more than 300 arrested at London protest/Image: AP
More than 300 people were arrested during a demonstration outside the US Embassy in London against the UK government’s ban on Palestine Action, with police reporting 325 detentions over the weekend. The Metropolitan Police said on Sunday that 320 of the 325 arrests were made on suspicion of expressing support for a proscribed organisation under the Terrorism Act. The demonstration was organised as part of a series of protests against the government’s decision to proscribe Palestine Action in July 2025. Defend Our Juries, which has coordinated protests against the ban, said the latest arrests took the total number of people detained in connection with the group beyond 4,000. Home Office figures obtained by the BBC showed that 3,630 arrests were made in the year ending June 2026. Adding 134 arrests outside Westminster Magistrates’ Court earlier this year and those made on Saturday brings the reported total to 4,089.
Officers continued making arrests into the evening, with demonstrators chanting “Free, free Palestine” as people were taken to police vans. It described the figure as “truly dystopian” and criticised the arrests as an attack on freedom of expression. Some signs read: “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action. The group has since become the subject of thousands of arrests linked to public expressions of support. You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.
Hundreds gathered in the Nine Elms area on Saturday, holding placards opposing the group’s proscription under terrorism legislation.