On Saturday, British police arrested more than 500 people during a pro-Palestinian demonstration in support of the banned Palestinian Action Group.“523 people were arrested today for showing their support for a banned organisation,” the Metropolitan Police said in a post on the X website.Earlier in the day, officers had already arrested more than 200 demonstrators at a sit-in demonstration in Trafalgar Square, organized in support of the Palestine Action Organisation, banned in the UK. Police were seen removing activists from the area while other demonstrators clapped and chanted. Participants raised banners supporting the group, which led to more arrests.The Palestine Labor Organization was designated a terrorist organization in July last year, making belonging to it or expressing support for it a criminal offense, with penalties of up to 14 years in prison.
In February, the High Court in London upheld a legal challenge against the ban, ruling that it contravened the right to freedom of expression. The government has since been granted permission to appeal against this ruling.Following the High Court decision, the Metropolitan Police temporarily halted the arrests, but later confirmed in March that enforcement would resume.Since the group was banned, nearly 3,000 people have been arrested, most of them involved in carrying signs supporting Palestinian action, and hundreds are now facing charges.
One protester, Dennis McDermott, 73, from Edinburgh, said he had been arrested previously but returned without hesitation. “I am a supporter of these great people,” he said, referring to his fellow protesters, adding that if the court proceedings were decisive, “there would be no need for all this.”Jury defense organizers said around 500 people took part in Saturday’s protest, which they described as against the UK government’s “complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza and its misguided suppression of peaceful protest at home”.They also claimed that police “chose to make arrests even though the government’s ban on the group has been ruled illegal by the Supreme Court, and senior lawyers have warned that any arrests would be unlawful.”The ban placed the Palestinian Labor Organization on a list of banned organizations that also includes the Palestinian Hamas movement and the Iranian-backed Lebanese Hezbollah group, and sparked widespread backlash.A judge has temporarily halted all trials involving individuals accused of supporting Palestinian action, with a full review of the cases scheduled for July 30.The Palestinian Labor Organization, founded in 2020, says its goal, according to its now-banned website, is to end “global participation in Israel’s system of genocide and apartheid.”The group mainly targeted weapons facilities, especially those linked to the Israeli defense company Elbit Systems.