Critics say ban on activist group stifles freedom of speech and assembly and aims to curb pro-Palestine demonstrations.
Police in London have arrested hundreds of people at a protest in support of the group Palestine Action, which was classified as a “terror organisation” by the British government last month.
The Metropolitan Police said 466 demonstrators had been arrested at Parliament Square by 9pm local time (20:00 GMT) on Saturday “for supporting a proscribed organisation”.
“It will take time, but we will arrest anyone expressing support for Palestine Action,” the police force said in an earlier post on X.
Videos shared on social media showed police removing protesters who had been seated across the square, holding signs reading, “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action”.
“The people are collectively opposing the genocide in Gaza and the Palestine Action ban,” Defend our Juries, an advocacy group that organised the protest, wrote on X.
The arrests are the latest at a series of protests denouncing the government’s ban on Palestine Action, a move critics say infringes on freedom of speech and the right to protest, as well as aims to stifle demonstrations against Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip.
Under the Terrorism Act 2000, membership in or support for the group is now a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
Reporting from Parliament Square on Saturday, media’s Sonia Gallego said the threat of arrest or punishment “hasn’t deterred any supporters” of Palestine Action from expressing their backing for the group.
“Something as simple as wearing a t-shirt saying, ‘I support Palestine Action’, or even having that written on a sheet of paper” could lead to an arrest, Gallego said.
Protester Paddy Friend said the response to the rally raised serious questions about freedoms in the United Kingdom. “If we can’t come down with seven words on a sign and sit quietly, then what does freedom of speech mean?” Friend told media in Parliament Square.
Another demonstrator, grandmother Manji Mansfield, returned to protest on Saturday despite having been detained at a previous rally. “This isn’t the Britain that I grew up in,” she told media.
“We’re now living in an alternative universe and I’m not going to accept it.”
‘Campaign of defiance’
In advance of Saturday’s protest, more than 200 people had been detained in a wave of demonstrations across the UK denouncing the ban since it came into force in July.
More than 350 academics from around the world signed onto an open letter this week applauding a “growing campaign of collective defiance” against the decision by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper to proscribe Palestine Action.
The signatories “deplore the repressive consequences that this ban has already had, and are especially concerned about the likely impact of Cooper’s ban on universities across the UK and beyond”, the letter read.
Israeli historian and University of Exeter professor Ilan Pappe, Goldsmiths professor Eyal Weizman, and political thinkers Michael Hardt and Jaqueline Rose were among those who signed the letter.
Meanwhile, a separate march organised by the Palestine Coalition group was also held in London on Saturday.
The Metropolitan Police said one person had been arrested at that march from Russell Square to Whitehall for displaying a banner in support of Palestine Action.
Amnesty International UK has condemned the arrest of peaceful protesters solely for holding signs, saying such action constitutes “a violation of the UK’s international obligations to protect the rights of freedom of expression and peaceful assembly”.
BREAKING: Over 365 arrested under the Terrorism Act for holding signs, and there’s still many more in Parliament Square.
The people are collectively opposing the genocide in Gaza and the Palestine Action ban.
Resistance will continue until we win: pic.twitter.com/6v6mj0rda8
— Defend our Juries (@DefendourJuries) August 9, 2025
John McDonnell, a Labour Party MP, also condemned the arrests at Parliament Square on Saturday. “It’s a disgrace that people are being arrested for upholding our democratic rights,” he wrote on X.
Palestine Action has increasingly targeted Israel-linked companies in the UK, often spraying red paint, blocking entrances or damaging equipment.
The group accuses the UK’s government of complicity in what it says are Israeli war crimes in Gaza, where Israel’s bombardment and blockade have killed tens of thousands of Palestinians since October 2023.
The British government issued the ban after Palestine Action broke into a military airbase in June and damaged two Airbus Voyager aircraft, used for air-to-air refuelling.
Manaal Siddiqui, a spokesperson for Palestine Action, told media that the aircraft “can be used to refuel and have been used to refuel Israeli fighter jets”.
According to the group, planes from the Brize Norton base also fly to a British Air Force base in Cyprus to then be dispatched to collect intelligence shared with the Israeli government.
