The Reverend Sue Parfitt, from Bristol, was detained for holding a placard that read: “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.” She was among more than 27 people arrested on Saturday for acts of defiance against the proscription.
Look at that diabolical criminal. I hope they reopen London tower just to hang her from it. After she bakes everyone cookies with afternoon tea.
If she were in the US, she would be pushed to the ground and beaten by a bunch of white guys in riot gear and masks.
What a nice silver lining
Uh, I’ve had enuff of shitty news; let’s switch to another timeline.
A very proactieve protestor and spunky woman of the cloth, who seems to have been arrested 27-28 times already. According to this profile publication she claims she “has militant dna, as a maternal ancestor was accused of sedition in the 18th century”.
What a Fucking Legend!!! People such as her should be our icons. Not the plastic ridiculous people that the legacy media and the algorithimc social media keep pushing out like clowns to the circus floor to keep people distracted.
Sue Parfitt. Let’s remember her name. In fact I’m gonna save this post.
And while I’m not one to support religion, between her and the reverend that gave that sermon to Trump’s face in church, I would say “Lady Priests” (apologies for the reductionism) are having a moment and showing the cloth that apparently only the women in it seem to remember what “their calling” is supposed to be all about.
If anyone knows the name of the woman that gave that sermon, tag it under. Please.
It’s not about supporting the church, it’s about giving credit where credit is due.
In fact, we should start making a record of the people who are raising to the occasion these days all over the world, and taking the moral stand and give them the space and the limelight, instead of allowing everything to be about the shitty people doing their shitty deeds. That takes so much of the bandwith as it is, and makes us feel alone in the face of it all.
Be it about the atrocities being committed in Gaza, Ukraine, the U.S. or in any place where wrongful actions are occurring, let us make visible the people that raise to face it. Let us put forward the faces and voices of the ones who still truly give the word “humanity” some of its supposed meaning back.
PS: A lot of people here might not be able to read Spanish. But I do and I really liked the article you linked. It was a really nice complement to the one linked in the post. So, thank you for sharing it.
What a Fucking Legend!!! People such as her should be our icons
Great pickup up and I fully agree.
I saved your post about saving a post because it makes me less depressed and more warm and fuzzy inside. You are a good person and you clearly care <3
Oh, thank you so much. I wish I let myself believe that I am what you just described. You do seem to fit the description you assigned me very well from this very brief interaction.
Let us all keep spreading warm and fuzzy feels on and on to as many people as we can.
The world certainly needs an antidote to spread against the vile current that is dragging us all into a hole of despair.
We can’t let that happen!
Unfortunately, I often do let myself go in that direction.
So thank you for pulling me the other way.
“One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. Soul on deck shines like gold in dark times. The light of the soul throws sparks, can send up flares, builds signal fires, causes proper matters to catch fire. To display the lantern of soul in shadowy times like these - to be fierce and to show mercy toward others; both are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity.”
From a letter by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, https://www.awakin.org/v2/read/view.php?tid=2195
Thank your for such reply and the link as well. The text you linked shares a lot of inspiration for these trying times.
And oh, how we definitely need it.
100% agree and yes doubt does eat away at you sometimes! Don’t let it ! :)
Praising a good priest is not much different than praising a good republican. You can be a good person without associating yourself to corrupted political parties or bigot cults
I understand your anger. I really do. But may I remind you that the Republicans were the ones who took a stand to abolish slavery and even died for it not that long ago really. And look at where they are now.
It’s people like this woman that are fencing any movement from turning corrupt and vile. Unfortunately all too often there’s not enough of them to stop it from happening.
She most likely saw the cloth as a way to reach and help people in need. As it is one way of doing it. And given her very advanced age, when she was young, it was probably one of the very few that existed at her disposal. Especially as a woman.
And you shouldn’t conflate the identity of individuals with the institutions they’re a part of or with their social descriptors. That is precisely what you hate about these groups you brought up. So don’t play for the opposite team and act the same way they do.
And by the way, you were downvoted but I wasn’t one of the ones who did it. As I do think your anger towards these institutions is absolutely warranted and justified. I feel the same way. Just don’t let that keep you from recognising a decent human being when it is very much the case. Otherwise, you allowed them to turn you into what we both hate about what these institutions represent.
This woman is on everyone’s side because she’s fighting for everyone. Even though I’m not religious, I recognise that I aspire to the same as her.
I’m gonna try it again maybe this time you will understand: praising a good priest is not much different than praising a good scientologis, you can be a good person without associating yourself to a cult that threat people to believe in ghosts
Why this level of vitriol and condescension in this exchange?
