UK Immediately Makes Arrests at Rally for Palestine Action

UPDATE Jul 5, 2025 11:44 AM CDT

Hours after a government ban on the group took effect, more than 20 people supporting a pro-Palestinian organization at a protest in London on Saturday were arrested on suspicion of terrorism offenses. A small group had gathered at a statue of Mahatma Gandhi with signs reading: "I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action," the AP reports. Metropolitan Police issued a statement saying, "Palestine Action is a proscribed group and officers will act where criminal offences are committed." Membership in the group became illegal at midnight.

Jul 4, 2025 2:19 PM CDT

Palestine Action lost its attempt Friday to block the British government's decision to ban it under anti-terrorism laws after members of the pro-Palestinian activist group broke into a military base last month and vandalized two planes. At a hearing at the High Court in London, the group had sought to temporarily block what it called an authoritarian ban, which will go into effect at midnight. The ban will make membership of the group and support of its actions a criminal offense punishable by up to 14 years in prison, the AP reports.

But Justice Martin Chamberlain, who spent all day listening to lawyers representing the group and the government, declined to give the organization interim relief from the ban, which was proposed by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and approved by lawmakers earlier this week. While conceding that the order to proscribe Palestine Action a terrorist organization may have "wider consequences for the way the public understands the concept of 'terrorism,'" he said it is not "the court's function to comment on the wisdom of the use of the power in the case," per the AP.

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Some 81 organizations are already proscribed under the Terrorism Act of 2000, including Hamas and al-Qaida. A lawyer for Huda Ammori, the group's co-founder, had asked the court to suspend the "authoritarian abuse of statutory power" until a hearing, which is due around July 21. "This is the first time in our history that a direct action civil disobedience group, which does not advocate for violence, has been sought to be proscribed as terrorists," Raza Husain said. The ban was triggered after activists broke into a Royal Air Force base in Brize Norton, damaging two planes using red paint and crowbars to protest military support for Israel. Police said they caused about $9.4 million in damage. Four people were charged Thursday.