LONDON — British police stated they arrested 365 people in central London on Saturday as supporters of a recently banned pro-Palestinian group deliberately flouted the regulation as a part of their effort to power the federal government to rethink the ban.
Parliament in early July handed a regulation banning Palestine Motion and making it a criminal offense to publicly assist the group. That got here after activists broke into a Royal Air Force base and vandalized two tanker planes to protest in opposition to Britain’s assist for Israel’s offensive against Hamas within the Gaza Strip.
Backers of the group, who’ve held a series of protests across the U.Ok. over the previous month, argue that the regulation illegally restricts freedom of expression.
Daring police to arrest them
Greater than 500 protesters stuffed the sq. exterior the Homes of Parliament on Saturday, many daring police to arrest them by displaying indicators studying “I oppose genocide. I assist Palestine Motion.” That was sufficient for police to step in.
However because the demonstration started to wind down, police and protest organizers sparred over the variety of arrests because the organizers sought to point out that the regulation was unworkable.
“The police have solely been in a position to arrest a fraction of these supposedly committing ‘terrorism’ offenses, and most of these have been given avenue bail and allowed to go residence,” Defend Our Juries, which organized the protest, stated in a press release. “It is a main embarrassment to (the federal government), additional undermining the credibility of this broadly ridiculed regulation, introduced in to punish these exposing the federal government’s personal crimes.”
London’s Metropolitan Police Service shortly hit again, saying this wasn’t true and that lots of those that gathered within the sq. had been onlookers, media or individuals who didn’t maintain placards supporting the group.
“We’re assured that anybody who got here to Parliament Sq. at this time to carry a placard expressing assist for Palestine Motion was both arrested or is within the means of being arrested,” the police power stated in a press release.
On Friday, police stated the demonstration was uncommon in that the protesters needed to be arrested in massive numbers in order to put a pressure on police and the broader prison justice system.
Why the group is being banned
The federal government moved to ban Palestine Motion after the activists broke right into a British air power base in southern England on June 20 to protest British navy assist for the Israel-Hamas struggle. The activists sprayed crimson paint into the engines of two tanker planes on the RAF Brize Norton base in Oxfordshire and brought on additional harm with crowbars.
Palestine Motion had beforehand focused Israeli protection contractors and different websites in the UK that they consider have hyperlinks with the Israeli navy.
Supporters of the group are difficult the ban in court docket, saying the federal government has gone too far in declaring Palestine Motion a terrorist group.
“As soon as the which means of ‘terrorism’ is separated from campaigns of violence in opposition to a civilian inhabitants, and prolonged to incorporate these inflicting financial harm or embarrassment to the wealthy, the highly effective and the prison, then the suitable to freedom of expression has no which means and democracy is useless,” Defend Our Juries stated on its web site.
Busy weekend of protests
The arrests exterior Parliament got here amid what is anticipated to be a busy weekend of demonstrations in London because the struggle in Gaza and issues about immigration spur protests and counterprotests throughout the UK.
Whereas Prime Minister Keir Starmer has angered Israel with plans to acknowledge a Palestinian state later this 12 months, many Palestinian supporters in Britain criticize the federal government for not doing sufficient to finish the struggle in Gaza.
Professional-Palestinian protesters gathered Saturday afternoon in central London for a march that ended exterior the gates of No. 10 Downing Road, the prime minister’s official residence and workplaces.
On Sunday, quite a lot of teams are scheduled to march by way of central London to demand the secure launch of the Israeli hostages in Gaza. Palestinian militants have held the captives since Hamas-led attackers surged into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing round 1,200 individuals and taking 251 hostage. There are 50 remaining hostages, with 20 of them thought to be alive.
Police are additionally making ready for protests exterior inns throughout the nation which are getting used to deal with asylum-seekers. Protesters and counterprotesters have squared off exterior the inns in latest weeks, with some saying the migrants pose a danger to their communities and others decrying anti-immigrant racism.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ade Adelekan stated the dimensions of the occasions would “put stress” on the police division.
“That is going to be a very busy few days in London with many simultaneous protests and occasions that may require a big policing presence,” Adelekan stated earlier than the protests started.
