Defend Our Juries (DOJ) was established to “shine a light on the constitutional crisis taking place in our courts”:
Juries of 12 randomly selected citizens put the moral intuitions of ordinary people at the heart of the criminal justice system. Over the last few years, when juries have heard evidence of why people have taken direct action to advance climate or racial justice, or to stop genocide in Gaza, they have repeatedly reached not guilty verdicts.
These verdicts are deeply embarrassing to the government and the arms and oil industries, contradicting the narrative that the public supports the ‘crackdown on protest’. Lobbyists for the arms and oil industries, such as Policy Exchange, embedded within government, have been working to put a stop to them.
As a result, extraordinary measures have been taken that violate the most basic principles of natural justice and the right to a fair trial.
… And, now, following these stitched-up trials, more and more people are being jailed for years, for taking peaceful and proportionate action to prevent mass loss of life. In the midst of Britain’s prisons crisis.
A current campaign of DoJ is to ‘Lift the Ban’, aimed at getting the British government to reverse the proscription of the organisation known as Palestine Action (PA). PA takes direct action, such as spraying paint on fighter jets which they say are destined to be used in Israel’s assault on Gaza, but they claim that they do not target people. The government argues that the activities of PA amount to terrorism and parliament voted to proscribe the organisation. Because PA is proscribed, anyone expressing support for them is committing a criminal offence. The ‘Lift the Ban’ campaign involves mass civil disobedience, with thousands of people peacefully displaying signs which express support for PA.
At least three members of the Sea of Faith Network have taken part in Lift the Ban actions so far. I was arrested in Parliament Square on 9th August, while David Lambourn and Caroline Pickard took part on 6th September and Caroline was arrested. Caroline describes her experience below. She has since been ‘Released Under Investigation’ (RUI) and is waiting to hear if she will be charged,
David Chapman
Impressions of the Lift the Ban demonstration in Parliament Square on 6th September 2025
Caroline Pickard
I was there for the one o’clock start, wrote my placard and was arrested at seven by two officers from Lancashire. My neighbour had been picked up at six by police from Humberside… people and police had come from far and wide for the demonstration protesting against the proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation.
It was to be a seated, silent, demonstration and would have been quieter had not the Palestine Solidarity Campaign held a rally close by. However, it was by and large a quiet event and at this point I would like to add that I did not see any violence at all although I know there have been reports of disturbances.
Is there an etiquette I wonder for such events? There were people just walking about among us and one man stood right in front of me, chatting occasionally, with his rather large backside right in my face. Eventually I had to tell him that I felt he was invading my space and he had the grace to move away.
I was surprised at what seemed a profligate use of police time. I was carried to a paddy wagon by four officers; there were just two of us demonstrators in it, both of us with two officers and the driver who took us to Millbank. Here we disembarked.and waited in a long queue for two and a half hours, some demonstrators still insisting on being carried, until we reached a tent labelled Prisoner Reception Point. The sole point of it as far as I could see was to give my arresting office a number! After that the queue was short and moved us quickly to the Prisoner Reception Tents and there were twenty of them.
In mine Mitchell, Julia and Chris, in plain clothes, explained my rights; I had been quite prepared to refuse to give my name but I’d forgotten that I still had my wallet with me. The police have the right to search you and of course they found my driving licence! Silly me.
So I was given street bail and instructed to attend at Plumstead Police station at the end of November, I walked back to Westminster tube station, past Parliament Square where at 10.30 the police were still busy arresting and the paddy wagons lined up. They took nearly 900 people that day and I am proud to be one of them.
1 About Defend Our Juries: https://defendourjuries.net/about-doj/ Accessed 19/11/2025