An 83-year-old retired priest was among 29 people arrested in London at the weekend while taking part in a protest in support of the proscribed group ‘Palestine Action’.
Rev Sue Parfitt who’s from Bristol, was sitting in a camping chair with a placard reading ‘I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action’ when she was arrested under the Terrorism Act. It was part of a ‘Defend Our Juries’ protest.
The government designated Palestine Action as a terror organisation at midnight on Saturday and expressing support for them is now a criminal offence, punishable by up to 14 years in prison. It follows alleged damage to two aircraft at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire last month. Even wearing a T-shirt with the group's name could attract a sentence of six months.
Rev Parfitt is no stranger to being on the wrong side of the law. She’s been arrested around 30 times mainly through her activism with Christian Climate Action on environmental issues. One of her protests involved sitting on the M25 as part of an Insulate Britain campaign in November 2022 ahead of COP26, the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow.
Speaking just before she was led away by police on Saturday, Rev Parfitt said she was standing “up for the people of Palestine and the fact that this organisation is being said to be a terrorist organisation which is total nonsense, and that we are losing our civil liberties in this country”.
Rev Parfitt was ordained in 1994, but last year she lost her permission to officiate (PTO) after facing criminal charges over a Just Stop Oil protest at the British Library.
Speaking to Premier’s Woman Alive magazine in April, Rev Parfitt said: “Life is about radical obedience to the will of God. Life gets better and better as one gets older, because God continually calls us into new adventures and new wonderful possibilities for practising our faith. I have so much to thank God for and so much to look forward to, because God never stops calling us into new ways of discipleship, service and love.”
The Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said Palestine Action has had a "long history of unacceptable criminal damage".