CAMPAIGN group Defend Our Juries announced a new wave of protests against the ban on Palestine Action today that is expected to be the “most widespread civil disobedience in modern British history.”

Actions will take place across 18 cities this month against the decision to designate the group as a terrorist organisation.

Since the ban came into force on July 5, support for Palestine Action has been deemed a criminal offence.

More than 1,500 people have been arrested under terrorism legislation at protests against the proscription, many for merely holding signs saying: “I support Palestine Action. I oppose genocide.”

Protests will take place in Edinburgh, Cardiff, Oxford, Leeds, Aberystwyth, Nottingham, Northampton, Gloucester and Truro on November 18, in Belfast on November 22, and Edinburgh, Cardiff, Manchester, Birmingham, Cambridge, Bristol, Sheffield, Exeter and Lancaster on November 29.

In London, one action will take place outside the Ministry of Justice on November 20, with the department overseeing the prisons that are holding 29 alleged Palestine Action activists without trial, six of whom are now on hunger strike.

Protests will also take place in Tavistock Square on November 22, outside the Home Office on November 24 and the Royal Courts of Justice on November 26, where a judicial review will be heard challenging Palestine Action’s proscription.

A Defend Our Juries spokesperson said: “These historic mobilisations will honour those already imprisoned for risking everything to disrupt the flow of arms to Israel.

“These actions will also, once again, be in solidarity with the people of Gaza and the West Bank.

“Both Conservative and Labour governments have been shamefully complicit in the horrors continuing to unfold in Palestine and the use of counter-terrorism legislation to silence their critics must end now.”