An hour of not feeling complicit in the genocide

Almost 500 people were arrested in London yesterday for holding placards supporting ‘Palestine Action’ which the UK government has declared a ‘terrorist organisation’ despite it never harming anyone. In theory, anyone holding such a placard could receive up to 14 years in prison. 

Those arrested at that ‘Defend our Juries’ protest included folk who had travelled down from Scotland. Meanwhile in Edinburgh, a group of 4 people sat with the same signs. 

This is one take on what happened:

*An hour of not feeling complicit in the genocide*

An hour of sitting quietly, with over a 100 folk gradually forming a circle round the 4 of us sitting on the concrete bollards with signs we wrote out at the start of the hour. 

Our signs read: 

“I oppose Genocide”

“I support Palestine Action”

(to which I added: “who harm no one, and try to protect life”).

The circle around us was a surprise, and was a really supportive presence, quieting into a deeply caring solidarity with those in Gaza: with all those children, women and men suffering the onslaught of genocide. 

I felt so moved that I ended up speaking at the end. 

I’m used to occasionally speaking at Quaker meeting, but not to standing on a bollard at the end of an hour long vigil. I only said a bit of what I had been moved to say. 

I thanked folk for coming and caring, for their supportive presence, for being here despite and because of their fury and grief at the Genocide that the state of Israel is wrecking on the people of Palestine. I then remembered:

“As we sat here in silence, a small girl ran between the trees, laughing and playing. She brought such joy to my heart.” 

“I was then engulfed in tears, thinking of the kids in Gaza being targeted and starved, their families destroyed and killed.”

I wanted to add that I am a Quaker and love sitting for an hour in silence in the presence of others who also care about the world. 

I wanted to add that it was strange to sit here in this oasis of calm – in this pedestrian square in front of the UK government building in Edinburgh -while the rest of the city is full of the deafening noise and impassable crowds of the festival. 

It was strange that a protest should be an oasis of peace. 

But now that the First Minister has named what’s happening as a genocide, will Scotland now boycott Israel? 

Will Scotland become an oasis of peace in a state that is complicit in genocide? Will our Government demand from the UK Labour government that it ends its active support for genocide? 

This UK government calls for a two- state solution, yet won’t recognise one of those states. 

It says it will only recognise Palestine in a month or so’s time, when there may be next to no Palestinians left in Gaza to recognise. And even then it will only recognise it if Israel is still murdering the remaining Palestinians in Gaza. 

What twisted soul would say such a thing? 

If you murder someone you go to jail. If you murder a whole people you are told you can continue but should stop at some time in the future when you’ve achieved your awful ends. 

I wanted to say all that, but all I said was that:

My placard says “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action, who harm no one and try to protect life”. 

“If you rip the roof off an arms factory or spray paint the war planes of a military power that is aiding a genocide, then of course you will be arrested and taken to court. Of course you will be tried. Hopefully by a jury of citizens who can decide whether your action was a proportionate, even if insufficient, response to the crime of genocide being committed. 

“But to label as terrorists, protestors who harm no one, who wish only for peace, is an outrageous denial of the truth. 

“To have tried to break up the work’s of factories making parts for gas chambers would have been illegal at the time, but would have been a moral and proper action.”

I ended my stint on the bollard by thanking folk for their solidarity with the Palestinian people expressed in such a powerful caring way. 

Afterwards, the police followed us and a young woman PC spoke to one of the four of us, saying: “Do you know that holding such a sign is an offence under section 13 of the Terrorism Act?”

After a pause, our comrade replied “What do you want me to say?” 

The PC then said “Will you give me your details?” and the answer was “No”, and the police left us in peace. 

It felt like, despite a large presence, maybe they were wanting to avoid arresting anyone, but you never know – time will tell. 

Janet Fenton, a friend who was in the larger circle, later said:

“It was amazing to see many people that I have known in such a disciplined and perfect circle, and I think the police had a very different (and disarming and discombobulating) experience than the one they were expecting. I hope that they don’t arrest you, and that Scotland can be at its best in this debate.

“I think the police were genuinely unsure of what was happening.” 

“Some of the kent faces in the circle of silence were operating in ways that the cops would be likely to find very uncharacteristic. I think that many of the cops up here personally share our views, although they are always far less sympathetic to Palestinian protest than people coming out on nuclear weapons or even migration.” 

“Maybe they had an idea that if they get the photos they can pick people up later without a riot in the Royal Mile during the Edfest.” 

“They were on their radios and talking to each other a lot, and it was interesting to see the numbers increasing. They were bound to have known we would be there, but maybe thought it would be much smaller and/or noisier. 

“I was just so delighted to see this kind of absolute and completely peaceful pushback, and so pleased that Mr Swinney has said the sensible sentence, and I would like to think that the Scottish Police don’t act on a proscription by the UK Government that the UN have condemned. I feel that there is a change contained in all of that.”

Here’s hoping, and here’s to all of us making that happen. 

After the brief interaction with the police, some of the 100 or so strong group of protestors quickly followed us and kindly asked if we wanted them all to accompany us to protect us, but we said no, we’d like to walk off quietly. Which we did. 

But I now wonder – having heard my friend’s analysis:

– Did the police not arrest us because there was also a crowd of folk, some of whom they apparently knew could become very agitated? 

– Did they not arrest us because it was a calm and peaceful occasion? Were they disorientated in a humanising way? 

– Or will they turn up in a moment, and fall in line with the crazy level of arrests in London?

We walked off quietly, as quietly as we had sat in the Square. 

We sat outside a cafe along with my partner, who had been providing support (alongside a long-time friend from Faslane), and a photographer from the movement. 

We sat amongst the anonymous Edinburgh crowds. 

I think we all felt – I certainly felt – a sense of real happiness. 

That was a good action – however inadequate. 

That was a good vigil – including being laced with occasional chanting and shouts by the wonderful flag-waving folk gathered in the wider circle, with the luminous jacketed police beyond them. 

It felt like we were an oasis of sanity in a world being devoured by a system gone mad. 

That system is inhuman and cares nothing for human life. We are human; we care. 

We – all who care – are seeking a way to recover our humanity, so we can watch the small kids laugh as they dance between the trees, without having to burst into tears.