‘My legs don’t work as they should, but that won’t stop me’: The grannies risking arrest for Palestine

On Saturday at 1pm, Polly Smith perched on a stool in London’s Parliament Square and gripped a handwritten sign that read: ‘I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action’.

The 74-year-old retired care worker wanted to sit on the ground with her fellow protesters, who gathered to show support for Palestine Action after the group was labelled a terror organisation. However, due to mobility issues caused by arthritis, she needed a stool.

‘Just because I’m older, and my legs don’t work as they used to, that won’t stop me,’ Polly tells Metro.

Next to her was a bag packed with enough medication to last a few days, in case she was arrested. After being detained twice in the past year at previous protests for Palestine, she knows it’s best to be prepared.

It’s given her knowledge of the system that she never expected to gain in her seventies: extra biscuits are given to people who need food to take medication, and a prison breakfast tastes better than it looks.

Ahead of the latest protest organised by Defend Our Juries, the Met Police had warned they would arrest anyone expressing support for Palestine Action, so Polly expected she’d be making it a hat-trick.

As predicted, after just four minutes, she was marched over to a police van.

Polly struggled to climb the high step, so she asked for help, and four police officers gently pushed her inside.

‘My friends joke that now I’m retired, my hobby is getting arrested,’ she adds.

‘I expected it this time, but I was still pretty scared when I arrived at the police station. I live alone in a one-bed flat in Ipswich, and I worried about who’d sort out paying the bills if I was given a sentence.’

Membership of, or support for, Palestine Action is a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison under the Terrorism Act 2000.

Baby boomers make themselves heard

That risk was not enough to deter Polly, nor others — she is one of over 500 people arrested, after being lifted off the ground by officers as chants of ‘Shame on you’ were shouted by onlookers.

Nearly 100 of those detained were in their seventies and 15 were in their eighties. Demonstrators had an average age of 54.

‘I have noticed a lot more people my age at protests,’ says Polly, who was released on Sunday morning without charge.

‘What’s happening in Palestine with the bombings and the famine is a genocide, and we want to play our part when we see something wrong.

‘We may have a few more grey hairs, but we can still take action against the government supporting Israel.

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‘It’s important that we’re there as it shows everybody demands change. All walks of life.’

It is bearing witness to the long history between Israel and Palestine that motivates some people to get out and be heard, such as 70-year-old retired care worker Trudi Warner, who was also arrested on Parliament Square at the weekend.

‘For people of my age, the situation in Palestine has been going on our entire lives, and has now come to this appalling situation,’ Trudi tells Metro.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has recently called the ‘starvation’ in Gaza ‘indefensible’, adding that the Palestinian people have an ‘inalienable’ right to a state.

Trudi continues: ‘We are aware of vulnerability and mortality, and maybe feel more empathy with others facing these losses. We have deep concern for children and young people, and our responsibilities to them.’

She says that people of her generation have ‘less to lose’ if they get a criminal record, as many of them are no longer seeking employment.

Adjustments for OAP arrests

In a statement, the Met Police said detained protesters had been taken to prisoner processing points in the Westminster area, and those whose details could be confirmed were bailed, with conditions not to attend any further protests in support of Palestine Action.

Those whose details were refused or could not be verified were taken to custody suites across London.

A Met Police spokesperson told Metro: ‘Recognising the duty of care we have for those in our custody and reflecting on the age of those who have been arrested at previous protests in support of Palestine Action, we took precautions ahead of Saturday’s operation.

‘There was water available at the prisoner processing points and access to toilets. We had police medics on hand as part of the policing operation, and we processed people as quickly as possible to ensure nobody was waiting an unreasonably long time.

‘Notwithstanding that, a degree of personal responsibility is required on the part of those who choose to come and break the law. They knew they were very likely to be arrested, which is a decision that will inevitably have consequences.’

Taking the fall

Activist, novelist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Angie Zelter, 74, agrees with Trudi and warned younger people at the demonstration to leave getting detained to the older attendees.

‘I was speaking to some Israeli Jewish people there, one of whom was 17 years old, and I said, “Look, don’t risk getting arrested, because you’ve got your whole life ahead of you”,’ she tells Metro.

‘It’s white, middle-class, privileged, older people like me who should. If we haven’t got caring responsibilities, then it’s our duty.’

This sentiment is echoed by Amnesty International’s law and human rights director, Tom Southerden, who said older people feel they are more able to take risks associated with participating in civil disobedience.

‘The consequences for younger people of being labelled a ‘terrorist’, in terms of threats to their careers and other future prospects, are so serious,’ he says.

Angie believes there is more older representation because many young activists are now in prison. ‘People have got to realise that the protest laws are being taken away from us. We are sliding towards fascism and a dictatorship in this country,’ she warns.

Retired teacher and mental health support worker Naomi Hutchings, 62, has been championing causes for decades, including Greenham Common and Cruisewatch in the 1980s. She attended the protest on Saturday, as she fears that the right to demonstrate is being ‘eroded’.

‘My generation has grown up with protest as a way of generating change, so it seems particularly concerning that protest is being suppressed by the previous government with the Policing Bill in 2022 and now by this government declaring Palestine Action to be a terrorist group,’ she says.

‘With all the protests against refugees as well, it feels a bit like the 1930s in Germany. I don’t want to look back and feel I did nothing to stand up for what I believe is right.’

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper stated that although the right to protest is something that the government want to protest ‘fiercely’, it is ‘very different from displaying support for this one specific and narrow, proscribed organisation.’

The MP added that Palestine Action was proscribed due to strong security advice following ‘serious attacks the group has committed, involving violence, significant injuries and extensive criminal damage.’

‘It also follows an assessment from the joint terrorism assessment centre that the group prepares for terrorism, as well as concerning information referencing plans and ideas for further attacks, the details of which cannot yet be publicly reported due to ongoing legal proceedings,’ she continued.

The Home Secretary also said that they are ‘not a non-violent organisation’ and UK national security must be prioritised.

Amnesty International described the weekend’s mass arrests under UK terrorism law as ‘deeply concerning’. Sacha Deshmukh, chief executive of Amnesty UK, said: ‘The protesters in Parliament Square were not inciting violence and it is entirely disproportionate to the point of absurdity to be treating them as terrorists.’

A ‘deep concern about the ongoing genocide by Israel against the Palestinians in Gaza’, and specifically, the UK government’s response, is something that is an issue for all members of society, young and old, says Tom.

He adds that for the older generation it ‘undermined their long-held beliefs about fundamental principles of international law and human rights that they had thought were inviolable.’

Amnesty is clear in its stance that protest can change the world for the better, from stopping wars and winning human rights victories to standing up against racism; participation has no age limit.

‘Anybody can make change,’ Polly agrees. ‘If you’ve got the inclination, age is just a number.’

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