Phoebe Plummer (left) and Chiara Sarti outside Southwark crown court in London. Photograph: Hesther Ng/Story Picture Agency
Phoebe Plummer, Chiara Sarti and Daniel Hall took part in protest march last year in Just Stop Oil campaign
Three climate activists have been convicted of “interference with key national infrastructure” by marching in the road in west London for 20 minutes, in the new offence’s first test at trial.
Phoebe Plummer, Chiara Sarti and Daniel Hall were the first defendants to face a jury trial on the new section 7 of the Public Order Act 2023, which bans any act preventing harbours, airports, railways or roads “from being used or operated to any extent”.
Critics have called the law repressive, and claimed that it gives authorities a licence to crack down on virtually any protest at their discretion.
The defendants had sought to persuade the jury that convicting them under the new law could criminalise a swathe of legitimate protest. But after jurors were directed to only take into account whether or not the protest had caused “significant” disruption to the roads, they found the defendants guilty in an 11-1 majority verdict.
Activists with the Communist Party of Israel and Hadash made ceasefire and an end to occupation the central demands of their May Day 2024 actions. | Photo via Hadash
NAZARETH—Determined to derail a planned May Day rally centered on ceasefire and anti-occupation demands, heavily-armed police forces raided the office of the Nazareth branches of the Hadash coalition (Democratic Front for Peace and Equality) and Communist Party of Israel (CPI) on Friday evening. April 26.
Israeli police raid the Nazareth branch office of Hadash, the Communist Party of Israel, and Zo Haderekh newspaper. This photo is a screengrab from a video taken by a member of Hadash during the raid. | @hadash.front via Instagram
When police stormed the building, activists from Hadash, the CPI, and the Young Communist League were involved in preparations for the central May Day demonstration being organized by Hadash and the CPI. At least two activists were arrested.
“We won’t let the fascists silence us!” declared Ofer Cassif, the CPI parliamentarian that the government has repeatedly attempted to suppress.
“Come to the demonstration, to raise a loud and clear voice against the criminal massacre in Gaza, against the ethnic cleansing of the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, against the raging tide of fascism and in support of justice for all, before it’s too late!” he continued.
“The order of the day: Unite against fascism!”
Several rallies against the deadly war in Gaza and the occupation of the Palestinian territories will be held across Israel for May Day—in Tel Aviv, Nazareth, Kufr Yassif, Western Galilee, Jerusalem, and other locations.
This is the third assault on the branch in Nazareth in the past year. Police raided the office on Nov. 10, tearing down political posters and spray-painting over murals. “The Ben-Gvir police continues its political persecution and attempts to intimidate and silence the Arab public and other forces opposing the war,” Hadash said in a statement, referring to Itamar Ben-Gvir, Netanyahu’s national security minister.
“We will not put up with these provocations. We will continue to lead the joint Arab-Jewish struggle against fascism, war and persecution,” Hadash said.
A year ago, on April 28, 2023, just before the May Day demonstration in the city, in another raid police took down the red flags and the Palestinian flag at the Nazareth branch and arrested the secretary of the Communist Party in the city.
People in Yemen express their support for US students protesting genocide (Photo via @Aldanmarki/X)
Fighting people across the world show support with the student movement in the US facing repression
“We, the students of Gaza, salute the students of Columbia University, Yale University, New York University, Rutgers University, the University of Michigan, and dozens of universities across the United States who are rising up in solidarity with Gaza and to put an end to the Zionist-US genocide against our people in Gaza,” wrote the Student Frameworks Secretariat, composed of a variety of student organizations part of larger resistance groups and left parties—including but not limited to the Islamic Resistance Movement, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, Fatah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Palestinian People’s Party. The Gazan students are expressing their support for the dozens of student encampments that have emerged in the United States, in which students occupy public spaces in their universities to demand that their institutions divest from Israel.
“We welcome the examples of solidarity offered by students facing arrest, police violence, suspension, eviction, and expulsion in order to demand that their universities end their complicity in the Zionist-US genocide and renounce their support for the occupation and the war profiteers that arm it,” the students stated, referring to the central demand of divestment that has been leveraged by students in the encampments.
Palestinians sheltering in the without tears humanitarian camp in Rafah have created banners in support of US students, which they have hung on their tents. The banners read “From Rafah we send you strength,” “the children [of] Gaza are proud of you,” and “thank you students for Columbia uni.”
