THIS weekend will see “the biggest-ever day of defiance” against the ban on Palestine Action, organisers Defend Our Juries announced today.

Three mass protests will go ahead on Saturday in Derry, Edinburgh and London, despite the arrest of seven key spokespeople from the group.

The actions aim to pose an unprecedented challenge to all three legal systems within the UK constitutional framework.

Protesters will hold signs reading: “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action,” demanding an end to the group’s proscription, which came into force on July 5.

More than 700 people have since been arrested for expressing support for the group.

Defend Our Juries has urged participants not to comply with street bail, which denies people access to immediate and free legal advice.

The tactic is expected to overwhelm processing of detainees at police stations, with 1,000 people already pledging to take part in the protest at Parliament Square in Westminster.

Speaking at a Defend Our Juries press conference, journalist George Monbiot, who recently took part in a sign-holding protest, accused authorities of “two-tier policing.”

Noting lax policing at farmers’ protests and demonstrations outside refugee hotels, he said: “We are seeing anyone who supports economic power, or indeed any powerful lobby group, being able to get away pretty well with anything they want to.”

Northern Ireland Assembly member Gerry Carroll also highlighted double standards.

“Paramilitary organisations are meant to be terrorist organisations, they’re meant to be proscribed,” said the People Before Profit MLA, who represents West Belfast at Stormont.

“But despite their proscription, we have the UDA [Ulster Defence Association] and UVF [Ulster Volunteer Force] having their flags flying on lamposts across community areas in Belfast.”

He said that a 74-year-old woman had recently been arrested in Belfast for wearing a Palestine Action T-shirt, as have members of the Jewish community protesting outside Barclays Bank.

Mr Carroll added: “If the state obviously isn’t cracking down on the UVF or the UDA, organisations that are still armed to the teeth, intimidating people, carrying out sectarian and racist pogroms, how can they legitimately go after supporters of Palestine Action, a group that has committed only  criminal damage in an attempt to stifle and frustrate the Israeli war machine?”

A BBC journalist asked the press conference what the campaigners would say to those who were supportive of Palestinian rights but would regard mass-actions as “potentially damaging public safety.”

Claudia Penna Rojas, who planned to join the demonstration at the weekend, replied: “Frankly, if holding a placard silently outside Parliament Square is damaging or risking public safety, then we have lost democracy.”

A Defend Our Juries spokesperson said Saturday’s protests will be “the biggest ever day of defiance of the ban across the UK.”