Protesters clash with police at Palestine Action demonstration
The crowd surged towards police when officers tried to detain someone in Trafalgar Square in central London, while onlookers chanted 'let them go'.
The road at one corner of the square was completely blocked by the march, with a line of police ready to stop the participants from leaving the area.
Police officers and protesters during a demonstration at Trafalgar Square (Jeff Moore/PA)
The protest had initially been planned to take place outside the Houses of Parliament, but the location was changed early on Monday morning after the Metropolitan Police imposed an exclusion zone.
The Met commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said he was 'shocked' by the planned protest and described Palestine Action as an 'organised extremist criminal group'.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said in a statement on Monday afternoon that she has decided to proscribe Palestine Action and will lay an order before Parliament next week which, if passed, will make membership and support for the protest group illegal.
The Home Secretary is due to update Parliament further following the group's vandalism of two planes at an RAF base.
The rally started at midday and must end by 3pm, Scotland Yard said.
On Sunday, Cabinet minister Jonathan Reynolds said he could not rule out the possibility of a foreign power being behind Palestine Action
Speaking at the protest, Palestine Action spokesperson Max Geller said there had never been any evidence of such claims.
'I can't overstate how absurd and disappointing that accusation is,' he told the PA news agency.
'I want to make very clear that there has never been any evidence offered to support such a claim, and if we were allowed to be a legally recognised group, that man would be being sued right now for libel.'
Asked about Sir Mark Rowley's comments, he said: 'It's really troubling that the head of the Met would pre-empt the government and ban us from protesting (at the Houses of Parliament).
'It's a frustrating turn for democracy in this country.'
Yvette Cooper will provide MPs with more details on the move to proscribe the group, making it a criminal offence to belong to or support it, in a written ministerial statement.
Belonging to or expressing support for a proscribed organisation, along with a number of other actions, are criminal offences carrying a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
The decision comes after the group posted footage online showing two people inside the base at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire.
The clip shows one person riding an electric scooter up to an Airbus Voyager air-to-air refuelling tanker and appearing to spray paint into its jet engine.
Police officers and protesters during the Palestine Action demonstration at Trafalgar Square (Jeff Moore/PA)
Speaking on Sunday, the head of the Met said he was 'shocked and frustrated' at the protest, but that until the group is proscribed the force had 'no power in law' to prevent it taking place.
'The right to protest is essential and we will always defend it, but actions in support of such a group go beyond what most would see as legitimate protest,' he added.
'Thousands of people attend protests of a different character every week without clashing with the law or with the police. The criminal charges faced by Palestine Action members, in contrast, represent a form of extremism that I believe the overwhelming majority of the public rejects.'
Proscription will require Ms Cooper to lay an order in Parliament, which must then be debated and approved by both MPs and peers.
Some 81 organisations have been proscribed under the 2000 Act, including Islamist terrorist groups such as Hamas and al Qaida, far-right groups such as National Action, and Russian private military company the Wagner Group.
Palestine Action has staged a series of demonstrations in recent months, including spraying the London offices of Allianz Insurance with red paint over its alleged links to Israeli defence company Elbit, and vandalising Donald Trump's Turnberry golf course in South Ayrshire.
