More than 70 Palestine Action supporters arrested as group stages second wave of demonstrations in the capital
Protesters gathered in central London on Saturday for the second consecutive week to oppose the decision to ban the campaign group.
At the event organised by campaign group Defend Our Juries (DOJ), They raised handmade cardboard signs reading: 'I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.'
Palestine Action was proscribed by the government under the Terrorism Act 2000 last Saturday.
It means being a member of it or supporting it is a criminal offence - punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
Some 41 people were arrested by the Metropolitan Police for showing support for a proscribed organisation while one person was arrested for common assault.
Meanwhile, officers also arrested 29 people under the Terrorism Act 2000 across similar DOJ events in Manchester and Cardiff this weekend.
It marks the second week of these demonstrations against this, after 29 people were arrested for holding the same signs in protests at Parliament Square last weekend.
On Saturday, protesters, some of whom looked to be elderly, gathered in Westminster's Parliament Square at around 1pm.
They sat on the steps of the statues of Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela, with many wearing keffiyehs and making peace signs.
They were surrounded by police officers, who began recording names, searching them and taking their signs and ID cards from them.
All were eventually detained after an hour and a half, taken away into the series of police vans that surrounded Parliament Square.
Two protesters lay on the floor and refused to be taken into custody - while the final arrest saw a woman in her twenties, wearing a keffiyeh, having to be carried away.
As officers left, a remaining crowd continued to shout and wave Palestinian flags.
The Met Police said on X they had already begun making arrests just after the protests began: 'We are responding to a protest in support of Palestine Action.
'Officers are in the process of making arrests.'
It had issued a warning before the event: 'There are a number of events planned around London this weekend.
'A reminder Palestine Action is now proscribed by the UK Government, and it is a criminal offence to invite or express support for a proscribed organisation.
'As we saw last week, those who do breach the law will face action.'
The force has previously said it will act when offences, including by supporting proscribed groups through 'chanting, wearing clothing or displaying articles such as flags, signs or logos', are committed.
The DOJ protest in London took place alongside similar events in Manchester and Cardiff.
South Wales Police arrested 13 people during a protest near the Welsh capital's Central Square, on suspicion of supporting a proscribed organisation.
The force said it 'supports the right for people to make their voices heard through protest providing it is done lawfully'.
Meanwhile, Greater Manchester Police took 16 people into custody under the same Act during a demonstration at Manchester's St Peter's Square.
Greater Manchester Police took 16 people into custody on suspicion of supporting a proscribed organisation during a demonstration at Manchester's St Peter's Square. Pictured: A man with a clerical dog collar in the back of a police van after Saturday's protests in Manchester
Another independent protest also took place in Derry, northern Ireland.
Those taken into custody at events last weekend included an 83-year-old retired priest and an emergency worker.
They were all detained for 12 hours before their release on bail without charge.
Tim Crosland, a former government lawyer and DOJ campaigner, who took part in last week's protests, said: 'People have not been silenced by the arrests last week; they've not been intimidated.'
A DOJ statement read this weekend's protest 'will show if the Met will have to adapt its tactics or clamp down even more strongly on any form of dissent'.
The events denouncing government proscription of Palestine Action come after the High Court rejected DOJ's application for a temporary block on the ban pending judicial review.
Raza Husain KC, barrister for Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori, said banning the group would be an 'authoritarian abuse' of power.
But the High Court's decision was then upheld by the Court of Appeal, less than two hours before the proscription order was due to take effect.
After the October 7 attacks by Hamas in 2023, which saw around 1,200 people killed and 251 taken hostage, Israel launched military retaliation.
More than 57,800 have been killed in Gaza, the Hamas-run health ministry has said.
Since the war began, Palestine Action has undertaken protests mainly targeting arms companies.
But its proscription came when activists broke into RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire last month to spray paint two aircraft, which the group claimed responsibility for.
Four people have been remanded into custody charged with conspiracy to commit criminal damage and enter a prohibited place knowingly for a purpose prejudicial to the UK's safety or interests.
Another woman who was arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender has been released on bail. A man has been released without charge.
It prompted an urgent review of the security of other military airbases across the country.
As MPs voted to amend legislation to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation earlier this month, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said it had a 'long history of criminal damage'.
Denouncing its vandalism as 'disgraceful', she continued: 'Its activity has increased in frequency and severity [since 2024].
'The UK's defence enterprise is vital to the nation's national security and this government will not tolerate those that put that security at risk.'
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