00:00So why have you come out today to support Palestine action?
00:05Because as a free citizen of the United Kingdom I believe it is my right to protest
00:12and at the moment the government is saying I'm a terrorist for wanting to support
00:16people who are disrupting the arms trade with Israel.
00:20So it is okay to be in favour of genocide apparently, but it's not okay to oppose genocide
00:25and support groups that are disrupting the arms trade.
00:29So I'm here today because I believe in free speech.
00:32I believe in the rights of human beings to express their democratic principles here in the UK.
00:37And I also believe that we must oppose genocide in Palestine to save the Palestinian people
00:45from the inhumane treatment that Israel is meeting out to them with the complicit support
00:51of our government and that of the United States as well as other international players.
00:55And am I right in believing that it's not the first time that you've gone out and supported
01:00Palestine action?
01:01This is my third occasion coming out as a principle to oppose the ban on Palestine action and to
01:07support the right of those like me who are opposed to genocide.
01:11And have you been arrested before?
01:13I've been arrested previously twice, September and August, for holding a sign saying I oppose genocide
01:22and I support Palestine action. The same as that which I'm holding today.
01:26And how does it make you feel to risk arrest to support the cause and the group that's been described as a terrorist organization?
01:35It's never a pleasant experience. I wouldn't want to play it down.
01:39But look, whatever I face in terms of arrest or subsequent activity from the police, assuming that by then we haven't made our government see sense by judicial action or other methods to show them this is unworkable,
01:52then really whatever I face is nothing in comparison to the genocide that's being practiced by Israel.
01:59So I'm, I'm not worried in that sense, because whatever they do to me, it will be nothing in comparison to the bombing of hospitals, mosques, homes, the stopping of food aid in the facility this weekend, and so on.
02:12It is absolutely nothing, my experience in comparison to the terrible treatment being meted out to the people of Palestine.
02:19No, I don't think so. Do you have any more questions? Yes, I mean, yes, there is actually one other thing, if you don't mind, I will.
02:29Yes, I will. Yes. So one question that has emerged over the last couple of days is why Palestine action are persisting with today's demonstration, despite the attacks in Manchester.
02:44Now, I want to make it clear that I condemn absolutely the terrorist act in Manchester. There is no need for it, there's no cause for it, and so on.
02:53And I also condemn the overzealous police activity that kills people in Manchester. Similarly, however, I condemn the bombing of mosques by Israel in Palestine,
03:06and the bombing of the Catholic Church with people in it, in Palestine, again by Israel. So I condemn all terrorism. And I think it is all the more important that we do not let the terrorists win by getting Palestine action to agree to being banned.
03:23So in other words, by forcing those who support and defend our juries to stop protesting the rights to free speech and against genocide.
03:32So I think it is even more important today that we are here to show that we mean business and that we won't go away in the light of the dreadful terrorist attack in Manchester.
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