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Powys County Times
16 minutes ago
- Powys County Times
Home Secretary decides to proscribe Palestine Action after ‘disgraceful attack'
The Home Secretary has decided to proscribe Palestine Action and will lay an order before Parliament next week to make membership and support for the protest group illegal. Yvette Cooper confirmed the move after Palestine Action vandalised two planes inside RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on Friday. The incident is being investigated by counter-terror police. The ban under terror laws will make it a criminal offence to belong to or support the group, and will be punishable by up to 14 years in prison. A Palestine Action spokesperson said they would be seeking a legal challenge to the 'unhinged reaction'. A draft order will be laid in Parliament next Monday, and if approved after debates by MPs and peers, the ban could come into force by Friday. Ms Cooper said in a written ministerial statement: 'The disgraceful attack on Brize Norton in the early hours of the morning on Friday 20 June is the latest in a long history of unacceptable criminal damage committed by Palestine Action. '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.' Palestine Action posted footage online showing two people inside the base at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on Friday morning. The clip shows one person riding an electric scooter up to an Airbus Voyager air-to-air refuelling tanker and appearing to spray paint into its jet engine. Armed forces minister Luke Pollard said the act was 'epically stupid' and a 'direct attack on our national security'. Shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge went further, calling it 'sabotage'. The group has staged a series of demonstrations in recent months, including spraying the London offices of Allianz Insurance with red paint over its alleged links to Israeli defence company Elbit, and vandalising US President Donald Trump's Turnberry golf course in South Ayrshire. Ms Cooper said Palestine Action's activity has increased since 2024 and its methods have become 'more aggressive', with its members showing 'willingness to use violence'. She named three attacks at Thales defence factory in Glasgow in 2022, Instro Precision in Kent and Elbit Systems UK in Bristol in 2024, as causing damage costing millions of pounds. Ms Cooper said the ban will allow law enforcement to 'effectively disrupt the escalating actions of this serious group', describing a further vandalism attack on a Jewish-owned business last month that Palestine Action claimed responsibility for as 'clearly intimidatory and unacceptable'. 'Proscription represents a legitimate response to the threat posed by Palestine Action,' she said. 'Its activities meet the threshold set out in the statutory tests established under the Terrorism Act 2000.' A spokesperson for Palestine Action said the Home Secretary's statement 'makes a series of categorically false claims' and the group has instructed lawyers to pursue 'all avenues for legal challenge'. They added: 'This is an unhinged reaction to an action spraying paint in protest at the UK Government arming Israel's slaughter of the Palestinian people. 'We are teachers, nurses, students and parents who take part in actions disrupting the private companies who are arming Israel's genocide, by spray painting or entering their factory premises. 'It is plainly preposterous to rank us with terrorist groups like Isis, National Action and Boko Haram.' Earlier on Monday, Baroness Shami Chakrabarti told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that plans to ban the group would mark a very serious step and that this 'may be an escalation too far'. The announcement comes as police made 13 arrests after protesters clashed with police at a demonstration in support of Palestine Action in central London on Monday. The protest had initially been planned to take place outside the Houses of Parliament, but the location was changed early on Monday morning after the Metropolitan Police imposed an exclusion zone. The Met Police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said he was 'shocked' by the planned protest and described Palestine Action as an 'organised extremist criminal group'. Asked about Sir Mark's comments, Palestine Action spokesperson Max Geller said on Monday: 'It's really troubling that the head of the Met would pre-empt the Government and ban us from protesting (at the Houses of Parliament). 'It's a frustrating turn for democracy in this country.' The Home Secretary added the proscription is specific to Palestine Action and does not affect lawful protest groups or others campaigning on issues around Palestine and the Middle East. 'It is vitally important that those seeking to protest peacefully, including pro-Palestinian groups, those opposing the actions of the Israeli government, and those demanding changes in the UK's foreign policy, can continue to do so,' she said. The Home Secretary has the power to proscribe an organisation under the Terrorism Act of 2000 if she believes it is 'concerned in terrorism'.
The Herald Scotland
an hour ago
- The Herald Scotland
Lammy urges Reform's newest MP to ‘get some help' over ‘conspiracy theories'
Responding during a statement on the Middle East, Mr Lammy said the MP for Runcorn and Helsby should 'get off social media'. Foreign Secretary David Lammy (Parliament TV/PA) The UK-operated base in the Chagos Islands was not used in the US strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty has said. He added that the US did not ask to use it, as he answered questions from the Foreign Affairs Committee on Monday. Speaking in the Commons, Ms Pochin said: 'Is he (Mr Lammy) able to explain to the House whether the United States felt unable to use the Diego Garcia base and have to refuel, in a highly dangerous operation three times because of that, because of your deal that you did with the with the Mauritians, that would then tell the Chinese, that would then tell the Iranians?' Mr Lammy replied: 'The honourable lady has got (to) get off social media, has got to get some help… because she is swallowing conspiracy theories that should not be repeated in this House.' The deal over the Chagos Islands follows a 2019 advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice which says the islands should be handed over to Mauritius. As well as establishing a £40 million fund for Chagossians, the UK has agreed to pay Mauritius at least £120 million a year for 99 years in order to lease back the Diego Garcia base – a total cost of at least £13 billion in cash terms. During the statement on Monday, Mr Lammy was pressed by MPs on the UK's position following the US military action. Conservative MP Lincoln Jopp (Spelthorne) said: 'Does His Majesty's Government support or oppose US military action against Iran at the weekend?' Mr Lammy replied: 'His Majesty's Government will continue to work with our closest ally, as I was last week in Washington DC.' Liberal Democrat MP Mike Martin (Tunbridge Wells) said: 'What is UK Government policy on whether regime change should be pursued in Iran?' Mr Lammy replied: 'It is not our belief that it's for us to change the regime of any country, that it must be for the people themselves.' SNP MP Brendan O'Hara (Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber) said: 'We've been here for an hour, and still the Foreign Secretary appears incapable of saying whether he supports or condemns America's actions, or whether he regards them as being legal or not. 'And nowhere in this statement does the role of international law even merit a mention. So will the Foreign Secretary take this opportunity now to tell us whether he believes that America's unilateral action was compliant with international law?' Mr Lammy replied: 'I've got to tell (Mr O'Hara), I qualified and was called to the bar in 1995, I haven't practised for the last 25 years. 'It is not for me to comment on the United States' legal validity. I would refer him to article 51 and article two of the UN Charter, and he can seek his own advice.'
