Police Arrest Demonstrators for Palestine Action Support Signs

For the second consecutive week, arrests have been made at a central London event where alleged references were made to the activist group Palestine Action.

Last week, 29 people were detained by Metropolitan Police near the Mahatma Gandhi statue in Parliament Square for reportedly showing support for the group, including 83-year-old retired priest Rev Sue Parfitt.

On Saturday around 1pm, two small groups of demonstrators gathered once again at the statues of Gandhi and Nelson Mandela in Parliament Square. The protest was organised by the campaign group Defend Our Juries, which said similar actions were also planned in Manchester, Cardiff, and Derry.

By 1:20pm, the Met Police posted on X (formerly Twitter) stating they were “responding to a protest in support of Palestine Action” and had begun making arrests. A later update confirmed that 41 people had been arrested for “showing support for a proscribed organisation.”

Defend Our Juries claimed on X that over 300 officers were involved in removing dozens of people from the square for alleged “terrorism offences,” accusing them of holding placards backing Palestine Action.

The group also reported arrests in Manchester, where officers allegedly pushed through crowds to detain sign-holders including three vicars and several elderly people. In Cardiff, police reportedly moved in on a group of 13 protesters sitting outside BBC Cymru’s offices.

In London, officers surrounded the demonstrators, who had silently displayed hand-written signs on cardboard supporting Palestine Action. Police were seen searching their belongings and checking ID cards. Some protesters laid on top of each other as police seized their signs before escorting them to waiting vans.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced the government’s intention to ban Palestine Action last month, shortly after the group was accused of breaking into RAF Brize Norton and spraying paint on military aircraft.

Parliament voted to proscribe the group last week, with the House of Lords confirming the decision the following day. This move makes Palestine Action the first direct action protest group to be outlawed under the Terrorism Act, placing it in the same legal category as organisations like Islamic State, al-Qaida, and the neo-Nazi group National Action.

The ban has drawn sharp criticism from UN experts, civil liberties organisations, cultural figures, and hundreds of legal professionals, who argue it dangerously equates peaceful protest with terrorism.