Police to get new powers to curb repeat protests like pro-Palestine marches

Police are to be given new powers to crackdown on repeat protests like the pro-Palestine rallies.

The measures come after a Palestine Action protest went ahead on Saturday despite calls for it to be cancelled following the Manchester synagogue terror attack.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said repeated large-scale demonstrations had caused ‘considerable fear’ for the Jewish community.

Senior officers could now impose conditions on similar follow-up protests, including instructing organisers to move them somewhere else or to change the time of the event.

Mahmood said: ‘The right to protest is a fundamental freedom in our country.

‘However, this freedom must be balanced with the freedom of their neighbours to live their lives without fear.

‘Large, repeated protests can leave sections of our country, particularly religious communities, feeling unsafe, intimidated and scared to leave their homes.

‘This has been particularly evident in relation to the considerable fear within the Jewish community, which has been expressed to me on many occasions in these recent difficult days.

‘These changes mark an important step in ensuring we protect the right to protest while ensuring all feel safe in this country.’

The Government plans to amend Sections 12 and 14 of the Public Order Act 1986 to explicitly allow the police to take account of the cumulative impact of frequent protests on local areas and impose conditions on public processions and assemblies.

People who breach these conditions will risk arrest and prosecution, as well as a £2500 fine, they have warned.

Nearly 500 people were arrested at a pro-Palestine rally in London on Saturday, including 488 arrests for supporting the banned terror organisation Palestine Action.

Both the Met Police and the Home Secretary called for its organisers of Defend Our Jury to cancel the march after the deadly attack on a synagogue in Manchester on Thursday.

Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66, died after Jihad Al-Shamie drove into a group of people and stabbed a man at the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue.

The terror attack took place on Yom Kippur – the holiest day in the Jewish religious calendar.

Mahmood defended the decision to arrest protesters at yesterday’s rally, telling Sky News on Sunday: ‘If you’re supporting a proscribed organisation, you are breaking the law of our land.

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‘People might not like that decision. They might have questions about the way that the anti-terror laws work in this country, but there is no excuse for holding up placards supporting a banned organisation, which will always be met with a police response.’

Prohibiting a march is currently highly restricted and only possible when there is a risk of ‘serious public disorder’.

Mahmood will also review current protest legislation to ‘ensure powers are sufficient and being applied consistently’.

This review will also look at the powers to ban protests outright.

Police forces across the country are working alongside the Community Security Trust to ramp up support for 538 different synagogues and Jewish community sites after the attack.

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