Police in London have arrested 466 people during a large demonstration at Parliament Square in support of the proscribed group Palestine Action. The arrests are among the largest mass detentions in recent years and followed coordinated acts of defiance against the Terrorism Act 2000, which makes membership of or support for the group a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
The protest, organised by Defend Our Juries, saw participants hold placards reading “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action” in a deliberate challenge to the ban imposed by the government last month, when the group was designated a “terror organisation”.
The Metropolitan Police said all those arrested were detained for “showing support for Palestine Action”, with seven additional arrests for other offences, including five for assaults on officers. The force said that detainees whose identities could be verified were bailed with conditions not to attend any further pro-Palestine Action demonstrations, while those refusing to give their details were taken into custody.
Videos from the scene showed police moving through the seated crowd and removing protesters holding the placards. The Met Police said that between 500 and 600 people were in Parliament Square when the protest began, though many were onlookers, media, or people not carrying the signs.
Defend Our Juries claimed there were over 1,000 “sign-holders” at the event, a figure disputed by the police. The group said the turnout “shows how repulsed and ashamed people are about our government’s ongoing complicity in a livestreamed genocide”, adding that “Palestine Action and people holding cardboard signs present no danger to the public at large”.