London protests: Nearly 900 Palestine Action supporters detained; government defends ban on group

‘Lift the ban’ protests in London

British authorities reported almost 900 arrests throughout a protest in help of the banned group Palestine Action on Saturday, whereas the government urged individuals to cease backing the organisation. The British government outlawed Palestine Action beneath anti-terror legal guidelines in July after its members breached a Royal Air Force facility and broken army plane. The transfer adopted a sequence of vandalism incidents concentrating on British defence firms with Israeli hyperlinks. The group accused Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government of complicity in what it calls Israeli struggle crimes in Gaza.

The Metropolitan Police confirmed 890 arrests from Saturday’s protest in central London close to Parliament— the very best quantity recorded from a single such occasion. Of these, 857 had been detained for supporting a proscribed organisation, whereas 17 had been held for assaulting officers after the protest reportedly turned violent, as reported by Reuters. Deputy Assistant Commissioner Claire Smart mentioned: “The violence we encountered during the operation was coordinated and carried out by a group of people … intent on creating as much disorder as possible.” Defend Our Juries, the organisers of the protest, mentioned these arrested included clergy, army veterans, healthcare staff, aged individuals and a few disabled people. “These mass acts of defiance will continue until the ban is lifted,” a spokesperson mentioned. Under UK legislation, supporting or being a member of Palestine Action is punishable by as much as 14 years in jail. The proscription positioned it in the identical class as al Qaeda and Islamic State. Human rights organisations have criticised the ban as disproportionate and restrictive of peaceable protest rights. Defence Minister John Healey defended the government’s stance and rejected accusations of “a two-tier policing and justice system” raised by right-wing critics. Speaking to Sky News, he mentioned: “Almost everyone shares the agony when we see the images from Gaza … and for people who want to voice their concern and protest, I applaud them. But that does not require them to link it to support for Palestine Action, a proscribed group.” Many of these detained on Saturday had been later launched on police bail, although the standing of quite a few others stays unclear.