As told to In Common.
“On September, I was once again arrested as part of the Lift the Ban campaign – organised by Defend Our Juries. My first arrest occurred last month at the August action, where over 500 people were arrested on suspicion of terrorism for holding up signs.
We gathered together again peacefully on Parliament Square, to oppose genocide in Palestine and to oppose the authoritarian proscription of a non-violent direct action group.
I feel I don’t need to say much more about how surreal and evil it is when Israel is very public about their plan to wipe out Gaza, and our Labour government triple down on criminalising people for trying to prevent war crimes, all while appearing to profit from the ongoing genocide.
More than anything else, though, in the face of the most evil and inhumane period of my lifetime, it can only be true that we must throw ourselves against the machine in any way we can to stop it.
Labour today uses the law and the police to protect the death machine that is Israel.
Whilst journalists are assassinated.
Whilst children starve.
Whist families are wiped out forever.
Whilst relatives sift through the remains of their loved ones.
Whilst buildings shake and people wonder if they are next.
Whilst people are tortured and abused in the most evil and horrific ways.
Whilst evil men refuse ceasefire deals and agree to redevelopment plans.
Whilst their humanity is erased, and ours atrophies in witness to it.
I am Jewish.
A few weeks ago we had a peace march for Palestine in Southampton and it struck me – where was the Jewish community? Maybe I missed them. But in Southampton I never see Jews out in support of the people of Gaza as a community. That realisation made me feel disappointed, and scared to seek them out because if they are not involved now, I don’t believe I would be able to convince anyone that what Israel is doing is wrong.
I still felt unsure that I had the right to wear the symbol I had on my shirt (Jude in a Star of David, with the words ‘never again for everyone’).
This symbol was used during the Holocaust to mark Jewish prisoners in concentration camps.
I am more culturally Jewish than anything else. When I was a child, we celebrated events in the Jewish calendar with my grandparents, and I went to a Jewish school. Though my spiritual beliefs lie more in the earth and nature, I always admired Judaism, because the religion encourages questioning, discussion and ideological challenges. And the stories, the rituals, have always been about the underdog – David and Goliath… Passover… Jews have long been the subject of persecution.
So it causes me unbelievable dissonance when I try to understand how my people, other Jews, choose to dehumanise and choose the path to exterminate other humans on this planet, in the name of Zionism.
Their legacy will be to have made Judaism a violent religion in the eyes of history. So it is up to all Jewish people who still have their humanity to fight against this in every way, at every turn.
In Parliament Square I met many other Jews, and have no regrets wearing this badge. I met descendents of Holocaust survivors and many others in the community. We all know that ‘never again’ was supposed to mean ‘never again for anyone’.
At the action, I sat from 1pm to 9pm, surrounded by peaceful protesters. This time the police worked very slowly, seemingly trying to out-wait our resolve. They had no such luck, however. Everyone was there with full commitment of purpose and intention. There was a strong feeling of community, unity and solidarity, and I certainly felt that once again I was exactly where I needed to be. I can look back to this point and say that I didn’t just stand by and watch it happen – I put my freedom and comfort on the line. All day we had welfare volunteers supporting us providing food, drink and suncream.
I brought a pop up shower tent so people could pee in privacy using bottles – ironically it turns out I am extremely pee shy under pressure and I couldn’t use the tent myself.
At around 7pm, arrests picked up. I was taken at 9pm and went “floppy” to be carried away and cause as much non-resistant nuisance as possible. I was witnessed by many people, including some of my Jewish comrades, which meant a lot to me. Soft touches on my shoulder kept me connected to humanity as our robotic police stuck to their programming, and their script. Hands reached out to mine against the glass in the van. Our love and humanity cannot be arrested or contained.
Then the real endurance of spirit began. We were taken to Millbank Street which was closed off, to wait in line to be processed. The police tried countless times to get us to give our names and addresses for street bail, meaning they would end their shift, that a van would not be needed, and a cell would not be occupied. The plan was always to clog up the system as much as possible, and prove this law to be unworkable.
It was surreal and bizarre to spend the next eight hours standing in line with other arrestees and police. They kept trying to break our will – talking about taking people to South Wales (my reply: I have a friend in Bristol so that’s fine for me), to Gloucester, to Scotland.
I already knew it was probably nonsense, but that was hard to convey to others whilst trying not to give away any of my details or any information about myself.
After 8 hours, and 16 hours total on the action, we were all weary and it was difficult to remain coherent. It felt like the police were trying to turn us against those who accepted street bail – as if they didn’t understand that we are humans with community and unity.
At 5am they had run out of officers who would volunteer welfare to drive their fellow officers home from whatever station they ended up at. Whereas we all had Police Station Support (PSS) waiting for us outside the stations until the last person was released.
I was in the most extended period of discomfort I had ever been in because I couldn’t wee. I tried in the portaloo but I couldn’t do it. Then they knew I was having trouble and I felt they tried to use that to get me to give up. But I am extremely tenacious and I am able to withstand a lot of discomfort. I’m also a contrarian brat, so that just helped me not give in to street bail. More than anything though, a reminder of what people in Palestine suffer every day kept my resolve. In this small way, with my defiance, I was giving it my all to do my part. My discomfort was a drop in the ocean in comparison.
We queued from 9pm until 2:30am. We were asked a further three times to take street bail at a series of tents. “It doesn’t matter to us, we still have to stay on shift” – they claimed. “You will just end up at a station and immediately be released” – not true.
Then I was in a police van with two others from 2:45-5am as the police waited for space to free up at a station. At several points, all four members of the police in the van were asleep. Very dangerous criminals we must have been, that they felt safe to have a little power nap.
I started feeling sick because of how uncomfortable my bladder was and thought I might have to give up and accept street bail if it was still possible. Luckily we moved, heading to Wembley station. We were the first there. They seemed to have no idea at the station what had been happening and even asked why it took so long between the arrest and getting there. The station was very quiet – I was surprised, I really thought every London station would have been aware about what was going on.
I was booked and finally got to my cell at 5:30am. One officer said “long night.” I said “oh yes…” and she said “it’s for a good cause though, isn’t it”. So that was really interesting, and comforting. She made sure I had food and water soon after I got to the cell.
In the cell, I finally had a wee, and then slept. There was a skylight in the ceiling so I could see when I woke up that it was day, but I had no clue what time. I had no communication the entire time I was in there. It was a bit difficult not knowing anything, because I wasn’t able to contact anyone since 9pm. Last time in August, I was out by 4am, so it was a long time for my partner to wait to hear anything from me.
Eventually, I was released at 12:30. There were only been 6 of us taken to Wembley that night, but we still had PSS come and give us some drinks and snacks and help us get a bus to the station so we could get home. Our PSS was also the person who took a video of my arrest, so it was really nice to see her again and she was glad to see I was ok.
I have no regrets about attending this action and being arrested, but because my bladder was uncooperative (for a second time, I had a similar problem in August) I’ve decided this is my last arrest for now. In the future, I will provide help with welfare and support instead.“
- Main image by Elle street photographer.
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