UK police arrest at the very least 365 folks at Palestine Motion protest in London

[ad_1] Critics say ban on activist group stifles freedom of speech and meeting and goals to curb pro-Palestine demonstrations.

Police in London have arrested a whole lot of individuals at a protest in help of the group Palestine Action , which was labeled as a “terror organisation” by the British authorities final month.

The Metropolitan Police mentioned 365 demonstrators had been arrested at Parliament Sq. by 6pm native time (17:00 GMT) on Saturday “for supporting a proscribed organisation”.

“It's going to take time, however we are going to arrest anybody expressing help for Palestine Motion,” the police power mentioned in an earlier submit on X.

Movies shared on social media confirmed police eradicating protesters who had been seated throughout the sq., holding indicators studying, “I oppose genocide. I help Palestine Motion”.

“The individuals are collectively opposing the genocide in Gaza and the Palestine Motion ban,” Defend our Juries, an advocacy group that organised the protest, wrote on X.

The arrests are the newest at a collection of protests denouncing the federal government’s ban on Palestine Motion, a transfer critics say infringes on freedom of speech and the proper to protest, in addition to goals to stifle demonstrations towards Israel’s conflict on the Gaza Strip.

Below the Terrorism Act 2000, membership in or support for the group is now a legal offence punishable by as much as 14 years in jail.

Reporting from Parliament Sq. on Saturday, Al Jazeera’s Sonia Gallego mentioned the specter of arrest or punishment “hasn’t deterred any supporters” of Palestine Motion from expressing their backing for the group.

“One thing so simple as sporting a t-shirt saying, ‘I help Palestine Motion’, and even having that written on a sheet of paper” may result in an arrest, Gallego mentioned.

Cops detain protesters throughout a rally organised by Defend Our Juries, difficult the British authorities’s proscription of ‘Palestine Motion’ [Jaimi Joy/Reuters] Upfront of Saturday’s protest, greater than 200 folks had been detained in a wave of demonstrations throughout the UK denouncing the ban because it got here into power in July.

Greater than 350 lecturers from all over the world signed onto an open letter this week applauding a “rising marketing campaign of collective defiance” towards the choice by Residence Secretary Yvette Cooper to proscribe Palestine Motion.

The signatories “deplore the repressive penalties that this ban has already had, and are particularly involved in regards to the doubtless affect of Cooper’s ban on universities throughout the UK and past”, the letter learn.

Israeli historian and College of Exeter professor Ilan Pappe, Goldsmiths professor Eyal Weizman, and political thinkers Michael Hardt and Jaqueline Rose have been amongst those that signed the letter.

In the meantime, a separate march organised by the Palestine Coalition group was additionally held in London on Saturday.

The Metropolitan Police mentioned one individual had been arrested at that march from Russell Sq. to Whitehall for displaying a banner in help of Palestine Motion.

Amnesty Worldwide UK has condemned the arrest of peaceable protesters solely for holding indicators, saying such motion constitutes “a violation of the UK’s worldwide obligations to guard the rights of freedom of expression and peaceable meeting”.

BREAKING: Over 365 arrested below the Terrorism Act for holding indicators, and there is nonetheless many extra in Parliament Sq..

The individuals are collectively opposing the genocide in Gaza and the Palestine Motion ban.

Resistance will proceed till we win: https://t.co/xHyNnPti3B pic.twitter.com/6v6mj0rda8

— Defend our Juries (@DefendourJuries) August 9, 2025

John McDonnell, a Labour Occasion MP, additionally condemned the arrests at Parliament Sq. on Saturday. “It’s a shame that individuals are being arrested for upholding our democratic rights,” he wrote on X.

Palestine Motion has more and more focused Israel-linked corporations within the UK, typically spraying crimson paint, blocking entrances or damaging tools.

The group accuses the UK’s authorities of complicity in what it says are Israeli conflict crimes in Gaza, the place Israel’s bombardment and blockade have killed tens of hundreds of Palestinians since October 2023.

The British authorities issued the ban after Palestine Motion broke into a military airbase in June and broken two Airbus Voyager plane, used for air-to-air refuelling.

Manaal Siddiqui , a spokesperson for Palestine Motion, informed Al Jazeera that the plane “can be utilized to refuel and have been used to refuel Israeli fighter jets”.

In keeping with the group, planes from the Brize Norton base additionally fly to a British Air Pressure base in Cyprus to then be dispatched to gather intelligence shared with the Israeli authorities.