UK police arrest over 500 at London demonstration for Palestine Action support

Metropolitan Police return to mass arrest policy as government appeals court ruling against group’s ban; protesters defy order, say legal ‘flip-flop’ does not affect ‘morals’

LONDON — Police in London on Saturday arrested over 500 pro-Palestinian protesters at a demonstration in support of the banned anti-Israel group Palestine Action.

Officers carried away activists, to cheers and clapping from other demonstrators who gathered for the sit-down demonstration in the capital’s Trafalgar Square.

The protesters held placards in support of the banned group Palestine Action, making them liable for arrest.

Palestine Action was proscribed as a terrorist organization last July, making it a criminal offense to belong to or support the group, punishable by up to 14 years in prison. In subsequent protests, police arrested nearly 3,000 people for alleged support of the banned group.

Palestine Action has carried out acts of “direct action” at military and industrial sites in the UK since the group’s formation in 2020, including breaking into facilities owned by Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems UK and damaging Royal Air Force planes at a base in England.

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 earlier this month. 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, in which a police officer’s spine was allegedly fractured in a filmed sledgehammer attack by an activist, drew criticism from police, lawmakers and Jewish communal groups.

Bodycam footage from August 6, 2024, shows an officer aiming a taser gun at an intruder at Elbit UK’s site in Bristol, England, after the intruder struck a police officer with a sledgehammer. (Screen capture: Channel 4)

Officials say Palestine Action’s activities have caused millions of pounds in damage that affects national security.

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 before announcing in late March that it would resume them after the government was allowed to appeal the decision.

BREAKING: Mass arrests under the Terrorism Act in Trafalgar Square, as hundreds defy the ban on Palestine Action.

The police are knowingly unlawfully arresting peaceful protestors for holding placards which say:

"I oppose genocide – I support Palestine Action" pic.twitter.com/94jok20GG2

— Defend Our Juries (@DefendOurJuries) April 11, 2026

“It’s really important to continue to show up,” said Freya, 28, manager of a London environmental organization, one of those sitting towards the front of the crowd of protesters. “The government might flip-flop in their legal argument, but the morals of these people (here) do not change.”

Posting on X, London’s Metropolitan Police said by early evening they had made 92 arrests of people aged between 27 and 82, with the protesters still in place.

‘Misguided crackdown’

Since the ban on Palestine Action was imposed, thousands have been arrested, mainly for carrying placards defending it. Hundreds of people are facing charges under the UK’s terrorism act.

Another protester, Denis MacDermot, 73, from Edinburgh, said he had been arrested before and had no hesitation about turning out again.

“I’m a supporter of these great people,” he said, waving towards other protesters, adding that if the court process was definitive, “there would be no need for all this.”

Protest organizers Defend Our Juries said around 500 people had taken part in Saturday’s demonstration, protesting “the UK Government’s complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the misguided crackdown on peaceful protest at home.”

Police were “choosing to make arrests despite the government’s ban on the group being ruled unlawful by the High Court, and leading lawyers warning that any arrests would be unlawful,” it added in a statement.