Massive Attack frontman arrested in London for backing banned anti-Israel group

Robert Del Naja decries ‘farcical authoritarian overreach’ at protest for Palestine Action, proscribed by UK as a terror organization after raids on military bases, defense plants

The leader of British trip-hop group Massive Attack, Robert Del Naja, was among those arrested at a London protest on Saturday over expressions of support for Palestine Action, the anti-Israel activist group designated a terror organization by the UK following its raids on defense plants.

“I’m witnessing a farcical authoritarian overreach,” he said. “We’re talking about vandalism — that’s not a crime, in light of the crimes that are being committed against the Palestinian people, and now the Lebanese people, and the Iranian people, and so on and so forth.

“We believe ourselves to be the good people. But we’re the people on the side of the missile launchers, not the people the missiles are being fired at,” Del Naja added, though the wars in Gaza and Lebanon both began with Iran-backed groups firing rockets at Israel, and Iran fired some 650 ballistic missiles at Israel amid the latest war, prior to the current truce.

Palestine Action was proscribed last July after the group broke into defense plants and a Royal Air Force base, causing millions of pounds in damage and at one point attacking a police officer with a sledgehammer. The ban made it a criminal offense, punishable by up to 14 years in prison, to belong to or support the group.

In mid-February, the High Court in London upheld a challenge to the ban, saying it had interfered with the right to freedom of speech. London’s Metropolitan Police paused arrests in the wake of the High Court ruling, but announced in late March that it would resume them after the government was allowed to appeal the decision.

“I think that the actions of Palestine Action were highly patriotic because they were pretty much protecting our country from getting involved in serious war crimes and breaking international law,” Del Naja told the Press Association before his arrest, according to The Guardian. “How much more patriotic can you be than that?”

Six Palestine Action activists are facing a retrial on a number of charges relating to a 2024 raid on Elbit’s UK factory, after they were acquitted of the charge of aggravated burglary. The retrial will concern criminal charges on which the jury failed to reach verdicts. It is due to take place in February 2027.

The initial verdict on the raid drew criticism from police, lawmakers and Jewish communal groups.

Anti-Israel protesters hold a banner in support of the Palestine Action group outside The Royal Courts of Justice, Britain’s High Court, in London on February 13, 2026. (Ben STANSALL / AFP)

In a statement posted to his Instagram account on Monday, Del Naja wrote: “Throughout the Israeli genocide in Gaza most people, myself included, felt like they were gradually going mad. How could the world, including the British government, possibly allow this to happen?”

Israel strenuously rejects any accusations of genocide or war crimes in any of its campaigns, saying it never targets civilians and takes pains to minimize civilian casualties, and noting its efforts throughout most of the Gaza war to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid.

Del Naja continued: “That sense of madness was compounded by the inexplicable policies of many British news outlets (including the BBC) who refused to name the identity committing one atrocity after another, after another. It was Israel, & everybody knew it was Israel. Why wouldn’t they say so?” It was not immediately clear what policies Del Naja was referring to.

An elderly man — whose sweatshirt portrays the State of Israel together with disputed territories, labeling the entire thing ‘Palestine’ — is escorted away by police as protesters gather to call for the lifting of the ban on the anti-Israel Palestine Action group during a demonstration in Trafalgar Square in central London on April 11, 2026. (CARLOS JASSO / AFP)

“On the topic of madness, in Britain in 2026 you can be arrested under the Terrorism Act for sitting in silence, holding a cardboard sign stating that you oppose genocide & support non-violent action to prevent it,” he said.

“Of course, everyone knows this is total madness (including many of the police officers making these arrests, and the High Court judges who recently ruled them unlawful), and yet, somehow it continues,” Del Naja continued.

“Everyone also knows that the sheer desperation of ‘Palestine Action’ activists vandalizing military equipment isn’t terrorism. No one actually believes that,” he asserted.

Del Naja’s band, Massive Attack, has been outspoken in its anti-Israel politics for years, including by joining an initiative last year to block their music in Israel and to have their songs removed from Spotify over investments in a European defense start-up by the streaming platform’s founder.

The group, formed in Bristol in 1988, is set to go on tour in Europe this summer, performing in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and Belgium.