Police officers arrest a demonstrator during a protest in support of the Palestinian people, in Parliament Square, in London, Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025.(AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali) ALBERTO PEZZALI / AP
Police in London arrested at least 200 people on Saturday, August 9, for supporting Palestine Action at the latest and largest protest backing the group since the government banned it last month under anti-terror laws. The UK capital’s Metropolitan Police said it expected to make further arrests at the demonstration in Parliament Square, as organisers claimed only a “fraction” of the hundreds who turned out had been detained.
“That claim simply isn’t true,” the Met said in a statement, noting some of those there were onlookers or not visibly supporting Palestine Action. “We are confident that anyone who came to Parliament Square today to hold a placard expressing support for Palestine Action was either arrested or is in the process of being arrested.”
Backers of Palestine Action have staged a series of protests across the UK since early July, when Parliament outlawed the group and prohibited anyone from publicly showing support for it. Lawmakers banned the group as a terrorist organization after activists broke into a Royal Air Force base and vandalized two tanker aircraft.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper moved to ban Palestine Action after activists broke into a British air force base in southern England on June 20 to protest British military support for Israel’s war with Hamas. The activists sprayed red paint into the engines of two tanker planes at the RAF Brize Norton base in Oxfordshire and caused further damage with crowbars.
Palestine Action had previously targeted Israeli defense contractors and other sites in Britain that they believe have links with the Israeli military.
Supporters of the group are challenging the ban in court, saying the government has gone too far in declaring Palestine Action a terrorist organization. “Once the meaning of ‘terrorism’ is separated from campaigns of violence against a civilian population, and extended to include those causing economic damage or embarrassment to the rich, the powerful and the criminal, then the right to freedom of expression has no meaning and democracy is dead,” the group Defend Our Juries said on its website.
Britain’s interior ministry reiterated ahead of Saturday’s protests that its members were also suspected of other “serious attacks” that involved “violence, significant injuries and extensive criminal damage.” But critics, including the United Nations and NGOs like Amnesty International and Greenpeace, have lambasted the move as legal overreach and a threat to free speech.
NGOs opposed
The arrests outside Parliament came amid what is expected to be a busy weekend of demonstrations in London as the war in Gaza and concerns about immigration spur protests and counter-protests across the United Kingdom.
While Prime Minister Keir Starmer has angered Israel with plans to recognize a Palestinian state later this year, many Palestinian supporters in Britain criticize the government for not doing enough to end the war in Gaza.
Pro-Palestinian protesters were gathering Saturday afternoon in central London for a march that is scheduled to end outside the gates of No. 10 Downing Street, the prime minister’s official residence and offices.
On Sunday, a number of groups are scheduled to march through central London to demand the safe release of the Israeli hostages in Gaza. Palestinian militants have held the captives since they attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Police are also preparing for protests outside hotels across the country that are being used to house asylum seekers. Protesters and counter-protesters have squared off outside the hotels in recent weeks, with some saying the migrants pose a risk to their communities and others decrying anti-immigrant racism.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ade Adelekan said the scale of the events would “put pressure” on the police department.” “This is going to be a particularly busy few days in London with many simultaneous protests and events that will require a significant policing presence,” Adelekan said before the protests began.
Amnesty International UK Chief Executive Sacha Deshmukh wrote to Met Police chief Mark Rowley this week urging restraint be exercised when policing people holding placards expressing support for Palestine Action. The NGO has argued arrests of such people are in breach of international human rights law.
A UK court challenge against the decision to proscribe Palestine Action will be heard later this year.
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