More than 450 people have been arrested in central London at the largest demonstration relating to Palestine Action since the group was proscribed as a terrorist organisation.

The Metropolitan police said they had drawn officers from other forces to help form a “significant policing presence” in the capital before the planned event, which was anticipated to result in large numbers of people being detained.

By Saturday afternoon, hundreds of people had gathered in Parliament Square for a demonstration organised by the campaign group Defend Our Juries, who said “approximately 1,000 sign-holders” had turned up.

The Met said it estimated 500 to 600 people were in Parliament Square when the demonstration began, but “many” were not partaking. On Saturday night, it said: “Parliament Square and Whitehall are clear. As of 9pm, 466 people had been arrested for showing support for Palestine Action.

“There were a further eight arrests for other offences including five assaults on officers.”

A spokesperson for Defend Our Juries said earlier: “The fact that unprecedented numbers came out today risking arrest and possible imprisonment shows how repulsed and ashamed people are about our government’s ongoing complicity in a livestreamed genocide, and the lengths people are prepared to go to defend this country’s ancient liberties.” [Continue reading…]

This man is blind. He sits in a wheelchair.

Unlike most who see the slaughter of children, yet do nothing, he cannot see it, yet stands up against it.

He held a sign today that simply said "I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action."

For that, British police arrested him.

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— Trita Parsi (@tparsi.bsky.social) Aug 9, 2025 at 6:54 PM

The Guardian also reports:

At 81, Deborah Hinton, a former British magistrate who was honoured by the late Queen Elizabeth II for services to the community, seems an unlikely terrorist suspect. In the quiet town in south-west England where she lives, much of her retirement is spent walking along the cliffs, raising funds for the nearby cathedral choir, and supporting local charities.

But last month she was detained in a police cell for seven hours, fingerprinted and had a DNA swab taken from her mouth. It was the first time she had ever been arrested, and the experience left her “in a state of trauma” and “shaking uncontrollably”. She could face a jail sentence of six months under UK terrorism legislation.

Hinton is among more than 200 Britons who have been arrested in recent months for peacefully protesting about the war in Gaza and the designation by the British government of an activist group, Palestine Action, as a terrorist organisation. They say the ban is a draconian clampdown on freedom of expression, and runs counter to a proud tradition of protest and civil disobedience in the UK that includes the suffragettes’ campaign a century ago for women’s right to vote and marches against nuclear weapons in the 1950s. [Continue reading…]