London Police Arrest Hundreds of Pro-Palestine Demonstrators
They were protesting the United Kingdom’s decision to ban the Palestine Action Group, marking the “largest ever mass arrest” at a single protest in the British capital, according to campaigners.
Videos posted online showed the protesters sitting on the ground, with some chanting, “Hands off Gaza!” The footage also showed the protesters being carried away by the police as the crowd chanted “shame on you” at the officers.
The Metropolitan Police, in a statement on X, said that 466 demonstrators had been arrested at Parliament Square by 9pm local time (20:00 GMT) “for showing support for Palestine Action”. It said eight others were arrested at the protest for other offences, including five assaults on officers.
The group that organized the protest, Defend Our Juries, said on X that some 800 people had held up signs, and that the detention of more than half of the protesters marked “the largest mass arrest ever by the Met Police at a single protest”.
It added, “The people are collectively opposing the genocide in the Gaza Strip and the Palestine Action ban.”
The protests are the latest in a series of rallies denouncing the UK government’s ban of Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act 2000 in July.
Membership in or support for the group is now a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
Critics say the ban infringes on freedom of speech and the right to protest, as well as aims to stifle demonstrations against the Israeli regime’s war on Gaza.
Al Jazeera’s Sonia Gallego, reporting from Parliament Square, 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.
Paddy Friend, a protester, told Al Jazeera on Saturday that the mass arrests at Parliament Square raised serious questions about freedoms in the UK.
“If we can’t come down with seven words on a sign and sit quietly, then what does freedom of speech mean?” Friend said.
Another demonstrator, grandmother Manji Mansfield, returned to protest on Saturday, despite having been arrested at a previous rally.
“This isn’t the Britain that I grew up in,” she told Al Jazeera.
“We’re now living in an alternative universe, and I’m not going to accept it.”
John McDonnell, a Labour Party MP, also condemned the arrests. “It’s a disgrace that people are being arrested for upholding our democratic rights,” he wrote on X.
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Amnesty International UK denounced 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”.
Palestine Action, which accuses the UK’s government of complicity in what it says are Israeli war crimes in Gaza, has increasingly targeted Israel-linked companies in the country, often spraying red paint, blocking entrances or damaging equipment.
UK Secretary of State for the Home Department Yvette Cooper tabled the order to ban the group in parliament days after its activists broke into RAF Brize Norton, the largest station of the Royal Air Force in Oxfordshire, and sprayed two military planes with red paint.
The ban was passed on July 2.
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The move, however, has drawn concern from United Nations human rights exerts, who say labelling Palestine Action as a “terrorist” group was “unjustified”, as the group’s actions were limited to civil disobedience and “mere property damage, without endangering life”.
Source: Al Jazeera
