Metropolitan Police detained more than twenty demonstrators in Parliament Square on Saturday for allegedly breaching the Terrorism Act after they voiced support for Palestine Action, a protest group formally proscribed as a terrorist organisation just hours earlier.
The arrests came on the first day the ban was in force, following the group’s failed Court of Appeal bid late Friday to overturn a parliamentary vote designating it a terrorist entity. Under UK law, displaying symbols, chanting slogans, or “inviting support” for a banned organisation can draw up to 14 years in prison. Palestine Action became the 81st group on Britain’s terror list, which already includes Hamas, al-Qaeda and ISIS.
Why the group was banned
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper cited a pattern of “violence and serious criminal damage” — most recently a break-in at a Royal Air Force base where activists damaged two aircraft to protest what they call UK complicity in Israeli military actions. Critics, including UN experts and some civil-liberties groups, counter that vandalising property does not meet the threshold for terrorism.
Scenes in Parliament Square
Activists from the Defend Our Juries coalition unfurled placards reading “I OPPOSE GENOCIDE. I SUPPORT PALESTINE ACTION,” before officers hand-cuffed several individuals near the Mahatma Gandhi statue. Police said more arrests could follow if further offences occur.
Separate protest targets Pride parade
Elsewhere in central London, five members of the Youth Demand climate-and-Palestine network were arrested after splashing red paint on a Cisco truck in the city’s Pride parade and gluing themselves to it. The group accuses Cisco of supplying technology “that is helping Israel.” The parade resumed once police removed the protesters. Cisco declined immediate comment.
The twin demonstrations highlight increasingly contentious lines between civil-disobedience campaigns and Britain’s tightening counter-terror legislation as the Gaza conflict fuels protest activity across the country.
