Two Haringey councillors reveal they were arrested as part of Palestine Action protests

Former Labour councillors Lotte Collett and Mary Mason have opposed the government’s decision to proscribe the group under the Terrorism Act, reports Grace Howarth, Local Democracy Reporter

The Palestine Action protest on Saturday 6th September (credit Indigonolan via Wikimedia Commons) with (inset left) Lotte Collett and (inset right) Mary Mason

Two Haringey councillors have confirmed they were among those arrested as part of recent Palestine Action protests in Westminster.

Lotte Collett and Mary Mason – both independent councillors who are now part of Haringey Council’s new Green Socialist Alliance group and represent Woodside and Bounds Green wards respectively – were arrested while demonstrating in support of the ‘Defend Our Juries’ campaign.

A spokesperson from the group explained the two councillors were protesting against the “proscription of the direct action solidarity group Palestine Action” which was classified as a ‘terror organisation’ by the UK government earlier this summer.

Cllr Collett and Cllr Mason – who quit Labour in 2023 over its stance on Israel and Palestine – are among several hundred protestors who have been arrested in a series of recent rallies denouncing the government’s decision to proscribe the protest group.

Cllr Collett was arrested during a protest on Saturday, 6th September, while Cllr Mason was arrested on Saturday, 9th August, in Parliament Square

Cllr Mason said she was arrested at around 7pm before being released at 4.30am the next day, not getting home to Bounds Green until 6am. She said: “I was released with just one bail condition – not to go to demonstrations in support of Palestine Action.”

Yesterday (Tuesday 16th) a United Nations commission published a report accusing Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The Israeli government denies this.

Explaining her reason for opposing the UK government’s ban on Palestine Action, Cllr Mason said: “Basically what’s happened is there’s been a series of ways in which we’ve been unable to get the message across about what’s happening in Palestine.

“The message is that this is a genocide which the British government and British institions are supporting. I’m not saying they’re supporting the killings but, in effect, taxpayers’ money, pensions, and different companies are supporting Israel in this genocide.

“Those of us who are calling them to stop doing that and to cease are not getting our voices heard and we’re not being allowed to have a voice.

“That’s why in the end I went on the global march because I know hundreds of thousands of people are not in support of what is happening but it’s been really difficult to get local and national politicians to respond to that.”

Former home secretary Yvette Cooper recently stood by her decision to proscribe Palestine Action as a ‘terror organisation’, saying the group had been “involved in violent attacks” and used “criminal tactics”.

Prior to the Palestine Action protest in August where she was arrested, Cllr Mason had recently returned from Egypt where she had intended to march to Gaza. She arrived in Cairo on Thursday, 12th June and planned, along with thousands of other campaigners, to start a 30-mile trek the following morning.

The walk would have started in El Arich, Egypt, cross the Sinai Desert and end in Rafah, on the Egyptian/Palestinian border, which is controlled by the Israeli military.

Cllr Mason said her group made it through one checkpoint but was stopped at the second where she and hundreds of others were “surrounded by police”.

She said security forces and the police “slowly moved in” and “plain-clothes officers grabbed demonstrators and forced them into buses” and those who resisted were “beaten with sticks”.

Cllr Mason said: “Slowly, the police tightened the cordon, leaving fewer than 100 of us. At this point, some of us left and re-gathered by the local mosque.”

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