice given to police forces and individual officers: it was obvious that in many cases guidelines were insufficient:  clear advice was not given.

 It is notable that the following weekend arrests were not made.  For example in Leeds fifty protesters carried replicas of Jon Farley’s placard but nobody was arrested including one protester waving it at close quarters in front of a policeman.  Elsewhere George Monbiot carried a placard specifically giving support to Palestine Action but also was not arrested.  There was a changed attitude to arrests by police forces in most parts of the country.

There may have been other reasons for this.  On 25th July BBC News carried an account of a statement by the UN High Commissioner Volker Turk calling the proscription “disproportionate and unnecessary” given people should in law have rights to “freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association”.  He went on to say that resisting those rights is “at odds with Britain’s obligations under Human Rights Law.”

In addition on 30th July Huda Ammori of Palestine Action was given permission by Judge Martin Chamberlain in a High Court ruling to bring a judicial review in relation to the proscription of Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act by the Home Secretary.  This review is to take place over three days in November.  In addition Professor Ben Saul, UN Special Rapporteur on Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights has been granted permission to intervene in the judicial review against the terrorism proscription decision.

This whole episode has raised significant issues about ways in which the state needs to be restrained in the way it polices individual freedom of expression, activism and enacts policies which undermine democracy.  In Jon Farley’s case it also highlights the dangers of repressing satirical expression.  From Aristophanes to Martin Rowson via Jonathan Swift, James Gillray, William Hogarth, George Orwell, Steve Bell and others it has an important part to play in calling leaders and governments to account.  Any suppression of it is therefore dangerous in preventing those in power from being made to justify their actions.

There is a separate issue that comes from the way in which Jon Farley has been presented by the media.  In newspaper and other reports his name is almost always preceded by the phrase “retired headteacher” as if that makes him morally worthy and above criticism (as a former teacher trade unionist I would not automatically regard every headteacher as an example of moral probity and social or political awareness and would regard Jon as worthy more for his commitment to socialist activism).  He himself has commented on this labelling and its effect: “would a lad or lass from Harehills (one of the poorest and most deprived areas of Leeds) be treated as well as I have?” We can all guess at the answer to that one and that also needs to be addressed!

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