Hundreds Arrested At Protest in Defiance of Anti-Terror Law
A woman is owned by police officers as supporters of the action of Palestine to a mass action on the Place du Parliament, Westminster, Central de London, Saturday August 9, 2025. Crédit – Stefan Rousseau – Press Association via AP
POlice in London arrested at least 365 demonstrators on Saturday who challenged an anti-terrorist law by holding signs expressing their support for a recently prohibited pro-Palestinian group.
Hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the British Parliament to organize signs by reading “I oppose the genocide. I support the action of Palestine”, in what they said to be a protest for freedom of expression.
In doing so, the demonstrators violated a law adopted by the British Parliament at the beginning of July which classified action in Palestine as a terrorist organization and made it illegal for anyone to show it public.
The legislation was adopted in response to an incident in which group activists burst into a base of the Royal Air Force and vandalized two oil tankers to protest against the support of the United Kingdom for Israel and the War in the Course of Israel in Gaza.
“Within this crowd, a significant number of people display signs expressing their support for action in Palestine, which is a prohibited group,” said the Metropolitan Police Service on X. “The police have moved in and arrests.” Later, police said they had arrested 365 people to “support a proscribed organization”.
Learn more:: Why the British police plan to stop anyone showing support for action in Palestine during the next demonstration
Membership or support for action in Palestine is a criminal offense liable to a sentence of up to 14 years in prison under the 2000 law on terrorism.
The demonstration on Saturday was organized by a group called Defend our juries, which called on people to attend the demonstration with signs expressing its support for action in Palestine in a demonstration of civil disobedience.
“Once the meaning of” terrorism “is separated from the campaigns of violence against a civilian population, and has spread to include those who cause economic damage or embarrassment to the rich, the powerful and the criminal, then the right to freedom of expression has no meaning and democracy is dead,” said the group on its website.
The AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL group has described arrests as “deeply worrying”. He previously criticized the law as “excessively broad and vaguely formulated and a threat to freedom of expression”.
What is the action of Palestine?
The action in Palestine was established in 2020 and claims to take care of the infrastructure which supports the Israeli occupation “, according to co -founder Huda Ammori.
The group has frequently targeted Elbit Systems, a defense entrepreneur based in Israel who signed a contract with the Israeli government worth $ 275 million this year.
Palestine Action organized break-in introductions to Elbit sites across the United Kingdom last year in the city of Bristol, and in a County Kent factory, where around 1 million sterling pounds (1.33 million dollars) were destroyed.
The group was interrupted as a terrorist group under the 2000 law on terrorism by the interior secretary, Yvette Cooper, on July 5, after members of the group burst into a base of the Royal Air Force in the Oxfordshire on June 20, by painting by spray two jets of travel and by damaging them with hooks.
The British government said that the group “had orchestrated a national direct criminal action campaign against businesses and institutions” and that it “prepares, promotes and encourages terrorism”.
“The proscription will allow the police to effectively disrupt Palestine measures,” said the government’s order, which means that group support is now considered a criminal offense punishable by a sentence of up to 14 years in prison.
The action of Palestine was interrupted alongside two groups described as movements of “white supremacist”, the cult of the murder of the Maniacs and the Russian imperial movement.
The War of Israel-Hamas was launched after Hamas launched a terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, killing more than 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostages. More than 61,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
In the absence of independent field surveillance, the ministry is the main source of injury data invoked by humanitarian groups, journalists and international organizations. Its figures do not make the difference between civilians and combatants and cannot be verified independently by time.
The humanitarian toll in Gaza continues to increase, after an unwanted food security organization warned last week that the “worst thing of famine” took place.
“Increasing evidence shows that famine, malnutrition and generalized diseases lead to an increase in death -related deaths,” reported on July 29.
At least 197 people have now died of mass hunger, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
– Additional Callum Sutherland reports
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