London protest against Palestine Action ban leads to at least 139 arrests

Police have arrested at least 139 people at a protest in London against the decision to ban Palestine Action in the United Kingdom. Hundreds of people gathered outside the United States embassy on Saturday to oppose the ban.

London's Metropolitan Police said in a post on X on Saturday evening that 139 people had now been arrested, up from the 48 it said it had detained earlier in the day. The majority of arrests were for expressing support for a proscribed organisation, the police said.

The demonstration came ahead of a Supreme Court appeal on Wednesday challenging the campaign group's proscription.

Palestine Action is classified as a terrorist organisation under United Kingdom law. The proscription came into effect in July last year under the government of then Prime Minister Keir Starmer. The banned list also includes al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS).

Saturday's rally was the first mass protest against the proscription since Prime Minister Andy Burnham assumed office in July. Critics argue that designating the group a terrorist organisation has triggered uproar among sections of British society and is part of a wider crackdown aimed at silencing pro-Palestine voices.

Protesters also gathered outside the US consulate in Edinburgh, the Scottish capital. There were no reports of arrests there.

Demonstrators in both London and Edinburgh could be seen holding placards reading, 'I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action'.

Responding to the police statement, Labour Party MP John McDonnell posted on X that someone protesting against the government's decision to proscribe an organisation cannot be automatically interpreted as supporting that organisation and therefore committing an arrestable offence. He added that he believes the government made the wrong decision in proscribing Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation.

Defend Our Juries, which organised the protests, said Saturday's arrests took the total number of people detained for defying the Palestine Action ban to more than 4,000 since July 2025.

A spokesperson for the group said it was truly dystopian that there had now been over 4,000 arrests under terror laws for peaceful vigils silently expressing opposition to genocide and support for the protest group. The spokesperson added that the ban was straight out of US President Donald Trump's playbook and was about the UK government appeasing Trump and the Israeli weapons companies that Palestine Action disrupted, not about any kind of terrorist threat.

Felix Jakens, Amnesty International UK's head of communications and campaigns, also called on the government to reverse the proscription. He said the sight of grandparents, teenagers and everyone in between being hauled into police vans for peacefully holding placards was a disgraceful attack on freedom of speech, and that it was past time for the government to drop the proscription and reform the laws so communities have more power to demonstrate.