I’m also going to repeat… Taking your stance to an extreme, and you have yourself a reductionist view of the world with nothing but intolerance or hatred for those who don’t share it. Sounds familiar?
I don’t know what’s going on in your life, you could be going through something and I don’t want to add more to the pile of what you’re already dealing with. So I’m just gonna leave this here, because I suspect that even my concerning tone right now will read as passive aggressive to you. It isn’t. But I can’t control that.
So take care.
I support Palestine Action - illegal
I support Action for Palestine - legal
I support P.A.
gets arrested
I said I support Pennsylvania, the US State!
I’m honestly impressed that a left wing organisation lasted long enough to get themselves banned.
They usually split into a dozen warring factions within a month.
As a Brit I still support Palestine Action and will be getting involved in more direct action.
One at me piggies.
“Are we the baddies?”
-Said exactly 0 of the cops
MPs had voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to proscribe the direct action group, alongside the neo-Nazi Maniacs Murder Cult and the Russian Imperial Movement.
Has anyone affiliated with the other two groups been arrested since this went into effect?
This is a good question, apparently they’d rather lock up 83 year old women than violent facists and warmongers
Were there people holding up signs for these in public places?
As a German I sincerely apologize for people like this guy here
danke schön, brudi
Honestly, you have way more stuff going that need to apologize for.
Maybe look up Palestine Action before commenting:
In June 2025, the Home Office announced that it intended to designate the group as a proscribed terrorist organisation after the group broke into RAF Brize Norton, vandalising and damaging two Royal Air Force Airbus A330 MRTT refuelling planes by spraying paint into their engines.
Source: Wikipedia
vandalising and damaging two Royal Air Force Airbus A330 MRTT refuelling planes by spraying paint into their engines.
Funny, I wasn’t aware vandalism is a synonym to terrorism.
vandalising and damaging two Royal Air Force Airbus A330 MRTT
MY WORD *clutches pearls*
oh no, not -gasp- property damage!
sending military equipment to explode brown children: 😊
vandalizing military equipment so that you can’t send them to aid the genocide: 😨😠
Feckless cowards.
Genocide accomplices!
Everyone involved with this “law” should be tried and hung in the Hague for aiding and abetting crimes against humanity.
Let’s not hang people in The Hague now
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Just wondering, if I would hold up a sign with ‘go isreal, continue the amazing work you do!’, would that get me arrested? Surely i’d get beat up but i mean what would the lawmakers think of that? Would it be different if the sign would say ‘go isreal, murder those innocent families’ or ‘go isreal, your genocide rules!’ (am i allowed to call it a genocide if i’m not against it?)
make is sarcastic, the British way.
go on the telly, then show them a mirror to themselves. talk how excited you are for how many humanitarian volunteers are being slaughtered, how clever is it to stave children so they can take their land…
in some countries even holding empty sign would lead you to arrest
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None of those signs would lead to your arrest in the UK.
Or you you could just, you know… protest against Israel and pro Palestinians without explicitly showing your allegiance to terrorist organizations such as Hamas.
Why are you talking about Hamas in a thread about Palestine Action? The two groups are not related at all and use totally different tactics (Palestine Action is explicitly non-violent).
How did this get 5 upvotes lol
I think more people have alts on lemmy than we’d like to admit. Particularly when they’re accounts spewing hasbara propaganda.
Unidan is taking AIPAC money.
without explicitly showing your allegiance
So you assume by default that there’s either an explicit or implicit support for Hamas by protesting against Israel?
without explicitly showing your allegiance
So you assume that there’s either an explicit or implicit support for Hamas by protesting against Israel?
Sorry for using difficult words. Make simple for you now:
- protest against Israel: Ok
- protest for Palestinians: Good
- support Hamas: very bad
Understood or brain still hurt?
Where did they show support for Hamas?
terrorist organizations such as Hamas
Can you get more bad faith?
Just stop using Palestinians as as guise for your love of terrorism.
Yeah, they’re the ones arguing in bad faith 🙄
“Stop arguing in bad faith” *proceeds to immediately make the most bad faith argument I have seen in this thread*
trying to stop delivering arms to a terrorist group commiting genocide: terrorism
commiting genocide and deliberately killing, maiming, starving and playing cruel games with the lives of civilians and literal children: not terrorism
talk about bad faith… fuck off with all that.
Thanks for providing a textbook example of bad faith arguing.
My point was that you can protest for the cause of Palestinians without showing allegiance to terrorist organizations.
