In an attempt to get the government to reevaluate the ban, British police reported that they had detained 474 individuals in central London on Saturday after members of a recently outlawed pro-Palestinian group purposefully broke the law.
Early in July, a law was passed by Parliament that outlawed Palestine Action and made it illegal to openly support it. In protest of Britain’s backing of Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, demonstrators broke into a Royal Air Force base and damaged two tanker jets.
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The group’s supporters contend that the law unlawfully restricts freedom of expression, and they have staged a number of rallies across the United Kingdom in the last month.
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Daring police to arrest them
With placards that read, “I oppose genocide,” more than 500 demonstrators crowded the square outside the Houses of Parliament on Saturday, many of them daring police to arrest them. Palestine Action has my support. That was sufficient for the police to intervene.
However, when the event came to an end, police and protest organizers argued about how many people had been arrested, with the organizers attempting to demonstrate that the law was impractical.
The protest’s organizer, Defend Our Juries, said in a statement that the police have only been able to apprehend a small portion of individuals allegedly committed acts of terrorism, and the majority of them have been granted street bail and permitted to return home. The credibility of this widely mocked law, which was implemented to penalize people who exposed the government’s own wrongdoings, is further undermined by this significant embarrassment to the government.
The London Metropolitan Police Service swiftly retaliated, claiming that this was untrue and that many of the people assembled in the plaza were either media, bystanders, or those without signs endorsing the organization.
The police department released a statement saying, “We are certain that anyone who came to Parliament Square today to hold a placard expressing support for Palestine Action was either arrested or is in the process of being arrested.”
Police said Friday that the protest was unique because the demonstrators planned to be detained in large numbers, which would put a burden on the police and the criminal justice system as a whole.
According to an X post by London’s Metropolitan Police, 466 people have been arrested as of 9 p.m. Saturday local time (4 p.m. ET) for demonstrating support for Palestine Action. According to police, eight more people were taken into custody in relation to various charges, including five suspected assaults on policemen.
Why the group is being banned
Following the activists’ June 20 break-in at a British air force installation in southern England to protest British military assistance for the Israel-Hamas war, the government took action to outlaw Palestine Action. At the RAF Brize Norton facility in Oxfordshire, the activists used crowbars to further damage the engines of two tanker planes and splashed them with red paint.
Palestine Action has previously targeted sites in the UK that they think have connections to the Israeli military, including Israeli defense firms.
The group’s supporters are contesting the ban in court, arguing that the government went too far in designating Palestine Action as a terrorist group.
“The right to freedom of expression has no meaning and democracy is dead once the definition of terrorism is extended to include those who cause economic harm or embarrassment to the rich, the powerful, and the criminals, and is separated from campaigns of violence against a civilian population,” Defend Our Juries stated on its website.
Busy weekend of protests
As protests and counterprotests around the United Kingdom are sparked by the conflict in Gaza and worries about immigration, the arrests outside Parliament coincided with what is anticipated to be a busy weekend of demonstrations in London.
Many Palestinian sympathizers in Britain blame the government for not doing enough to put an end to the war in Gaza, even though Prime Minister Keir Starmer has infuriated Israel with his proposals to recognize a Palestinian state later this year.
On Saturday afternoon, pro-Palestinian demonstrators assembled in downtown London for a march that concluded outside the gates of the prime minister’s official residence and offices, No. 10 Downing Street.
To call for the safe release of Israeli hostages in Gaza, several organizations are planning to march through downtown London on Sunday. Since Hamas-led assailants stormed into Israel on October 7, 2023, murdering almost 1,200 people and capturing 251 hostage, Palestinian extremists have been holding the prisoners. Twenty of the 50 captives are believed to still be alive.
Additionally, police are getting ready for demonstrations outside of hotels that are housing asylum-seekers nationwide. In recent weeks, protestors and counterprotesters have clashed outside the hotels, with some claiming that the migrants are a threat to their communities and others condemning prejudice against immigrants.
According to Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ade Adelekan, the police department would be under strain due to the magnitude of the events.
Adelekan stated before to the protests that the next few days in London would be especially hectic due to the several concurrent protests and events that will necessitate a substantial police presence.
