Liam Quaide (Cork East, Social Democrats)

The UK Government has, in an Orwellian inversion of truth, conflated protest against genocide with terrorism through its proscription of the Palestine Action group, placing it, absurdly, on the same blacklist as organisations such as al-Qaeda and ISIS. Since the Palestine Action group has been designated a terrorist organisation, at least 2,300 people have been arrested according to the group Defend Our Juries, and a large proportion of these arrests took place at peaceful, sit-in protests in public areas across August and September of this year. Those arrested have included young students, teachers, pensioners and even an 83-year-old retired vicar.

The United Nations human rights chief, Mr. Volker Türk, said that the UK Government’s designation is “disturbing” and “disproportionate and unnecessary”, while the Council of Europe, Europe’s human rights watchdog, criticised the “excessive limits” it places on the right to protest. Does the Minister plan to raise the protection of the right to protest when she next engages with her UK counterpart?

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