You are not only claiming that you must support organizations that are defined as terrorist, you pretend I was the one defining their status.
Well done. (slow clap)
OK but where is the explicit support for Hamas that this woman was allegedly demonstrating. “Hamas” doesn’t appear in the article.
How explain word “like” simple? Difficult but I try - for you.
- Orange like grapefruit - both fruit
- Toyota like Ford - both car
- Hamas like “Palestine Action” - both terrorist
If still difficult:
- grapefruit more sour than orange - still both fruit
- Toyota better than Ford - both still car
- Hamas way way worse than “Palestine Action” - still both terrorist
What the fuck even is this comment, lol
Oh, I see, you think that just because the UK labeled Palestine Action a terrorist group, they actually are?
…
Hey, come on over, I got a bridge to sell you!
ICE is a terrorist organization. MAGA is a terrorist organization. You must be really against both of those things, eh? They use fear tactics and scaremongering, and when that doesn’t work, they get violent real quick. And they are based on both political and religious ideology to boot!
So support for Palestinians is only ok if you don’t support the one thing Palestinians could actually do to stop the senseless slaughter of more Palestinians- armed revolutionary action?
So basically one can only wave a flag and cheer against the slaughter of Palestinians by Israel while vilifying the group that Israel deems it’s enemy for checks notes dealing back the same damage dealt to Palestinians for over a century now since Zionist terrorist cells who would become the Israeli military intelligence apparatus and political elite, waged campaigns of massacres, bombings and assassinations all across British mandatory Palestine forcing the British to leave their occupation and the un to split the territory 55/45 in zionists favor. So essentially we are denied to cheer on reciprocal retribution by a population clearly wronged through decades of subjugation, brutal Oppression and genocide because of the sensibilities of colonial capitalist imperialism?
Got it
There is only one context in which Palestine Action is “a terrorist organization such as Hamas” and that’s the depraved legislation that the idiots in Westminster passed. The bravery of the 83 year old priest this article is about lays bare the depravity and stupidity of this absolutely idiotic legislation. Your comment on the other hand, by using this idiotic comparison buys into this aberrant degeneracy. Why do you do that?
the IOF is a terrorist organization. much bigger, more prolific and active than Hamas as well. literally a war criminal organization. funny how you never hear people getting arrested for supporting the IOF though.
Are there any pro “IOF” demonstrations anywhere?
Holding up a sign in support of a terrorist organization will (hopefully) get you arrested.
You might argue that “Palestine Action” should not be defined as a terrorist organization.
You can hold up a sign supporting them to protest the designation. You will be arrested however. That’s just what happens.
Personally I’m not so sure that Palestinians will benefit from all that.
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But how would I telegraph my desire to murder the Jews if I did that?
To simply imagine Palestine without settlers, to simply imagine a sky without drones—that, in the Zionist imagination, is genocidal. If you stick with the “want” of the charge, the notion that Palestinians want to kill all Jews, you find that Zionism is at war with our future. It is at war with our ability to articulate, even if only through poems and protest chants, a future in which Zionism does not reign. For in the past 100 years, Zionism has situated us in a condition of constant dispossession and premature death; our Nakba remains and renews. We are besieged in an inescapable, eternal present tense.
Mohammed El-Kurd
What really happened here: Members of this Palestine Action group sneaked onto a military base and attacked the aircrafts there. This act of politically motivated vandalism resulted in this group being officially banned by the government. Which is totally ok, no state in the world will and can tolerate some group doing acts of terrorism and/or doing sabotage.
Supporting banned terrorist organizations is of course also not allowed (which really makes sense) and yeah, this priest totally did that on purpose. You are therefore totally fine holding up a sign supporting Israel and you are also totally fine holding up a sign supporting Palestine, but you are not fine holding up signs supporting banned organizations.
Nah, Labeling them as “terrorists” is disproportionate.
Criminals, yes. Terrorists, no.
The definition of terrorism under british law can apply to basically any protest group and if applied retroactively would drag things like the suffragette movement under the umbrella of terrorism.
This move is an assault on all of our freedom of speech
You’re equating vandalism to terrorism, you might want to look up the meaning of those words.
The British House of Commons voted by 385 votes to 26 to add Palestine Action to the list of terrorist groups proscribed under the Terrorism Act. Maybe you want to tell us why your definition of terrorism is different from the one in the British parliament?
Because they are unfairly biased in favor of Israel. The U.S. has shown its bias by denying the war crimes that every serious scholar has agreed is happening. The state of Israel itself has tried to shoehorn “criticism of the state of Israel” into the definition of antisemitism.
