SCALP and Netpol’s Report on the policing of Palestine Solidarity in Scotland
A new Report finds Police Scotland used “extreme violence” to protect arms company interests from pro-Palestine protesters.
A new report by Scottish Community and Activist Legal Project (SCALP) and the Network for Police Monitoring (NETPOL) into policing of pro-Palestine protests reveals police violence, repeated misuse of police powers, intimidatory surveillance and discriminatory policing. In some cases, the level of police violence used against demonstrators was described as a “threat to life”.
While mainstream political rhetoric in Scotland condemned the genocide and rejected Westminster’s description of pro-Palestine marches as ‘hate marches’, the reality of policing approaches used against pro-Palestine protests in Scotland paints a very different picture.
SCALP’s new report details a policing operation that prioritised the interests of private companies over the right to protest and the safety of protestors. Recent evidence has revealed the arms industry lobbied the Scottish Government and Police Scotland to crack down on pro-Palestine protests. The report details violent police interventions in peaceful pickets at the Thales weapons factory in Glasgow, when police actions were described as a “threat to life” and police cited company operations rather than legislation to justify their intervention.
Jessie Faulkner, a spokesperson for the Scottish Community and Activists Legal Project, commented:
“The values of dignity, respect and safety for all people are supposed to be core to Scottish identity. But this report shows that Police Scotland have consistently and violently undermined these values, and misused their powers in defence of genocidal corporate interests.”
“By highlighting Police Scotland’s life-threateningly violent repression of movements for justice in Scotland, the hypocrisy of the Scottish Government’s public statements in support of Palestine is laid bare. This repression is part of a wider, deeply disturbing crackdown on the right to protest across the UK. We deserve better than this – politicians’ willful ignorance of the realities of Scottish policing must end.”
SCALP’s report draws together eyewitness accounts, arrest figures and extensive first-hand testimony from legal observers to paint a picture of a police response characterised by racial profiling and Islamophobia, as well as unusually high levels of surveillance and harassment.
Kevin Blowe, a spokesperson for the Network for Police Monitoring, commented:
“This report should act as a wake-up call: hostile policing of Palestine solidarity protests is not just a problem south of the border, but a Scottish one too. Throughout this period Police Scotland has continued to repeat its mantra that it is a ‘rights-based organisation’ committed to ‘fairness, respect and… upholding human rights’.”
“These claims have largely been taken at face value, yet policing of protests has, as this report highlights, often been brutal, arbitrary and profoundly racist, especially when the economic power of the Scottish weapons industry was challenged.”
New FOI data included in the report shows that marches and demonstrations were subject to excessive restrictions and people perceived as key organisers faced intimidation and targeted arrest for organising ‘illegal’ demonstrations. Research shows a fourfold increase rise in these kinds of charges (under the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982) from 2022-23 to 2023-24.
FOI data also revealed that Police Scotland spent £90,409.30 on policing pro-Palestine protests in just one month, from November 9th 2023 to December 10th 2023. This figure is the best indication of monthly costs available from Police Scotland, and would equate to well over £1 million annually.
Other issues highlighted for analysis in the report include the extensive misuse of ‘hate crime’ legislation to suppress pro-Palestine chants, slogans and placards. Overall, the policing of Palestine solidarity in Scotland from October 2023 to 2024 shows a growing suppression of dissent, which is of grave concern for Scottish civil society.
Thanks for sharing this horrific report. Toleration of this kind of racialised police brutality at public and political level will be the ruin of us. Ece Temulkuran has mapped the pathway convincingly her “How to lose your country”
I would like more concrete evidence of these accusations. I have been on many marches and demonstrations in Scotland through the years and have never witnessed Poluce Scotland behave in this way.
The report and all supporting evidence can be read here Margaret,
https://www.scottishactivistlegalproject.co.uk/from-scotland-to-gaza-a-scalp-and-netpol-report-on-the-policing-of-palestine-protests-in-scotland/
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