HUNDREDS rallied outside Westminster Magistrates’ Court today to demand the government stop criminalising protest.

The large and noisy protest was held outside the court in support of Palestine marches chief steward Chris Nineham, who had his first court appearance today.

Mr Nineham, also long-standing vice-chair of the Stop the War Coalition, was violently arrested by police at the end of an entirely peaceful protest for Palestine in London last month.

He has been charged, together with Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) director Ben Jamal, with breaches of the Public Order Act. 

Mr Jamal’s own hearing is next week. His was among 77 arrests made by police at the demonstration.

Demonstrators heard speeches linking the state attack on the right to protest with the overriding issue of solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Speakers also urged supporters to turn out in huge numbers on the streets this Saturday in support of Palestine and to defend the right to protest.

Independent MP Jeremy Corbyn said that the movement must not “be distracted from the rights and needs of the Palestinian people by attempts to stifle our right to assemble, our right to free speech and our right to protest, because the right to protest in any society is a long and hard-fought one.

“On Saturday, we’re going to be there again in huge numbers supporting the people of Palestine and in support of Chris Nineham, of Ben Jamal and all those going through the legal trauma of the current situation.”

Suspended Labour MP John McDonnell, like Mr Corbyn interviewed by police under caution, but not charged, in regard to the January 18 protest, said he was “hoping that justice will prevail and that this case is dropped immediately. 

“There is no case to answer. We have got to uphold the right to protest. 

“There is a long tradition in this country of the freedom to assemble, the right to speak, the freedom to protest injustice.”

Mr Nineham entered the court building to chants of “drop the charges.” 

As the Star went to press, there was no update on the outcome of proceedings within.

PCS union general secretary Fran Heathcote told the rally: “Video footage shows that people arrested for so-called breaking police lines did not — they were peacefully let through [by police]. 

“The police are lying about the circumstances.  We will not be silenced and we will not be going away.”

Stop the War Coalition convener Lindsey German warned: “The right to protest is under attack, and in particular the right to protest for justice and freedom. 

“The Metropolitan Police is institutionally misogynist, racist and homophobic — why should they be the arbiters of who can demonstrate?”

She added that “Starmer and Lammy are compliant” in Trump’s “obscene” plans for Gaza.

Mr Jamal, in a powerful speech, said that we are witnessing “a significant escalation of state repression of our movement” that was “part of a wider crackdown on the right to protest started by the Tories and vigorously embraced and extended by Starmer.”

This was “part of an attempt to silence and isolate Palestinian people and delegitimise their struggle. 

“There are three fundamental truths — Israel is engaged in a genocide, it is on the foundation of 76 years of oppression, colonialism, ethnic cleansing and apartheid, and it could not be sustained without British government and corporate support.”

Mr Jamal urged people to “turn out on Saturday in unprecedented numbers not just because of attempts to silence us but because of what is happening to the Palestinian people. It is not hyperbole to say we are engaged in a battle for the future of humanity.”

And actor Juliet Stevenson retold the story of Mr Nineham’s arrest and declared: “What I saw that day has made me doubly committed to coming out on the streets.”

Former National Education Union leader Kevin Courtney told the protest that what had happened on January 18 “was a stich-up from the beginning.” 

To cheers he denounced “the lie that the movement poses a threat to any Jewish place of worship when there are hundreds, thousands, of Jewish people on our demonstrations.”