Governments will stretch and distort definitions to suit their purposes.
Because i’m not a hypocrite, unlike the british parliament.
That vote just shows us the British House of Commons is full of racists. Nothing new there.
The UK is a zionist occupied government.
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Attacked aircraft? By smacking the landing gear with her walker?
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Please inform yourself: People of the Palestine Action group have sneaked upon a british military airfield and sprayed paint into the jet engines of several RAF planes.
So? Did the paint damage the planes? The RAF should give them an award for exposing the vulnerabilities in its security measures.
Yes, putting paint into a jet engine damages a jet engine.
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Bootlicker
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What really happened is already in the article, my questions are about how lawmakers would respond if you openly support the same side they are supporting. That is especially relevant as r i don’t expect regular folk to let me walk around showing the same kind of support for genocide. This has nothing to do with the Palestine Action group and what they did or didn’t do.
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Thanks for providing proper context.
Before they decided to break into a British military base and sabotage planes their status might have been debatable.
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Arresting prominent protest figures has always ended well for the UK. /s
As someone stated… The police are not your friend. They are not there to serve and protect your interests. They are there to serve and protect the interests of the state you live in.
The other day my wife’s car stopped at a busy road. The police quickly arrived and asked if she had crashed on to my car. Like how can we take this unfortunate event and turn it into a profitable situation where they can impound the car…oh it’s just engine failure, well you’re blocking the road so I’ll call the most expensive possible tow truck. How can we make your day worse?
It’s so sad that it comes to this in some area’s of the world.
Why is the UK against people backing Mandatory Palestine?
I dont know exactly but they are quite fond of bringing the iran monarchy back. Maybe something something oil
Mandatory Palestine
the UK is against backing “Palestine Action” which is a group that has sabotaged British military equipment. Surprisingly, the British government doesn’t take kindly to that sort of thing.
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Charming.
There is such a thing as context. Red paint on a street is an annoyance (and may make for very visible and effective protest). Red paint on hi-tech equipment is sabotage (and makes for very unpleasant reactions by the owners of said equipment).
It’s sabotage. It’s not terrorism. The gov is wrong to proscribe this group, you must see that? Regardless of your stance on the issue, this is an anti democratic move by Labour.
I do think that arresting people for voicing their support is counter-productive, unnecessarily heavy-handed and at the very least controversial from a freedom-of-speech point of view.
But I don’t see how the government should not ban a group that resorts to sabotage to achieve their political goals? Any state – democratically legitimized or no – will be very twitchy about stuff that touches national security.
Am I missing some nuance here?
The nuance here is that they’ve been proscribed as a terrorist group. They are a direct action group but they don’t hurt people, just damage property. That’s a crime, but it’s not terrorism. They can and should be tried for criminal damage, B&E, damage to government property etc, but this is a freedom of protest issue, and now freedom of speech, too, since I can no longer say things like “I think Palestine Action went too far, but they’re fighting for a just cause”, for example, because I’d be expressing support for a terrorist group and therefore committing a crime.
Compare to e.g. the suffragette movement who bombed buildings and all kinds to get the vote for women: they’re now lauded by the same person who proscribed this group. Or more recent examples like just stop oil or the protesters that threw the Edward Colson statue into the River Avon. They were tried for criminal damages. Then recently, some protesters have been starting to get tried under the far, far harsher anti terrorism laws, usually when it involves protesting Israel’s war crimes. These are the laws that allow things like extended detention in solitary without charge or phone calls, massively longer sentences and all manner of nasty punishments. It’s clearly a power grab to reduce the will to protest.oh. yeah damaging property is kinda missing the “terror” in “terrorism”. I get it. Thank you :)
Sabotage can absolutely be terrorism. In this case probably not, but the British government has a valid reason to oppose this specific group.
I didn’t mean to say say sabotage could not be terrorism in general, I’m agreeing that this is absolutely sabotage, but in this case it is not terrorism. The govt do not have a valid reason to proscribe them as a terrorist organisation. There are other available methods of opposition.
Terrorism is generally linked with a risk to personal safety at the very least, not mere property damage. These people are criminals, not terrorists.I can agree with that.
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Because they helped set israel up and have to be allied with them.
The joke is that Mandatory Palestine was the name of the British colony before they gave the land to Israel
Oh, thank you for explaining!
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Maybe change Germany to the country the post is related to after copy and pasting this, it’s not they’re the only one.
Now I understand more closely Starmer’s subservience to America’s Donald Trump.
Zion Don inspired Kier to up his slobbering and bootlicking.
The Thought Police are now in your timeline
