Document:Interview with Palestine protester arrested over Private Eye graphic
"The police don't really do nuance."
| Retired 67-year-old headteacher Jon Farley: “I said, but it’s just a cartoon from Private Eye. I’ve got the magazine in my backpack. I can show it to you. But by that point they’d handcuffed me.” |
Interview by Yuri Prasad dated 22 July 2025Subjects: Jon Farley, Ian Hislop, Private Eye, Palestine Action, Terrorism Act 2000
Source: Socialist Worker (Link)
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Interview with Palestine protester arrested over Private Eye graphic
| Private Eye's Ian Hislop shares the joke that got Jon Farley arrested |
Jon Farley from Leeds was one of many that police arrested for so-called “terrorism offences” on Palestine protests last weekend.
The retired headteacher had enlarged a graphic from Private Eye magazine and was carrying it as a placard.
The reproduction sign mocked the state’s proscribing of the group Palestine Action while it ignores Israel’s bombing of civilians.[1]
Jon told Socialist Worker he was holding the placard on the Leeds city centre protest, passing lots of police officers, but “none of them said anything” about his sign.
Then, when the silent march had reached its half way point, two officers pounced from the side of the protest.
“They weren’t the usual police, the ones who wear blue gilets,” said Jon. “They just charged into the march and said, ‘Can we have a word with you?’
“Then they grabbed me, took me to the pavement, and then said this was about the placard.
“I said, but it’s just a cartoon from Private Eye. I’ve got the magazine in my backpack. I can show it to you. But by that point they’d handcuffed me.”
Police bundled Jon into a waiting van, but demonstrators gathered around it, trying to get him de-arrested.
Cops kept Jon in a cell for six hours and he was interviewed by two anti-terror police.
“I was quite worried about my wife while I was in custody because she has been unwell,” says Jon. “But others on the march took care of her and even brought my medication to the police station.
“I really want to thank everyone in Leeds Palestine Solidarity group, and everyone else that helped out. The solidarity really kicked in.”
While deeply unpleasant, Jon says police repression hasn’t deterred him. And that it should stop others from protesting over Palestine either.
“We’ve got to stand up. We’ve got to stand up for Gaza,” he said. “We can’t let them stop us speaking out.”
Police on Monday announced that they will take “no further action” against Jon.[2]