On behalf of one of our members, a message from the without tears humanitarian camp in Rafah, to the students in the US and the world pic.twitter.com/4LgOWVGuGR
— Palestinian Youth Movement (@palyouthmvmt) April 26, 2024
On April 26, millions gathered on Sana’a Square in Yemen, some holding banners with images from the US student encampments. Their banners showed images from Columbia and other encampments across the country, and featured slogans such as: “To the brave American students, stand your ground! Yemen stands with you! For a free Palestine!” “Dear American Student: They can arrest you, but they can never break your spirit!” and “The Columbia encampment was just the spark! Long live the great student revolution!”
Bisan Owda, a Gazan journalist whose on-the-ground broadcasts of the Israeli genocide have reached millions if not billions across the world, released a video applauding the student protesters. “I’ve lived my whole life in Gaza Strip and I’ve never felt hope like now,” she said. “For the first time in our lives a Palestinians, we hear a voice louder than their voices and the sound of their bombs…It’s children and youth who are leading the movement now for a free Palestine, putting everything they have on the line to demand justice, an end to the genocide, and a new era of the world.”
From Bisan on IG:
“I’ve spent my whole life in Gaza and I’ve never felt hope like now. Magical feelings running in my veins.”
Students – the whole world is watching. And you’re inspiring us all Don’t stop. Never back down.
— People's City Council – Los Angeles (@PplsCityCouncil) April 26, 2024
Students staging peaceful encampments have been met with brutal force by their administrations, who have launched police attacks.
Police deployed snipers near the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at Ohio State University, and beat, tased, and arrested protesters.
BREAKING: Police at Ohio State University began arresting students. Organizers tell BT that students have been beaten and tased by police. pic.twitter.com/cr3Fh7K3Gx
Students were also brutalized while staging an encampment at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Students at the Emory Gaza Solidarity Encampment had drawn powerful links between the struggle for Palestine and the struggle against Cop City, a multi-million dollar urban warfare training ground for US police. Students demanded not only divestment of the university from Israel, but also to divest from the construction of Cop City.
Palestinian Atlantan organizer Layla Amar recapping the violent police raid on Emory University’s campus and making clear that the encampment opposes both the genocide and Cop City pic.twitter.com/7eiVQUYtOg
Emory students were brutalized by Atlanta police within hours of setting up their encampment. Police fired rubber bullets and teargas at protesters, tased a student, and detained both students and faculty.
UPDATE: Atlanta police violently attacked the Gaza protest encampment at Emory University within hours after it was set up.
Cops teargassed, shot rubber bullets, arrested several students and faculty, and brutally tased a detained student. pic.twitter.com/jzrqPVF7k6
On the night of April 24, Emerson College students in Boston, staging an encampment in solidarity with Gaza, were brutally evicted by Boston police. So brutally, in fact, that video from the next day showed city workers hosing off what appeared to be blood from the streets of the former encampment.
Students across the country staging encampments in solidarity with Palestine, in opposition to the genocide and in favor of liberation, have been subject to all manner of state repression. Faculty have watched in horror as their administrations call the police to brutally arrest students, many of whom are undergraduates.
In response to the University of Texas – Austin calling in state troopers to arrest students staging a Gaza Solidarity Encampment, faculty at the university expressed deep concern “for our students’ well-being and safety.”
“We have witnessed police punching a female student, knocking over a legal observer, dragging a student over a chain link fence, and violently arresting students simply for standing at the front of the crowd,” the faculty stated. “There can be no business as usual when our campus is occupied by city police and state troopers who are preventing our students from engaging in a peaceful demonstration of their first amendment rights.” The faculty are calling for what is effectively a strike, declaring, “No business as usual tomorrow. No classes. No grading. No work. No assignments.”
Ansar Allah in Yemen, which has been boldly resisting Israeli genocide through its blockage of ships with ties to Isreal in the Red Sea, released a statement condemning the police crackdown on student protesters. “This unjustified repression exposes the falsity of the US government’s claims to defend freedom, protect human rights, and spread democracy,” the organization declared. “We affirm the right of American citizens to demonstrate peacefully, and we value the moral stance of the demonstrators, which expresses an increased state of societal awareness in the face of the official US policy supporting Israeli crimes in Gaza.”
Students set up a Gaza Solidarity Encampment on Harvard Yard (Photo: Micah Fong)
Police continue to crack down on growing movement of Gaza Solidarity Encampments, students stand their ground
Police throughout the country have continued to heavily repress students engaging in protest in solidarity with Gaza. Despite the brutalization of student protesters on campuses such as University of Texas – Austin and the University of Southern California, students continue to stage encampments across the globe.
