Police in London arrested 139 people on Saturday. They were holding signs to support a banned group, Palestine Action. The government says the group is a terrorist organisation. The Supreme Court will look at the ban on Wednesday.
Several hundred people gathered outside the US embassy in south London on Saturday, holding cardboard signs reading “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action”. The Metropolitan Police announced 139 arrests, most of them for expressing support for a proscribed organisation; a parallel vigil was held in Edinburgh. Commander Adam Slonecki said those attending were “essentially meeting to purposefully commit a crime”. Campaigners put the total at more than 4,000 arrests since the ban took effect.
The group was proscribed in July 2025 after activists broke into RAF Brize Norton and caused an estimated £7m of damage to two aircraft — conduct the government calls terrorism, whatever the cause behind it. Its critics, including clergy and pensioners among Saturday’s detainees, argue that counter-terrorism powers are swallowing peaceful protest. The courts are divided too: the High Court found the ban disproportionate in February, the Court of Appeal restored it in June, and the Supreme Court hears the final appeal on Wednesday.