Colonel Turned Campaigner: Ex-Commando Condemns 'Dictatorial' Crackdown After Palestine Action Arrest
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A former British Army commando and defence attaché has accused the Government of acting like a "dictatorship" after he and over 500 others were arrested protesting against the ban on Palestine Action.
Retired colonel Chris Romberg, 75, was at the Defend Our Juries protest outside Parliament on Saturday, alongside hundreds of others.
Romberg served in the Army for 33 years, including in 29 Commando Regiment, and was defence attaché for Britain in Egypt and Jordan until 2007. He is the son of a Holocaust survivor, with his father, grandparents and aunts having to flee from Austria in 1938 after the German takeover as they were of Jewish descent.
After holding up a sign saying: "I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action" - which now carries a potential prison sentence of 14 years - Romberg was arrested and escorted by officers to be processed in a make-shift facility near Whitehall, where hundreds were arrested and handed bail conditions not to attend similar demonstrations.
He told Byline Times: "Of those who were arrested as terrorists on Saturday - about half of them were pensioners…You had disabled people in wheelchairs. Right next to me, an 89-year-old woman was arrested and carried off.
"Are these really the terrorists that the Government is supposed to be fighting? This may continue, more people will join. People are seeing this not as a determined movement by the Government to stop terrorists, but as criminalising pensioners."
The Prime Minister's spokesman told journalists on Monday: "Palestine Action was proscribed based on strong security advice following serious attacks the group has committed involving violence and injuries and extensive criminal damage.
"This follows an assessment from the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre that concludes Palestine Action has committed three separate acts of terrorism…You'll understand we can't go into all the detail at this stage. However, further evidence and security assessments have been provided in closed court, and the assessment supported the proscription."
Chris Romberg responded to the claims of secret evidence against Palestine Action, saying: "I feel it's all too easy to start claiming national security, claiming you have secret information, slightly frivolously.
"Years ago, Monty Python did a sketch about gangsters called the Piranha Brothers, and one of the characters in this had his head nailed to a coffee table by the Piranha Brothers. When asked why, he said, "Oh, they said I'd broken the unwritten law." They said, "What was it?" "I don't know. They wouldn't tell me."
BREAKING
'Expect to be Arrested' Met Police Warns as Hundreds Set to Defy Palestine Action Ban
The Met Police promised mass arrests as over 500 people were expected to take part in a protest backing the banned direct action group on Saturday
Josiah Mortimer
"We feel the Government is getting into this sort of situation. In the court case, they also produced supposed evidence, for which everybody had to leave the court and neither the claimants nor their lawyers were allowed to know what it was, or even be present, and this was then put before the judge without any [cross-examination].
"This sounds like what we would normally expect from an absolute dictatorship."
On Tuesday (12th August) organisers Defend Our Juries said a Telegram channel that was set up prior to their 'Lift The Ban' campaign launch was taken down without prior warning. The channel was used for 'sharing information on peaceful protests and legal advice'.
A spokesperson for the group said the 'latest interference' with the organising tools for the Lift The Ban protests followed the Defend Our Juries website being taken down last Wednesday, and an open call being cancelled by Zoom just one minute before it was due to start last Thursday, apparently at the request of the Met Po...
Packed with exclusive investigations, analysis, and features
SUBSCRIBE TODAY
A former British Army commando and defence attaché has accused the Government of acting like a "dictatorship" after he and over 500 others were arrested protesting against the ban on Palestine Action.
Retired colonel Chris Romberg, 75, was at the Defend Our Juries protest outside Parliament on Saturday, alongside hundreds of others.
Romberg served in the Army for 33 years, including in 29 Commando Regiment, and was defence attaché for Britain in Egypt and Jordan until 2007. He is the son of a Holocaust survivor, with his father, grandparents and aunts having to flee from Austria in 1938 after the German takeover as they were of Jewish descent.
After holding up a sign saying: "I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action" - which now carries a potential prison sentence of 14 years - Romberg was arrested and escorted by officers to be processed in a make-shift facility near Whitehall, where hundreds were arrested and handed bail conditions not to attend similar demonstrations.
He told Byline Times: "Of those who were arrested as terrorists on Saturday - about half of them were pensioners…You had disabled people in wheelchairs. Right next to me, an 89-year-old woman was arrested and carried off.
"Are these really the terrorists that the Government is supposed to be fighting? This may continue, more people will join. People are seeing this not as a determined movement by the Government to stop terrorists, but as criminalising pensioners."
The Prime Minister's spokesman told journalists on Monday: "Palestine Action was proscribed based on strong security advice following serious attacks the group has committed involving violence and injuries and extensive criminal damage.
"This follows an assessment from the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre that concludes Palestine Action has committed three separate acts of terrorism…You'll understand we can't go into all the detail at this stage. However, further evidence and security assessments have been provided in closed court, and the assessment supported the proscription."
Chris Romberg responded to the claims of secret evidence against Palestine Action, saying: "I feel it's all too easy to start claiming national security, claiming you have secret information, slightly frivolously.
"Years ago, Monty Python did a sketch about gangsters called the Piranha Brothers, and one of the characters in this had his head nailed to a coffee table by the Piranha Brothers. When asked why, he said, "Oh, they said I'd broken the unwritten law." They said, "What was it?" "I don't know. They wouldn't tell me."
BREAKING
'Expect to be Arrested' Met Police Warns as Hundreds Set to Defy Palestine Action Ban
The Met Police promised mass arrests as over 500 people were expected to take part in a protest backing the banned direct action group on Saturday
Josiah Mortimer
"We feel the Government is getting into this sort of situation. In the court case, they also produced supposed evidence, for which everybody had to leave the court and neither the claimants nor their lawyers were allowed to know what it was, or even be present, and this was then put before the judge without any [cross-examination].
"This sounds like what we would normally expect from an absolute dictatorship."
On Tuesday (12th August) organisers Defend Our Juries said a Telegram channel that was set up prior to their 'Lift The Ban' campaign launch was taken down without prior warning. The channel was used for 'sharing information on peaceful protests and legal advice'.
A spokesperson for the group said the 'latest interference' with the organising tools for the Lift The Ban protests followed the Defend Our Juries website being taken down last Wednesday, and an open call being cancelled by Zoom just one minute before it was due to start last Thursday, apparently at the request of the Met Po...
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