The Metropolitan Police have arrested 55 protesters for supporting the newly banned terrorist organisation Palestine Action.
Those taken away by police included charity workers, dentists and teachers and bring the total arrested by the met to 127 over the last three weeks.
Demonstrators took to the streets in cities across the UK including London, Manchester and Cardiff, as part of Palestine Coalition and Palestine Action, holding signs that read ‘I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.’
Dozens of protesters wrote the message ‘I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action’ on white placards and held the signs aloft before being surrounded by police officers at the Mahatma Gandhi statue in Parliament Square.
Those held were of mixed ages, from their 20s to 60s and many said they had jobs and had been arrested before.
At least one member of Palestine Coalition was arrested ‘after being heard to chanting ‘words likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress’, the Met Police said.
A member of Palestine Action who was arrested said: ‘This will keep happening. I’m a teacher and I don’t care anymore. This government is complicit in genocide.’
Another identified their job as a teacher and one as a charity worker.
Charity workers and teachers are among a wave of people arrested for supporting the proscribed terror group Palestine Action on Saturday in London’s parliament Square
Demonstrators took to the streets holding signs that read ‘I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.’
A man arrested next to a statue of Ghandi outside Manchester Cathedral for showing support for prescribed terrorists group Palestine Action
Palestine Coalition protestors marching through central London on Saturday in support of Palestine Action and calling for an end to the war in Gaza
A woman wearing a plastic raincoat was carried away from Parliament square by police following demonstrations today
A retired dentist said: ‘This government is attacking democracy. We live in a dictatorship.’
When asked if they were worried about being arrested, the man, aged in his 60s, said: ‘Yes but I’m more worried about genocide.
‘I’ve never been in trouble before. I am standing against war crimes and war criminals.’
Some protesters were carried away by officers, while others were led away in handcuffs.
As one man was carried away by police, he said: ‘Freedom of speech is dead in this country, shame on the Metropolitan Police.’
A small number of counter-protesters held up placards which said ‘there is no genocide but there are 50 hostages still captive’.
Earlier on Saturday Metropolitan Police officers were deployed across the capital along the route of the march which crossed Westminster Bridge, along York Road, north across Waterloo Bridge and down to Whitehall via the Strand.
A spokesperson for Defend Our Juries, which is supporting the campaign to de-proscribe Palestine Action, said: ‘These protests will see many more ordinary people across the country take a stand, who don’t want to be handcuffed and detained in a police cell but refuse to stand by while our country collapses into an Orwellian nightmare where opponents of genocide are criminalised and silenced, and arrested just for holding a sign.
An elderly woman shows the palms of her hands which also read ‘I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action’ as her sign is removed during her arrest in Manchester Cathedral
Another protestor arrested outside Manchester Cathedral for showing support for Palestine Action
Crowds gathered to walk across Westminster Bridge as part of a march in support of the terror group – they wore traditional keffiyehs and carried Palestinian flags
Police were deployed along Westminster Bridge, York Road, Waterloo Bridge and down to Whitehall via the Strand in readiness for protestors from Palestine Coalition
Those held were of mixed ages, from their 20s to 60s and many said they had jobs and had been arrested before
A woman being arrested by a police officer while protesting in Parliament Square, central London on Saturday
A protestor being carried by four police officers holding them by their arms and legs and leading them towards a police van following arrest
Jeremy Corbyn pictured with crowds marching along Westminster Bridge in support of Palestinian Action
‘Protest groups targeting property, not people, in order to disrupt the flow of arms to Israel’s war machine while it commits horrific atrocities – is obviously not terrorism. It aims to stop violence and terrorism being committed against the Palestinian people.
‘How long until this unprecedented, authoritarian proscription is used against racial justice, climate, disability rights groups and trade unions, unless we resist the ban now, before it’s too late?’.
It comes after the Home Office earlier this month ruled to ban Palestine Action, with the group failing to block its proscription as a terrorist organisation in a late-night legal bid.
Lawyers representing co-founder Huda Ammori, whose father is Palestinian, asked for the decision to be delayed at least until July 21.
The designation as a terror group means that membership of or support for Palestine Action is a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
This includes chanting, wearing clothing or displaying articles such as flags, signs or logos.
Palestine Action argues it is a protest group that has never incited or encouraged violence, but does support civil disobedience.
