[News] More than 70 protesters across UK arrested for allegedly holding signs supporting Palestine Action

[Anti-Imperialist News]

theguardian.com
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/12/arrests-for-second-week-running-at-london-event-that-references-palestine-action>
More than 70 protesters across UK arrested for allegedly holding signs
supporting Palestine Action
Sammy Gecsoyler
July 12, 2025
------------------------------

More than 70 people have been arrested across the UK in several
demonstrations where references to Palestine Action were allegedly made, a
week after the group was banned as a terrorist organisation.

Protesters gathered for the second week in a row in central London after
police reiterated that showing support for the group was a criminal
offence, resulting in the Metropolitan police making 42 arrests.

On Saturday, shortly after 1pm, two small groups of protesters demonstrated
in Parliament Square, sitting at the steps of the statues of both Mahatma
Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. The action was organised by the campaign group
Defend Our Juries, which said more demonstrations were due to take place
elsewhere in London and in Manchester, Cardiff and Derry.

Defend Our Juries said on X: “Over 300 police officers have been seen to
carry away dozens of people from the foot of statues of Nelson Mandela and
Gandhi for alleged ‘terrorism offences’. Those arrested are accused of
holding signs in support of Palestine Action.”

In Manchester, 16 people holding signs referencing Palestine Action at the
foot of the Emmeline Pankhurst statue in St Peter’s Square were arrested.

A Greater Manchester police spokesperson said: “At around 2.30pm this
afternoon, we responded to a protest taking place in St Peter’s Square – 16
people were arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000. The group peacefully
dissipated at around 3.25pm.”

In Cardiff, 13 people who sat outside the BBC Cymru Wales headquarters
holding signs that appeared to express support for the group were arrested.

A police spokesperson said: “South Wales police supports the right for
people to make their voices heard through protest providing it is done
lawfully. We can confirm that 13 people were arrested earlier today during
a protest which took place in the vicinity of Central Square, Cardiff.”

“They were arrested on suspicion of committing offences under section 12 of
the Terrorism Act 2000.”

Defend Our Juries said officers in Manchester pushed “through crowds of
onlookers to arrest sign-holders, including three vicars and many
pensioners”.

In London, Met officers formed a cordon around those demonstrating, who
wrote messages appearing to support Palestine Action with black markers on
pieces of cardboard, and silently held the signs aloft.

Officers could be seen searching the bags of protesters and taking their ID
cards. Some demonstrators could be seen lying on top of each other while
police held their handmade signs.

The protesters were then led away from the statues by officers into waiting
police vans parked around the square.

Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, announced plans to ban Palestine Action
late last month, days after activists from the group allegedly broke into
RAF Brize Norton and defaced two military aircraft with spray paint.

MPs voted in favour of proscribing the group on 2 July. The House of Lords
backed the move without a vote the following day.

UN experts, civil liberties groups, cultural figures and hundreds of
lawyers have condemned the ban as draconian and said it sets a dangerous
precedent by conflating protest with terrorism.

The ban means Palestine Action has become the first direct action protest
group to be banned under the Terrorism Act, placing it in the same category
as Islamic State, al-Qaida and the far-right group National Action.
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