The BMJ’s former editor in chief, Fiona Godlee, was arrested this weekend alongside over a dozen other healthcare workers at a demonstration outside the Houses of Parliament in London while holding a sign reading, “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.”
The protest in Parliament Square on 6 September attracted an estimated crowd of 1500 to demonstrate against the genocide in Gaza,1 the UK’s continuing supply of arms to Israel, and the government’s proscription of the group Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation.
In a video clip obtained by The BMJ Godlee is seen sitting at the protest holding a sign as six police officers approach. One then speaks to Godlee, telling her she is under arrest, before she is then taken away by two officers, with one confiscating her sign and a white flower she was also holding.
At this point Godlee, who did not resist, turns to her fellow protesters and is heard to say, “I am very proud to be here …
