Dozens arrested in London for supporting Palestine Action

A protest in central London saw dozens of pro-Palestinian demonstrators arrested on Saturday, as Metropolitan Police enforced the UK’s recent ban on the group Palestine Action, now officially listed as a proscribed organization.

The Metropolitan Police confirmed that 41 individuals were taken into custody for allegedly expressing support for the outlawed group, with one additional person arrested on suspicion of common assault.

The demonstration began when approximately 15 people, several of whom were elderly, gathered peacefully near the Mahatma Gandhi statue in Parliament Square.

Holding handmade cardboard signs reading “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action,” the group stood quietly as a large police presence surrounded them. Officers began recording names, confiscating signs, and conducting searches before making arrests.

Twelve of the demonstrators were detained and escorted to waiting police vans. Two protesters refused to comply and lay on the ground before being forcibly removed. Those not arrested initially regrouped under the nearby Nelson Mandela statue, where they wore keffiyehs, flashed peace signs, and continued to resist police efforts. Within an hour and a half, all protesters had been taken into custody.

The last to be detained was a woman in her 20s, also wearing a keffiyeh, who was carried into a van by officers. As police cleared the area, a crowd of angry onlookers remained, waving Palestinian flags and chanting in protest.

In a statement posted on X, the Met Police warned that arrests were imminent, “We are responding to a protest in support of Palestine Action. Officers are in the process of making arrests.”

Officers have made 41 arrests for showing support for a proscribed organisation.

One person has been arrested for common assault.

The area was cleared within the last hour.

— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) July 12, 2025

Saturday’s demonstration was one of several coordinated by Defend Our Juries (DOJ), with additional protests reported in Manchester, Cardiff, and Derry in Northern Ireland. The DOJ describes its actions as part of a broader campaign to defend civil liberties and oppose what it calls “criminalization of solidarity.”

This weekend’s crackdown comes just days after 29 people, among them an 83-year-old retired priest and a frontline emergency worker, were arrested under Section 13 of the Terrorism Act for similar demonstrations in Parliament Square. All were released on bail after being held for 12 hours without charges.

Tim Crosland, a former government lawyer and activist with the DOJ who participated in last week’s protest, said the arrests have not deterred demonstrators.

“People have not been silenced by the arrests last week; they’ve not been intimidated,” he said.

Following last week’s mass arrests, the UK Government formally proscribed Palestine Action on July 4, making public support for the group a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison. A legal challenge by the group to block the designation was dismissed by the High Court, a decision later upheld by the Court of Appeal just hours before the ban went into effect.

The DOJ, in a statement ahead of Saturday’s protest, said the arrests would test how far the Met was willing to go to suppress public dissent, “Saturday’s protest will show if the Met will have to adapt its tactics or clamp down even more strongly on any form of dissent.”

The Met Police echoed the warning, “As we saw last week, those who do breach the law will face action.”