Total number of Palestine Action support arrests rises to 522
Only 18 of those people remained in custody on Sunday afternoon but were expected to be released on bail 'in the coming hours', the Metropolitan Police said.
Hundreds attended the demonstration in Parliament Square on Saturday, organised by Defend Our Juries, with the force warning it would arrest anyone expressing support for Palestine Action.
The Met confirmed on Sunday that 522 people were held for displaying an item in support of a proscribed organisation, out of 532 total arrests made during the policing operation.
One arrest took place at the form up of the Palestine Coalition march in Russell Square, with the remaining 521 arrests at the protest in Parliament Square.
Charity Amnesty International previously described the number of arrests under UK terrorism law as 'deeply concerning'.
There were a further 10 arrests – six for assaults on officers, two for breaching Public Order Act conditions and one arrest for obstructing a constable in the execution of their duty and a racially aggravated public order offence respectively, the force said.
Detained protesters were taken to prisoner processing points in the Westminster area, and those whose details could be confirmed were bailed, with conditions not to attend any further protest in support of Palestine Action, Scotland Yard said on Saturday.
Those whose details were refused, or could not be verified, were taken to custody suites across London.
Some 320 people were dealt with at prisoner processing points while 212 were transported to custody, with 18 people remaining in the latter as of 1pm on Sunday, the force said.
On Saturday the crowd sat silently on the grass inside Parliament Square after writing 'I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action' on white placards.
Police took several hours to individually remove the protesters, some sitting and some lying flat on the grass, from the square into waiting vans.
Onlookers applauded the protesters and shouted 'shame on you' at the police making arrests.
Scotland Yard said it was aware of photos and footage posted online suggesting that some of those who were bailed had returned to Parliament Square.
Arrest update: We have finished compiling the full arrest figures for yesterday's operation.
The details can be found at the link below. https://t.co/qFyLLTmELl
— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) August 10, 2025
'We are as confident as we can be that none of those who returned to Parliament Square rejoined the protesters who were holding placards,' the force said.
The Met's Counter Terrorism Command will work to secure charges against those arrested 'over the coming days and weeks', the force added.
Earlier this week, the first three people to be charged with supporting Palestine Action in England and Wales were named.
Jeremy Shippam, 71, Judit Murray, 71, and Fiona Maclean, 53, have all been charged with displaying an article in a public place, arousing reasonable suspicion that they are a supporter of a proscribed organisation after their attendance at a previous demonstration on July 5.
A further 26 case files relating to arrests at that same protest are due to be submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service imminently, the Met said.
Hundreds of people have been arrested in a wave of Defend Our Juries protests across the UK since the ban against Palestine Action was implemented by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper last month.
Membership of, or support for, Palestine Action is a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison under the Terrorism Act 2000.
Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori said the Parliament Square demonstration would 'go down in our country's history as a momentous act of collective defiance of an unprecedented attack on our fundamental freedoms'.
She also criticised the policing methods used on Saturday, claiming that the fact most of those arrested at the protest were 'given street bail and allowed to go home' proved the current ban was 'unenforceable'.
In a statement, Ms Ammori said: 'This is humiliating for the Home Secretary, who will now have to justify this 'two-tier' policing of arresting some people as 'terrorists' for holding a sign, but not others who held the exact same sign.
'It's clear that more and more ordinary people appalled by this anti-democratic, authoritarian ban will defy it en masse and it is simply not possible to arrest them all.'
Ms Cooper thanked police in London and across the country on Saturday for their work to ensure peaceful protests, and officers' 'continued dedication in responding to support for a proscribed organisation'.
She said: 'The right to protest is one we protect fiercely but this is very different from displaying support for this one specific and narrow, proscribed organisation.
'Palestine Action was proscribed based on strong security advice following serious attacks the group has committed, involving violence, significant injuries and extensive criminal damage.'
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The Guardian
25 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Anger, fear and a total rejection of politics: the Palestine Action protest was a snapshot of Britain today
In the third month of this tense, parched summer, the British state is under severe strain. Stripped of resources by 14 years of reckless rightwing government, contorting itself to maintain relations with ever more extreme regimes abroad, expanding its security powers at home through ever more tortured logic, regarded by ever more voters with contempt, a once broadly respected institution is increasingly struggling to maintain its authority. You could see the strain on the faces of some of the police officers, reddening with exertion in the sun, as they arrested 521 people in Parliament Square on Saturday for displaying pieces of paper or cardboard with a seven-word message supporting the proscribed group Palestine Action. It was one of the biggest mass arrests in London's history. The many protesters who refused to be led away had to be lifted off the ground, one by one, without the exercise looking too coercive in front of the cameras. 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'Given the numbers of people arrested,' said the Metropolitan police, 'it would have been entirely unrealistic for officers to recognise individuals who returned to [the square].' 'Entirely unrealistic' is not a reassuring phrase for those who believe that the government's approach to Palestine Action is practical and based on sound law. If charged, those arrested will enter the overburdened criminal justice system and then, if found guilty, Britain's bursting jails. It's likely that further supporters of Palestine Action will follow. The organiser of Saturday's protest, Defend Our Juries, has promised a sustained campaign of 'mass, public defiance', to make the proscription of Palestine Action 'unworkable'. 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As the arrests went on and on, through the hot afternoon and into the evening, many of the protesters barely moved, but kept facing the same way, sitting on the ground with their placards carefully displayed and their backs to the Houses of Parliament. Partly, this was to provide a globally resonant image, but it was also to dramatise their rejection of the will of the Commons, where only 26 MPs voted against Palestine Action's proscription last month. Parliament likes to see itself as a historic defender of freedom and liberty, yet when panics about subversive groups are under way, its liberalism often evaporates. While the Commons narrows its views in times of crisis, the electorate sometimes does the opposite. Half of those arrested in the square were aged 60 or older – usually the most politically conservative demographic. Many had had middle-class careers in public service. Chatting among themselves on the grass in the quieter moments between police surges, they could almost have been taking a break between events at a book festival. One woman sat on a camping stool, wearing a panama hat. When I introduced myself, she said: 'I don't like the Guardian, I read the Telegraph.' The last time Labour was in office, opposition to its more draconian and militaristic policies also emerged across the political spectrum. The more rightwing members of this opposition can be questioned: are they as outraged when Tory governments support wars or suspend civil liberties? My sense is not. But either way, broad opposition erodes a government's legitimacy. At the 2005 election, after the Terrorism Act and the Iraq war, Blair still won, yet with almost a third fewer votes than when he came to power. With Labour more unpopular now, Starmer can less afford to alienate anti-war voters – much as his most illiberal subordinates might want to. Yet any electoral consequences from the scenes in Parliament Square, and from likely sequels, are hardly the only things at stake in the Palestine Action controversy. At mid-afternoon on Saturday, with the police cordon tightening around us, I got talking to two elderly protesters who had watched people being arrested beside them. 'I'm in two minds about carrying on with this,' one of them said, opening and closing her piece of cardboard with its illegal message. Defiant earlier, she now seemed frightened. The legally safe space for protest in Britain is shrinking again. Meanwhile in Gaza, there's no safe space for anything at all. Andy Beckett is a Guardian columnist Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
The Sun
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Powys County Times
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