This is happening in the backdrop of US President Biden signing a bill into law that would provide USD 26 billion to Israel as it conducts genocide in Gaza. Even the European Union has backed a UN call for an investigation (which the US refuses to support) into the over 300 killed Palestinians found in mass graves beneath the ruins of two hospitals. Israel has also begun its attack on Rafah, killing five people in an air strike on a residential building in Rafah City.
Students at UT Austin have had to withstand brutal repression, as ultra-right wing Texas Governor Greg Abbot called in State Troopers, some mounted on horses, who violently clashed with protesters and made multiple arrests.
Despite the downpour of state violence, student protesters held their ground, chanting ““You don’t scare us!” and “Get off our campus!”
University of Texas students chanting “You don’t scare us” and “Get off our campus” to state troopers sent by Gov. Abbott with support of Biden and Democrats. But students can’t defeat the state on their own or on the campuses. They must turn to the working class to defend their… pic.twitter.com/VmVoGbitf1
Protesters also experienced a wave of repression at the University of Southern California, where arrests are currently underway as Los Angeles Police attempt to clear the encampment.
Happening now: USC protestors being arrested by heavy police presence, students are standing their ground to maintain the Gaza encampments. pic.twitter.com/8CjrwG07q3
Earlier in the day, Los Angeles police used batons and fists to violently beat organizers. Organizers continued to be defiant in the face of such repression, however, and managed to successfully de-arrest a protester who had been detained in a police car, surrounding the car and chanting, “Let him go!”
BREAKING: At USC’s Gaza solidarity encampment, protestors surround an LAPD car and successful de-arrest a student. Brutal crackdown by police is ongoing but the students are undeterred pic.twitter.com/nub0TqtQcf
— Palestinian Youth Movement (@palyouthmvmt) April 24, 2024
On the morning of April 24, Columbia student organizers made important announcements to those participating in the week-long protest, the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” at Butler Lawn. The previous night, Columbia administration had threatened to bring in the National Guard to sweep the encampment, in a disturbing echo of the Kent State massacre in 1970 of four students protesting the US war in Vietnam by the Ohio National Guard.
However, that morning, students announced to the entire encampment that “we won a huge concession—we have it in writing that we are here for 48 hours and we will not be swept; we will not be moved!”
Due to a mass mobilization of both students and supporters, inside and outside campus gates, the administration was deterred from sweeping the camp, according to organizers. The administration has set a new deadline for an encampment sweep: Friday at 3 am.
As student organizers at Columbia plan for repression, other campuses across the country and around the world continue to establish their own encampments in solidarity with Gaza at universities such as Harvard and Brown. On April 24, students Sciences Po in Paris erected their own encampment in solidarity with Gaza.
Just yesterday, Harvard University placed the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC) under suspension. Less than 24 hours later, students launched a Gaza solidarity encampment.
— National Students for Justice in Palestine (@NationalSJP) April 24, 2024
‼️‼️BREAKING: SciencesPo Paris, the top university in France which hosts a dual degree program with Columbia, has just launched a Gaza Solidarity Encampment. This officially marks the spread of the protests to Europe. So incredibly proud of my peers🔥🇵🇸💪 pic.twitter.com/wooD1wPSHm
Students across the globe have issued messages of solidarity with the US students braving repression in solidarity with Gaza. The Arab and Maghreb Youth Student Front Against Normalization and in Support of Peoples’ Causes has called for a “global youth student battle in support of Palestinian resistance and all solidarity forces with it,” stating that “what happened at Columbia University in the United States today is the best evidence of what we say, as after six days of sit-ins inside the campus, many other American universities like the University of California witnessed student movements supporting Palestine, shaking the throne of the entity and pushing the Biden administration to ruthlessly suppress protests supporting the Palestinian people and demanding an end to the genocide in Gaza.”
The Student Front has called for a mobilization of all Arab and Maghreb youth students to “to intensify field movements in support of the Palestinian cause and to stop the genocidal war in steadfast Palestine, strengthening the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement and protesting in front of American embassies and their symbols.”
The International People’s Assembly (IPA) also issued a statement denouncing the “brutal repression and mass arrests of students peacefully protesting their administrations’ investments in the Zionist entity and demanding an end to all academic partnerships and cooperation.”
