LONDON — British police stated they arrested 474 people in central London on Saturday as supporters of a recently banned pro-Palestinian group deliberately flouted the legislation as a part of their effort to drive the federal government to rethink the ban.
Parliament in early July handed a legislation banning Palestine Motion and making it against the law to publicly assist the group. That got here after activists broke into a Royal Air Force base and vandalized two tanker planes to protest Britain’s assist for Israel’s offensive against Hamas within the Gaza Strip.
Backers of the group, who’ve held a series of protests across the U.Ok. over the previous month, argue that the legislation illegally restricts freedom of expression.
Daring police to arrest them
Greater than 500 protesters stuffed the sq. outdoors the Homes of Parliament on Saturday, many daring law enforcement officials to arrest them by displaying indicators studying “I oppose genocide. I assist Palestine Motion.” That was sufficient for police to step in.
However because the demonstration started to wind down, law enforcement officials and protest organizers sparred over the variety of arrests because the organizers sought to indicate that the legislation was unworkable.
“The police have solely been capable of arrest a fraction of these supposedly committing ‘terrorism’ offenses, and most of these have been given road bail and allowed to go residence,” Defend Our Juries, which organized the protest, stated in a press release. “It is a main embarrassment to (the federal government), additional undermining the credibility of this broadly ridiculed legislation, introduced in to punish these exposing the federal government’s personal crimes.”
London’s Metropolitan Police Service rapidly hit again, saying this wasn’t true and that lots of those that gathered within the sq. have been onlookers, media or individuals who didn’t maintain placards supporting the group.
“We’re assured that anybody who got here to Parliament Sq. right now to carry a placard expressing assist for Palestine Motion was both arrested or is within the strategy of being arrested,” the police drive stated in a press release.
On Friday, police stated the demonstration was uncommon in that the protesters wished to be arrested in massive numbers in order to put a pressure on police and the broader felony justice system.
As of 9 p.m. Saturday native time (4 p.m. ET), 466 folks had been arrested for exhibiting assist for Palestine Motion, London’s Metropolitan Police stated in a post on X. Eight others have been arrested in reference to different offenses together with 5 alleged assaults on officers, police stated.
Why the group is being banned
The federal government moved to ban Palestine Motion after the activists broke right into a British air drive base in southern England on June 20 to protest British navy assist for the Israel-Hamas warfare. The activists sprayed crimson paint into the engines of two tanker planes on the RAF Brize Norton base in Oxfordshire and brought on additional harm with crowbars.
Palestine Motion had beforehand focused Israeli protection contractors and different websites in the UK that they consider have hyperlinks with the Israeli navy.
Supporters of the group are difficult the ban in court docket, saying the federal government has gone too far in declaring Palestine Motion a terrorist group.
“As soon as the that means of ‘terrorism’ is separated from campaigns of violence in opposition to a civilian inhabitants, and prolonged to incorporate these inflicting financial harm or embarrassment to the wealthy, the highly effective and the felony, then the precise to freedom of expression has no that means and democracy is useless,” Defend Our Juries stated on its web site.
Busy weekend of protests
The arrests outdoors Parliament got here amid what is predicted to be a busy weekend of demonstrations in London because the warfare in Gaza and issues about immigration spur protests and counterprotests throughout the UK.
Whereas Prime Minister Keir Starmer has angered Israel with plans to recognize a Palestinian state later this 12 months, many Palestinian supporters in Britain criticize the federal government for not doing sufficient to finish the warfare in Gaza.
Professional-Palestinian protesters gathered Saturday afternoon in central London for a march that ended outdoors the gates of No. 10 Downing Avenue, the prime minister’s official residence and workplaces.
On Sunday, quite a few teams are scheduled to march via central London to demand the secure launch of the Israeli hostages in Gaza. Palestinian militants have held the captives since Hamas-led attackers surged into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing round 1,200 folks and taking 251 hostage. There are 50 remaining hostages, with 20 of them thought to be alive.
Police are additionally making ready for protests outdoors inns throughout the nation which are getting used to accommodate asylum-seekers. Protesters and counterprotesters have squared off outdoors the inns in current weeks, with some saying the migrants pose a threat to their communities and others decrying anti-immigrant racism.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ade Adelekan stated the dimensions of the occasions would “put strain” on the police division.
“That is going to be a very busy few days in London with many simultaneous protests and occasions that can require a major policing presence,” Adelekan stated earlier than the protests started.
Jennifer Jett contributed.
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