Activists protest against the continuing war in Gaza, which has killed more than 57,000 Palestinians since October 7 – when 1,200 Israelis were killed by a Hamas incursion into the country.
A woman had her bags and placards taken off her and was taken away by police officers following her arrest at the London demonstration on Saturday
People held signs saying ‘I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action’ while wearing traditional keffiyehs scarves – they were later arrested
Two elderly women were arrested by police and escorted over to a waiting vehicle after having their placards taken off them
A woman being picked up by police by her arms as she continued to protest in London in the rain on Saturday
A woman was arrested after showing her support for Palestine Action by holding a sign that read ‘I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action’
Police surround a woman sat on the floor who was protesting in London on Saturday
One of those protesting last week is former government lawyer Tim Crosland. He said: ‘There are already 18 Palestine Actionists held in UK prisons without a trial, following lobbying by the Israeli government and Elbit Systems, the leading supplier of the machinery of genocide.
‘If we cannot speak freely about the genocide of Palestinians, if we cannot condemn those who enable it and praise those who resist it, then the right to freedom of expression has no meaning, and democracy in this country is dead.’
Scotland Yard said its stance remains that officers will act where criminal offences, including support of proscribed groups or organisations, are committed.
The latest arrests come after at least 42 protesters were detained by police officers last Saturday as activists gathered for a second week in a row beside a statue of Gandhi in London’s Parliament Square, holding placards reading: ‘I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.’
Another 16 arrests were made in Manchester and 13 people were also held in Cardiff at other related demonstrations last Saturday.
Those held were of mixed ages, from their 20s to 70s and many said they had jobs and had been arrested before.
Officers could then be seen carrying away a number of protesters who were lying down, lifting them off the ground and into waiting police vans parked around the square.
Other standing protesters were also led away from the statues and placed into the vans.
Two week sago Reverend Sue Parfitt, 83, (pictured) was arrested for protesting in support of Palestine Action in Westminsterafter the Met said: ‘The law doesn’t have an age limit’
Protesters gathered in central London on Saturday (pictured) for the third consecutive week to oppose the decision to ban the campaign group
At least 41 people were arrested by the Metropolitan Police last week for supporting Palestine Action Pictured: A protester is arrested and carried away at Saturday’s protests in London
A protester is arrested and carried away at Saturday’s demonstration in London
The offences mainly related to Section 13 of the Terrorism Act 2000, an officer said.
Previously almost 30 people on suspicion of terrorism offences after protesters gathered in Parliament Square also holding signs supporting Palestine Action, just hours after a ban on the came into effect.
One of those arrested was an 83-year-old priest and the Met said: ‘The law doesn’t have an age limit’.
Around two dozen people, including a priest, professor and an emergency care worker who is just back from Gaza, sat in front of the Gandhi statue in Parliament Square on Saturday expressing support for the group, which is now a proscribed terrorist organisation.
They held signs saying: ‘I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.’
Last week protestors said they didn’t care what happened to them and vowed to keep on protesting.
Two protestors sat in the back of a police van after being arrested for supporting Palestine Action after a ban against the organisation earlier this month
Protestors – whose ages ranged from 20s to 70s- were led away from the square outside Parliament in handcuffs last Saturday
Police officers arrest protesters around the statue of Nelson Mandela in Parliament Square who were holding placards in support of Palestine Action, which has been banned under anti-terrorism laws
Officers in Parliament Square held by a group of Met Officers next to a statue of Gandhi after they held placards which said: ‘I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action’
Police in Manchester arrest a Palestine Action protestor wearing the black-and-white Palestinian keffiyeh
A supporter of banned organisation Palestine Action is dragged away by police officers in St Peter’s Square, Manchester
One protester, an architect called Steve, 59, said: ‘I’m terrified. But some things in this world are bigger than fear of arrest. I will do whatever it takes to highlight this problem.
‘They (the police) can do whatever they want. I don’t care.’
one woman, Kate, was holding a sign which said: ‘I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.’
She said: ‘It’s shocking. I’m terrified. But the greater risk is genocide. That’s more important. I don’t have a phone. I’ve never been arrested before.
‘I can’t work because I’ve been trouble before connected to these activities.
‘I was in social care. I had a good job. Nobody will employ me now. They’ll think I’m a terrorist after this as well.’
