Police arrest almost 900 at London protest supporting banned group Palestine Action

LONDON — British police said Sunday that they arrested almost 900 people demonstrating in London against a ban on the group Palestine Action, which has been deemed a terrorist organization by the government.

Almost 1,600 people have now been detained, many for silently holding signs supporting the group, since it was outlawed two months ago. Protesters say the ban on Palestine Action is an unwarranted curb on free speech and the right to protest.

The Metropolitan Police force said 890 people were arrested at Saturday’s demonstration — 857 of them under the Terrorism Act for supporting a proscribed organization. Thirty-three were detained for other offenses, including 17 for assaulting police officers.

Defend Our Juries, the campaign group organizing the protest, said 1,500 people took part in the demonstration outside Parliament, sitting down and holding signs reading “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.”

Within minutes, police began arresting the demonstrators, as bystanders chanted, “Shame on you,” and “Met Police, pick a side, justice or genocide.” There were some scuffles and angry exchanges as officers dragged away demonstrators who went limp as they were removed from the crowd.

“In carrying out their duties today, our officers have been punched, kicked, spat on and had objects thrown at them by protesters,” said Deputy Assistant Commissioner Claire Smart, who called the actions directed at police “intolerable.”

Defend Our Juries said aggression had come from police officers and dismissed as “frankly laughable” claims that protesters had been violent.

More than 700 people were arrested at earlier protests, and 138 have been charged under the Terrorism Act.

Mike Higgins, 62, who is blind and uses a wheelchair, was arrested last month but returned to demonstrate Saturday.

“And I’m a terrorist? That’s the joke of it,” he said. “I’ve already been arrested under the Terrorism Act and I suspect I will be today.”

He added: “Of course I’ll keep coming back. What choice do I have?”

Direct-action protests

The government proscribed Palestine Action in July after activists broke into a Royal Air Force base and vandalized planes to protest Britain’s support for Israel’s offensive against the militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The activists sprayed red paint into the engines of two tanker planes and caused further damage with crowbars.

Proscription made it a crime to publicly support the organization. Membership in, or support for, the group is punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

Palestine Action has carried out direct-action protests in the U.K. since it formed in 2020, including breaking into facilities owned by Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems UK, and has targeted other sites in Britain that participants believe have links with the Israeli military.

The group has targeted defense companies and national infrastructure, and officials say their actions have caused millions of dollars in damage that affect national security.

Banning the group, then-Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said, “The assessments are very clear, this is not a nonviolent organization.”

Palestine Action has won approval from the High Court to challenge the ban, a ruling the government is seeking to overturn. The case is ongoing, with a hearing scheduled for Sept. 25.

Supporters say the ban stifles free speech

The United Nations human rights chief has criticized the British government’s stance, saying the new law “misuses the gravity and impact of terrorism.”

The decision to designate Palestine Action as a terrorist group “raises serious concerns that counterterrorism laws are being applied to conduct that is not terrorist in nature, and risks hindering the legitimate exercise of fundamental freedoms across the U.K.,” Volker Turk warned.

He added that according to international standards, terrorist acts should be confined to crimes such as those intended to cause death or serious injury or the taking of hostages.

Huda Ammori, Palestine Action’s co-founder, has condemned the government’s decision to ban it as “catastrophic” for civil liberties, leading to a “much wider chilling effect on freedom of speech.”

The group has been supported by prominent cultural figures including bestselling Irish author Sally Rooney, who said she planned to use the proceeds of her work “to keep backing Palestine Action and direct action against genocide.”

Israel — founded in part as a refuge in the wake of the Holocaust, when some 6 million European Jews were murdered — vehemently denies it is committing genocide.

Britain’s government stressed that proscribing Palestine Action as a terrorist group does not affect other lawful groups — including pro-Palestinian or pro-Israel voices — campaigning or peacefully protesting.

About 20,000 people, by a police estimate, attended a separate pro-Palestinian march in London on Saturday.

Hui and Lawless write for the Associated Press.