Margaret Owen, a 94-year-old Jewish human rights barrister, has been trying to get arrested for months.
asserted
Owen → try → months
She has attended about a dozen protests wearing a sign reading “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action” in London and has had a placard with those words attached to a window at her home since the group was proscribed under the Terrorism Act in the UK in July 2025.
asserted
group → attend → July
Israeli ban threat ‘will not intimidate us’
asserted
threat → intimidate → us
- list 2 of 4Palestine Action protesters arrested in Liverpool
- list 3 of 4UK Foreign Secretary confronted by activists over Palestine Action ban
- list 4 of 4UK pledges tougher stance on Israeli actions in Gaza, West Bank
asserted
list → arrest → Gaza
But unlike thousands of others who have been detained for showing support for Palestine Action, officers had not – until Sunday – hauled her into a police van.
asserted
officers → detain → van
“I’ve been trying to get arrested for quite some time,” she told Al Jazeera.
asserted
she → try → Jazeera
“I’m rather proud and glad to have finally joined the club.
asserted
I → ’m → club
In her pursuit, Owen had also written to the Metropolitan Police, sharing photos and confessing, but “they’ve never done anything about it”.
“I think they never wanted to arrest me because that would be quite a story for the media, this ancient veteran human rights lawyer, aged 94, you know, it’s too much of a story.”
asserted
it → write → story
In Liverpool, during a rally held outside the Labour conference, she was finally detained.
asserted
she → hold → conference
Maybe they’d never heard of me, the police up in Liverpool,” said Owen, who in 2013 received an OBE for her contribution to advancing women’s human rights, especially widows’.
asserted
who → hear → rights
Merseyside Police said 82 people were arrested in the same protest “on suspicion of wearing/carrying an article supporting a proscribed organisation” and have since been released on bail.
asserted
people → say → bail
The Metropolitan Police did not comment on Owen specifically, but told Al Jazeera that, in London, “officers may not have witnessed an offence being committed, or the circumstances may not have met the necessary legal threshold for an arrest at that time”.
uncertain
circumstances → comment → time
Owen said she wanted to be detained because the involvement of legal professionals lends a growing civil disobedience campaign “some sort of authority”.
asserted
involvement → say → authority
The rallies have been organised by Defend Our Juries, a UK-based activist group demanding the UK lifts the ban on Palestine Action.
asserted
UK → organise → Action
Founded in 2020, Palestine Action’s stated objective has been to counter Israeli war crimes – and what it says is British complicity in them – by targeting weapons manufacturers and associated companies.
asserted
says → found → manufacturers
Its main target is Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms company, which has several facilities in the UK.
asserted
which → have → UK
Several people who participated in raids claimed by Palestine Action are in jail, some having been sentenced as “terrorists”.
asserted
some → participate → terrorists
‘I admire Ed Miliband
asserted
I → admire → ?
’
Many of those who have been arrested for showing support are pensioners, overwhelmingly for holding signs with the same seven words as the ones on Owen’s placard.
asserted
who → arrest → placard
Doctors, teachers, lawyers, vicars, magistrates (many of them retired), a former adviser to King Charles and a Massive Attack singer are also among the diverse group, as is Tim Crossland, a coleader of Defend Our Juries and former government lawyer.
asserted
Crossland → retire → Juries
“I believe in the right to peaceful protest,” Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband recently told LBC radio.
asserted
Miliband → believe → radio
“I don’t think it was anyone’s intent to have those people criminalised,” he added, referring to the elderly and Christian leaders who have been detained.
asserted
who → think → leaders
As with the sanctions he announced against illegal Israeli settlements, his comments marked a departure from his predecessors.
asserted
comments → announce → predecessors
Before Labour’s change of guard, few lawmakers under then-Prime Minister Keir Starmer criticised Israel’s conduct or the ban on Palestine Action.
asserted
lawmakers → criticise → Action
Just 10 voted against it in the House of Commons, compared with 276 for.
asserted
10 → vote → 276
Then-Home Secretary Yvette Cooper ignored warnings from campaign groups, the United Nations human rights chief and leading politicians and peers that the move misused counterterrorism legislation.
asserted
move → ignore → legislation
“On the specific issue of Palestine Action, there’s a case coming before the Supreme Court, and so I’ll let that case play out, because I think it’s important that that court process takes its course,” Miliband told LBC.
asserted
Miliband → ’ → LBC
He was referring to another case expected this year; Palestine Action’s cofounder Huda Ammori has been given permission to challenge the ban at the UK’s highest court.
asserted
cofounder → refer → court
Miliband, who is Jewish, has credited his late mother’s influence when explaining the UK’s new policies sanctioning Israel as it continues a genocidal campaign in Gaza.
asserted
it → credit → Gaza
“I admire and love Ed Miliband,” said Owen, who has a personal connection to the foreign secretary.
asserted
who → admire → secretary
She was “great friends” with Marion Kozak, his mother, a Holocaust survivor whose funeral she attended in July.
asserted
she → attend → July
Kozak had “always been for the Palestinian people; she recognised the terrible Nakba of 1948”, said Owen, adding Miliband’s mother was moved by the plight “before many of us”.
asserted
mother → recognise → us
‘I began to see how authoritarian Israel was’
asserted
Israel → begin → ?
Owen was born in 1932 to a family that also shouldered a painful history.
asserted
that → bear → history
Her two great aunts and other relatives were killed in the Holocaust, “murdered in the forests of Paneriai in 1941 outside Vilnius”.
asserted
aunts → kill → Vilnius
They were “very good parents”, she said.
asserted
she → say → ?
“I’m sure my mother would have been protesting like mad as well.”
asserted
mother → ’m → ?
Having studied law at the University of Cambridge, she qualified as a barrister at a time when the education system and legal profession were “very anti-women”.
asserted
system → study → time
There were just two women studying law in her year, she said.
asserted
she → be → year
She later travelled to Israel for nine months, but after just three, “I began to see how authoritarian it was.”
asserted
it → travel → three
…and 8 more, not listed.
The Aporia
