A person holding a sign saying ‘I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action’ is detained by police in London. Photograph: SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images
Increase coincides with proscription of Palestine Action last year which has led to thousands of arrests for allegedly supporting the protest group
Almost half of all terrorism arrests in Great Britain since the 9/11 attacks on the twin towers in 2001 have come in the past year, official data shows.
There have been 6,539 arrests for terror-related activity in Great Britain since the 2001 attacks and 3,021 of those arrests were in the year ending 31 March 2026, according to the Home Office.
The increase coincides with the proscription of Palestine Action, which came into effect on 5 July last year and has led to thousands of arrests of people for allegedly supporting the direct action protest group, the first such group to be banned under the Terrorism Act.
The ban, which has been criticised by UN experts, NGOs, a former director of public prosecutions and a former director of the security services, is the subject of a continuing legal challenge, which will next be heard at the UK supreme court on 4 November.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.Keir “I support Zionism without Qualification” Starmer supporting genocide. He berates Palestine Action for upholding international law and prevent his – Labour and Israel’s – Gaza genocide. Starmer says that that they’ve got a genocide to achieve, forced marches like the Nazis did, hospitals to bomb into obliteration, journalists, healthcare workers and starving people queuing for food to mass-murder and that they have to murder all Gazans for Zionism.Palestine Action joke that appeared in the UK satirical magazine ‘Private Eye’.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Israeli forces reinforce their military presence at the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) Qalandiya Training Centre in Jerusalem on August 26, 2026. [Issam Rimawi – Anadolu Agency]
The EU, as well as individual European countries, have criticised Israel’s forced entry at the Qalandia Vocational Training Centre and the seizure of UNRWA’s installations in East Jerusalem. In a statement that reads as futile as any other, Israel was urged to “honour its obligations and to halt all disruptions to UNRWA’s activities and operations without delay.”
Israel’s response was typical – according to its Foreign Ministry, the EU and individual European countries are supporting “an organisation that is a breeding ground for terrorism.” Terrorism, according to Israel, was the reason UNRWA was banned from operating in the occupied Palestinian territories. It referenced a recent US Agency for International Development report which stated that over 100 current or former UNRWA staff members participated in the October 7 incursion into Israel.
The bottom line is that Israel has made no secret out of wanting to eradicate UNRWA, while the EU, like the rest of the international community wants to maintain the humanitarian paradigm as it serves the purpose of not addressing the Palestinian people’s political rights.
Yet, while serving a diplomatic purpose by speaking on UNRWA’s behalf, the support does not extend to the Palestinian people. A temporary organisation cannot serve a permanent purpose. The EU and the international community know the limitations UNRWA faces; both know that even financially, UNRWA can never deliver the standard required for the Palestinian people’s autonomy and independence. Politically, UNRWA has become embroiled in the politics of maintaining the Palestinian people’s refugee status, because the international community has completely rejected decolonisation.
The EU, like the international community, plays a duplicitous role when it comes to UNRWA and the Palestinian people. Israel was asked to ‘honour its obligations’. Yet taking into account recent history, where was the EU when Palestinians were being massacred in Israel’s genocide in Gaza?
Was the EU not obliged to honour its obligations and work towards ending the genocide, instead of working to create more cycles of forced displacement by giving Israel absolute impunity?
Since the EU, alongside the international community, allowed Israel to continue its genocide, which aspect of UNRWA is it really supporting? The existence of the organisation, or the limited work UNRWA was accomplishing for Palestinian refugees due to the international community’s refusal to acknowledge the colonial politics of forced displacement?
If UNRWA and its work were truly considered a priority, the EU would not work against the institution and pretend to support it only when Israel commits a violation that cannot be diplomatically ignored. The EU’s support for UNRWA would have included the bloc taking a stance against genocide and forced displacement, rather than approving of the massacres by upholding Israel’s security narrative. Eliminating UNRWA, or shutting down its operations, will not make the refugees disappear. If, however, the EU tackled genocide and forced displacement both from the human and the political aspect, UNRWA could have been slightly helped, while more Palestinians would have been saved.
Israel will not honour its obligations, of course. But neither does the EU. If saving UNRWA and Palestinians refugees were truly a priority, the EU would have avoided complicity in the genocide in Gaza. Obligations, therefore, need to be defined, as they sit in blurred parameters when the EU asks Israel to abide by international law while collaborating in maintaining the perpetual displacement of Palestinian refugees.
Donald Trump calls for help from NATO allies in securing the Strait of Hormuz despite saying on 7 March 2026 that they don’t need people to join wars after they’ve already won. He’s challenged with the claim that he lies as much as the IDF.Donald Trump explains why he established his Bored of Peace
They’re accused of spray-painting the lawn at the property in Scotland.
Prosecutors are seeking to establish a “terrorism connection” in the case of seven Palestine Action activists who allegedly spray-painted Donald Trump’s golf course in Scotland.
The seven have been charged with malicious damage over the 8 March 2025 protest, which came weeks after Trump proposed a US-led takeover of the Gaza strip, the Guardian reported.
Activists broke into the US president’s Turnberry golf course and spray-painted the message “Gaza is not 4 sale” on the lawn. They also sprayed weed killer and daubed the clubhouse in red paint.
“The prosecution will seek to establish a ‘terror connection’, to enable terror sentences to be imposed on the defendants even though the prosecution has chosen not to charge them with any terror offences,” said campaign group Defend Our Juries (DOJ).
Trump had two phone calls with then prime minister Keir Starmer after the protest, DOJ added.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel. New Labour UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham continues Labour party policy of active support and complicity in Israel’s genocide.UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.Orcas discuss Donald Trump and the killer apes’ concept of democracy. Front Orca warns that Trump is crashing his country’s economy and that everything he does he does for the fantastically wealthy.
The US has issued sanctions against the UK-based direct action organisation Palestine Action, describing it as a “transnational terror group”.
The US Department of the Treasury labelled Palestine Action a specially designated global terrorist on Wednesday, which allows the US to freeze the assets of foreign individuals and entities.
The powers used to sanction the organisation in the US were introduced by President George W Bush shortly after the 9/11 attacks by al-Qaida on the twin towers in New York.
Announcing the sanctions on Palestine Action and two other organisations, the Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said: “Far-left extremists, their fronts, and their enablers should be on notice: we will bring the full weight of our economic tools to bear. Political terrorism has no place in our society and we will continue to cut the financial lifelines of these groups until they are eliminated.”
Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.Donald Trump warns against following the Onaquietday.org blog, says that he’s heard that she’s a which with a black cat and a dangerous kitchen.Palestine Action joke that appeared in the UK satirical magazine ‘Private Eye’.