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Ban on Palestine Action would have ‘chilling effect' on other protest groups
The crackdown on protest in England and Wales has been ringing alarm bells for years, but the decision to ban Palestine Action under anti-terrorism laws raises the stakes dramatically. As the group itself has said, it is the first time the government has attempted to proscribe a direct action protest organisation under the Terrorism Act, placing it alongside the likes of Islamic State, al-Qaida and National Action. The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said the proposed ban was evidence-based and had been assessed by a wide range of experts. 'In several attacks, Palestine Action has committed acts of serious damage to property with the aim of progressing its political cause and influencing the government,' she said. Proscribing the group, which uses direct action mainly to target Israeli weapons factories in the UK, would make it illegal not only to be a member of Palestine Action but to show support for it. Given that neither its methods nor its targets are unprecedented, a ban is likely to make every group which has an aim of 'progressing its political cause and influencing the government' through protest think twice. Greenpeace UK's co-executive director, Areeba Hamid, said a ban would 'mark a dark turn for our democracy and a new low for a government already intent on stamping out the right to protest. The police already have laws to prosecute any individuals found guilty of a crime.' Laws passed in recent years have already increased police powers to restrict and shut down protests. At the same time, protesters have often been gagged from telling juries what motivated their actions and received record prison sentences. The final straw for ministers appears to have been the embarrassing security breach at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on Friday, in which two Palestine Action activists broke in and sprayed two military planes with red paint. But protesters have caused criminal damage to military facilities in the past and even been acquitted for it, while Cooper herself admitted it might not amount to terrorism. Before becoming prime minister, Keir Starmer successfully defended protesters who broke into an RAF base in 2003 to stop US bombers heading to Iraq. He argued that it was lawful because their intention was to prevent war crimes. Palestine Action said that pro-Israel groups had lobbied for the ban and there is evidence to support that contention. Internal government documents released under freedom of information laws have revealed meetings, apparently to discuss Palestine Action, between the government and Israeli embassy officials, although they were heavily redacted. Ministers have also met representatives from the Israeli arms firm Elbit Systems. The organisation We Believe in Israel, which Labour MP Luke Akehurst used to be director of, began a campaign this month to ban Palestine Action. In an accompanying report, it stated: 'In July 2022, the group was investigated under counter-terrorism protocols following intelligence suggesting contact between some of its members and individuals linked to Hamas-aligned networks abroad (see: Metropolitan Police briefing, classified). 'While the investigation yielded no direct terror charges, it underscored the degree of concern shared by law enforcement agencies over Palestine Action's increasingly radicalised behaviour.' It is not clear how or why We Believe in Israel was granted access to classified documents. There was no reference to links to Hamas in Cooper's statement but she did refer to Palestine Action as threatening infrastructure which supports Ukraine and Nato, echoing language in We Believe in Israel's report. With the government already unpopular among many over its stance on Gaza, the planned ban risks looking like it is based on Palestine Action's cause rather than its methods. Akiko Hart, Liberty director, said: 'Proscribing a direct-action protest group in this way potentially sets a new precedent for what we do and do not treat as terrorism. 'We're worried about the chilling effect this would have on the thousands of people who campaign for Palestine, and their ability to express themselves and take part in protests. Proscribing Palestine Action would mean that showing support for them in any way – for example, sharing a post on social media or wearing a logo – could carry a prison sentence.'
