MINISTERS faced fresh allegations of corruption today over banning Palestine Action as more than 1,500 people prepare to defy the proscription on Saturday. 

The government has previously revealed that then Labour police and crime prevention minister Diane Johnson met the ADS Group, a trade association that boasts some of the world’s biggest arms manufacturers as members, in recent months.

Now, fresh releases show that on June 3, Ms Johnson had a meeting with Allianz UK, chief insurer of Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems’ British sites — a focus of anti-genocide direct action, not least from Palestine Action.

Just 20 days after that meeting, held with the explicit intention to discuss “protest activity and destruction of property,” Ms Johnson’s boss, then home secretary Yvette Cooper, announced her intention to proscribe Palestine Action, adding it to the government’s list of terror organisations. 

For Palestinian film-maker and journalist Taji Farouky, a member of the Lift The Ban campaign to reverse the proscription, the meeting is merely “further evidence of the corruption of the process used to proscribe Palestine Action.”

“It seems clear to us that this government has chosen to protect the profits of those companies over their legal obligation to prevent a genocide,” he added.

Mr Farouky’s comments come before more than 1,500 people are expected to converge on London’s Trafalgar Square to defy the anti-terror legislation with the kind of open show of support for the group that has already resulted in hundreds of arrests, including 66 at this week’s Labour conference in Liverpool.

A spokesperson for organisers, Defend Our Juries said: “It’s nothing short of a scandal that thousands of people are being arrested — from vicars and priests to students and retired healthcare workers — as our fundamental rights to free speech and protest have been stripped away, not to keep us safe, but to protect weapons manufacturers’ interests and enable Israel to continue to slaughter Palestinian people.”

Former consultant banker and 68-year-old grandmother from Chichester Marji Mansefield, who once described herself as a “small c conservative,” has already faced multiple arrests for taking a stand.

Resolving to once again take part in a protest to have the ban lifted, she said: “They tried to shut down our voices. What else could we do but take back the initiative?

“The government has ignored ordinary people, it has ignored legal advice, it has ignored the UN.

“The majority of people in Britain don’t care about what the legal definition of genocide is, what we care about is what we see, and what we see is ordinary people being killed, starved, shot at trying to get food.

“What else can we do but stand up for our rights to stand up for the right thing?”

Backing the action, Martin Cavanagh of civil servants’ union PCS said: “Our members are not only fearful of being complicit in those areas that do issue licences [for arms export to Israel], but now, since the proscription of Palestine Action, are also concerned about whether they could be held responsible for administering the government’s decision to proscribe Palestine Action.”

Branding the ban an “absolute abuse” of anti-terror laws, he added: “Our members are very clear that they will not be silenced and they cannot have their freedom of speech taken away from them.

“We welcome that the TUC and now the Labour Party conference have passed motions that accept that a genocide has taken place and call for a ban on arms to Israel.

“Our plea to the Labour government is: listen to your own members, listen to your own workers, and listen to the growing demand to reverse the proscription of Palestine Action, but also to take the most important action and ban arms sales to Israel.

“Let’s make sure the Labour government actually plays its part and is on the right side of history, because at the moment and for the last two years, they have been on the wrong side.

“They have to recognise genocide and they have to act.”

The Home Office was contacted for comment.