But the British grandmother was arrested on July 5 for becoming a member of an indication in assist of Palestine Action simply days after it was added to the UK authorities’s checklist of proscribed organisations.
“It’s a terrible shock to be accused of potentially being a terrorist,” mentioned Mansfield, 68, who described herself as a “proud grandmother” of seven.
She “was never politically interested,” the previous banking advisor from the southern city of Chichester instructed AFP. “I just worked hard, raised my family, lived an ordinary life.”
In early July, the UK authorities banned Palestine Action underneath the UK’s Terrorism Act, after activists broke into an air pressure base in England and broken two plane.
Since then, the marketing campaign group Defend Our Juries has organised protests across the nation to problem the ban, described as “disproportionate” by the United Nations rights chief.
More than 200 folks have been arrested, in line with Tim Crosland, a member of Defend Our Juries. They danger jail sentences of as much as 14 years.
British police on Thursday mentioned that they had charged two males and a girl over the July 5 protest, including that they had been sending information on the 26 different folks arrested that day to prosecutors.
A brand new demonstration in assist of the group, which was based in 2020, is deliberate on Saturday in London. Organisers anticipate at the least 500 folks to show up, and police have warned all demonstrators may face arrest.
People “don’t know what the nature of this group is,” inside minister Yvette Cooper has mentioned, claiming that “this is not a non-violent group”.
But Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori has launched a courtroom bid to overturn the ban and a listening to is about for November.
Some 52 students, together with well-known authors Tariq Ali and Naomi Klein, backed the bid in an open letter printed in Thursday’s Guardian, calling the ban an assault on “fundamental freedoms of expression, association, assembly and protest.”
‘Not terrorists’
Mansfield has lengthy supported the Palestinian folks, however the begin of the present warfare, sparked by Hamas’s assaults on Israel on October 7, 2023, galvanised her into motion.
“When it started happening again … it was the most horrible feeling, that children’s homes were being blown up, that their schools were being destroyed,” she mentioned.
Hamas’s October 2023 assault on southern Israel resulted within the deaths of 1,219 folks, largely civilians, in line with an AFP tally based mostly on official figures.
Israel’s subsequent marketing campaign to eradicate the Palestinian militant group in Gaza has killed greater than 60,000 folks, additionally largely civilians, in line with figures from the Hamas-run territory’s well being ministry, that are deemed dependable by the United Nations.
For Mansfield, the Palestine Action ban was the ultimate straw, fuelling her emotions that the federal government was silencing her political beliefs.
The night time earlier than attending the July demonstration, Mansfield mentioned she was “terrified”. But she didn’t change her thoughts.
Images on British media confirmed her being moved by a number of cops after she refused to rise up from the pavement. An 83-year-old girl was by her facet.
Mansfield spent 12 hours in custody, and is now banned from components of London, that means she can not go to some museums together with her grandchildren as she wish to do.
“It was just ordinary people,” mentioned Mansfield. “We came from all backgrounds … we’re not terrorists.”
‘Civil liberties’
Alice Clark, a 49-year-old physician, additionally doesn’t remorse attending the protest the place she was arrested in London on July 19.
“Nobody wants to be arrested. I just feel that there’s a responsibility,” mentioned Clark, who additionally accused the federal government of undermining “our civil liberties”.
Cooper mentioned the ban on Palestine Action was “based on detailed security assessments and security advice”.
The ban says the group’s “methods have become more aggressive” by encouraging members to hold out assaults which have already prompted tens of millions of kilos in harm.
But Clark, a former volunteer for medical charity Doctors Without Borders, mentioned she felt “growing disgust and horror” on the pictures of ravenous kids in Gaza.
The 12 hours in custody after her arrest had been a shock. If convicted, she dangers dropping her licence to observe drugs.
“There were points where I was close to tears. But I think just remembering why I was doing it kind of helped me keep calm,” mentioned Clark.
History pupil Zahra Ali, 18, was additionally arrested on July 19, earlier than being launched underneath supervision. None of the three ladies has been charged.
She can also be appalled by the scenes from Gaza.
“The starvation in Gaza, it’s disgusting. And our government isn’t doing anything about that,” she instructed AFP.
Imagining herself in jail at 18 is “a big thing,” however “if people who are in their 80s can do it, then I can do it,” Ali mentioned.
She additionally doesn’t describe herself as an activist, however as “a normal person … who decided that what our government is doing is wrong”.
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