Police arrested dozens of demonstrators who gathered outside the US embassy in London on Saturday in support of proscribed group Palestine Action.
More than 100 people took part in the protest in Nine Elms, south-west London, with many holding signs reading: “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.”
Arrests and Legal Basis
In a post on X shortly before 4pm, the Metropolitan Police said it had arrested 48 people, with the majority detained for expressing support for a proscribed organisation, with further arrests expected throughout the day.
Expressing support for the group is an offence under the Terrorism Act after it was proscribed in June 2025.
Some protesters could be heard applauding and chanting “free, free Palestine” when people were taken away to police vans parked on Ponton Road, just off the embassy grounds, before being transferred to police stations.
Protest Details and Participant Accounts
Officers started arresting some protesters one by one shortly after 12.30pm, sometimes carrying them if they refused to walk.
A retired lawyer who travelled from his home in Cumbria to attend the protest said he was demonstrating because he “feared for our liberties”. Charles Allison, 75, told the Press Association: “I decided that I ought to try and do something, and this is the little bit that I’m doing. I fear for our civil liberties, which are being devalued and watered down, even by this new Labour Government. So I’m dejected, but enthused that there are so many wonderful people protesting.”
Organised by activist group Defend Our Juries, the protest took place before an appeal at the Supreme Court against Palestine Action’s designation as a terror group on November 4.
Asked why he was protesting, Mr Allison told PA: “To show that there is no declining level of protest. I hope the Supreme Court justices, they won’t necessarily be influenced by it, but I hope that they will take a long-term view of what is happening in this country and decide that the proscription was unlawful, as I believe it was. I speak as an ex-lawyer, so it’s uncomfortable for me to break the law deliberately. But I felt that I could do no other.” Mr Allison was taken away by two police officers just before 1pm, after he was told he posed a “threat”.
Police Measures and Other Demonstrations
The Metropolitan Police said a Section 35 dispersal order was in place in parts of London, covering the embassy grounds, from 8am to 11pm on Saturday. The force said the measure, which means people can be ordered to leave the area or face arrest, followed “information that a group are planning to attend an event and express support for a proscribed organisation”.
Lauren Wallace, 36, told PA she had brought her four-year-old daughter Lilah to the demonstration to show her “the power of protest and how important it is to be political”. She said: “My mum’s here today to hold a sign, and I’m unbelievably proud of her and respect her so much for doing it. And I think, in her words, she maybe has like a freedom to do it that me, with a young daughter and a job, probably don’t have. So I came to support her and show solidarity with her, and also to, I guess, show my daughter the power of protest and how important it is to be political. And if anything, I hope Lilah’s way more political and radical than I am because I think that’s what the world kind of needs.”
Talking about the chosen location for the protest, Defend Our Juries said the US had “not shied away” from participation in the Palestine conflict. In August, the US government announced sanctions against Palestine Action, designating it as a terror group. Demonstrators held signs reading “we are protesters, not terrorists” and “heroes, not terrorists”, while some wore keffiyehs and waved Palestinian flags.
Scotland Yard said Palestine Action-related protests “take significant police resources away from the neighbourhoods and communities where they are most needed”. The Met spent £1.3 million on six “Palestine-Israel public order events” in June and July, according to its response to a freedom of information request.
Another demonstration in support of Palestine Action took place outside the US consulate near Holyrood in Edinburgh on Saturday.
In June, five Court of Appeal judges said the ban on Palestine Action as a terror group was a “justified and proportionate” interference on freedom of expression rights. This overturned the judgment of three judges at the High Court who ruled in February that the then-home secretary Yvette Cooper’s decision to ban Palestine Action was unlawful, after a legal challenge from the group’s co-founder Huda Ammori.
