Dozens arrested at London demonstration against proscription of Palestine Action

Fifty-five people have been arrested in London at a rally against the proscription of Palestine Action outside the UK parliament on Saturday, according to the Metropolitan Police.

Demonstrators gathered in support of the organisation, which was proscribed under anti-terror laws earlier this month.

They held up placards reading “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action” before police began bundling attendees into vans.

Similar protests took place in Edinburgh, Cornwall and other parts of the country, also leading to arrests.

A counter-demonstration by pro-Israel activists in London – holding placards that read “there is no genocide” and describing the population of Gaza as “2 million human shields” – was shielded by police.

The government proscribed the activist group under anti-terror laws on 4 July, following an incident in which members broke into RAF Brize Norton earlier this month and spray-painted two planes they said were “used for military operations in Gaza and across the Middle East”. 

The legislation made membership of and support for the group a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison – the first time a direct action group has been proscribed in the UK as a terrorist group.

UN experts, human rights groups, and leading figures have condemned the ban as draconian, warning that it will have adverse consequences for the freedom of expression and implications for the rule of law.

“Terrorism legislation hands the authorities massive powers to arrest and detain people, suppress speech and reporting, conduct surveillance, and take other measures that would never be permitted in other circumstances,” Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International UK’s chief executive, said in a statement ahead of the ban.

“Using them against a direct-action protest group is an egregious abuse of what they were created for.”