In brief
London police detained 139 people after a crowd gathered outside the U.S. embassy on Saturday to oppose the ban on Palestine Action, a proscribed organization. Metropolitan Police said most arrests were for supporting the banned group, while Labour MP John McDonnell criticized the decision to proscribe Palestine Action, arguing that protestors should not automatically be deemed supporters. The rally also occurred ahead of a Supreme Court appeal scheduled for Wednesday.
London police arrested 139 people after hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the United States embassy on Saturday to protest the ban on the pro‑Palestinian group Palestine Action, a move that the group’s supporters say is a political over‑reach. The arrests followed a warning from police not to attend the rally and came just weeks before a Supreme Court appeal scheduled for Wednesday aimed at challenging the proscription of Palestine Action.
London’s Metropolitan Police described the majority of the detentions as "expressing support for a proscribed organisation," a statement released on X following the morning’s squad. The police posted on X that 139 individuals had now been arrested, up from the 48 it had detained earlier in the day.
Labour Party MP John McDonnell responded to the police statement on X, arguing that protesting against a government decision to proscribe an organization cannot be "automatically interpreted" as supporting that organization, and that the government had "made the wrong decision in proscribing Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation."
"Someone protesting against the government’s decision to proscribe an organisation cannot be automatically interpreted as them supporting that organisation and therefore committing an arrestable offence. I believe the government made the wrong decision in proscribing Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation," said MP John McDonnell.
The protest in London was the first mass demonstration against the proscription since Prime Minister Andy Burnham took office in July. Critics argue the ban, which places Palestine Action on a list that also includes al‑Qaeda and ISIS, represents a broader crackdown on pro‑Palestine voices. While demonstrators also gathered outside the U.S. consulate in Edinburgh, there were no reports of arrests there.
