Police officers carry a protester out of the Palestine Action demonstration in Trafalgar Square. Photograph: Lucy North/PA
Arrests and detentions took place at first mass demo since group’s ban was ruled unlawful by high court
More than 200 people have been arrested at the first mass demonstration opposing the proscription of Palestine Action since the group’s ban was ruled unlawful by the high court.
Hundreds of people gathered in London’s Trafalgar Square and presented signs reading: “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.” Hundreds of demonstrators sat on camping chairs and on the ground as they held up their placards on Saturday afternoon. The Metropolitan police said 212 people had been arrested by 4.50pm, with their ages ranging from 27 to 82.
Some of those sitting down holding signs were dressed as the suffragettes and others wore masks bearing the face of Keir Starmer. Mike Higgins, a blind disabled man whose filmed arrests at previous demonstrations have caused outrage, also took part in the action.
At the top of the square, near the National Gallery, large banners were displayed reading: “Jurors deserve to hear the whole truth” and “Israel starves kids”.
Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu will block peace in Iran however he can | Ronen Zvulun / POOL / AFP via Getty Images
Israel’s strikes on Lebanon are a reminder that Netanyahu will do whatever he can to avoid a peace deal with Iran
Within hours of Donald Trump accepting a two-week ceasefire in Iran, walking back on his dire threat that “a whole civilisation will die”, Binyamin Netanyahu did his best to wreck any prospect of peace.
Israel launched an intense bombardment of Beirut and other Lebanese towns and cities, with 100 attacks in the first ten minutes. More than 300 people were killed and more than a thousand wounded, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.
The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) also carried out a series of strikes across Gaza, including a precisely targeted armed drone attack on the car of Al Jazeera journalist Mohammed Wishah, the 262nd journalist to be killed by Israel since October 2023.
These massacres serve as a reminder that it was Netanyahu, not Trump, who started the war on Iran and that he continues to pull the strings. For as long as that’s true, the prospects of a lasting peace deal are very low.
Provided the Strait of Hormuz remains open, Trump can now claim victory – even if that claim is far from the truth – but Netanyahu could not.
Trump wanted to kill Ayatollah Khamenei and cripple the Iranian military, including its nuclear ambitions, so Iran could not threaten its neighbours, especially Israel. Of course, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps has not been crippled, but the US president’s self-belief and capacity to lie mean he would likely get away with saying otherwise.
The Israeli PM, however, needed regime change and the irreversible end of theocratic rule. A win over Iran had to be complete, not least to ensure his success at Israel’s general election later in the year.
But the Iranian regime is still intact; the popular Iranian uprising against the theocracy that the US and Israel expected failed to materialise. As such, a peace deal at this point would be a disaster for Netanyahu. If his devastating IDF Lebanon assault fails, he no doubt has more tricks of persuasion up his sleeve.
The extent of Netanyahu’s control of the war agenda, both its origins and its conduct, has been both disguised by Trump’s bombastic attention-seeking and overshadowed by the actions of the IRGC, which has survived intense bombing and developed a clear strategy: attack the eyes and ears of US and Israeli systems.
As Kelly Grieco, a specialist at the Stimson Centre, a Washington-based foreign affairs think tank, puts it, the IRGC is systematically targeting three “distinct functional categories”: radar and communications infrastructure, aerial tankers and airborne early warning.
“Each is a critical enabler of US air operations,” Grieco told Defense News. “That’s not random. That’s a target set derived from an understanding of how US airpower functions and where it is most exposed. The pattern suggests deliberate doctrine, or something close enough to it, not opportunism.”
The IRGC indeed reports that its US targets have included the Bahrain HQ of the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet – the US’s primary hub for coordinating its naval operations in the region – a $1.1bn early warning radar in Qatar, and two radar facilities at sites in the UAE. It also successfully attacked the US’s Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, destroying an E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control plane. Two weeks earlier, it hit and damaged five KC-135 Stratotanker refuelling aircraft at the same base.
It is essential to remember that the IRGC was founded in the immediate aftermath of the 1979 Islamic Revolution and expanded in size and power during the Iran-Iraq War between 1980 and 1988, when as many as half a million young Iranians died resisting Saddam Hussein’s opportunistic invasion of Iran.
Back then, the IRGC managed to prevent Hussein from annexing Iran’s oil-rich Khuzestan province and gaining total control over the disputed Shatt al-Arab waterway. It has evolved into an ideological entity rooted in the defence of the revolution and is much stronger than Iran’s conventional armed forces.
The IRGC’s strength continues to lie in asymmetric defensive warfare. It has training, arsenals and weapons suited to survival and the wearing down of its much stronger opponents. The success of this approach against the US and Israel is clear, despite the thousands of Iranians killed or maimed and the billions of dollars of damage inflicted across the country.
Taking control of the Strait of Hormuz has been an obvious move, and even the repeated attacks on neighbouring states have a purpose. They may have shocked and angered leaders in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, and Qatar, but they sent a clear message: we are facing an existential threat from the US and Israel, and you are either with us or against us.
Iran could now continue the conflict with the US and Israel for weeks, if not months, if it so chooses. Despite the claims of the US president, the IRGC is not running out of missiles and armed drones – far from it.
CNN reports that around half of its missile launchers are still intact, as are thousands of one-way attack drones, while armed drones are being produced in backstreet workshops. Even Israel assesses that Iran still has more than 1,000 missiles capable of reaching it, while Hezbollah’s arsenal in Lebanon includes as many as 10,000 shorter-range rockets, according to military briefings cited by Israeli media last weekend.
Given all of this, can the peace talks succeed? Probably not, meaning the US may embark on a huge bombing campaign against the Iranian infrastructure and its very society, to the relief of Netanyahu.
There are still two avenues for hope, though. One is that Trump or the US public comes to realise that Netanyahu has been pulling the strings all along, which would undoubtedly dent the US president’s ego. The other is through the objection of external agents of influence; superpowers such as China or India could make clear that destroying Iranian society is not acceptable.
Extraordinarily, given its small size, the UK is also an external agent with specific influence. A sustained US bombing campaign of Iran requires the mass use of strategic air power – for the US Air Force, that must include the fleet of B-1B Lancer long-range bombers. Only 21 of those are reported to be “mission ready”, 15 of which are at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, each carrying more than 30 tons of a wide range of ordnance.
The loss of Fairford wouldn’t stop the war, but it would seriously hinder Trump’s plans. No other comparable European bases are available; only Fairford has the necessary and complex equipment to house the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber and the easy access to a huge munitions depot, which is located at the nearby RAF Welford. In any case, the UK is likely the only European state that would want a US air base like this right now.
A private word from Keir Starmer that the UK may follow Spain and others in closing its airspace to American war planes would have a direct impact. It would certainly help explain Starmer’s unexpected visit this week to the Middle East.
Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/Keir Starmer explains that UK is defensively bombing Iraq in support of Israel’s genocidal expansionism. He explains that while his bombs still kill people that they are especially called defensive for the gullible and to be harder to convict of war crimes.Genocide denying UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspending 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government’s support for Israel’s Gaza genocide and the UK government and military’s active participation in genocide.
Protesters celebrate outside the High Court, central London, where Dame Victoria Sharp, Mr Justice Swift and Mrs Justice Steyn have ruled in favour of Palestine Action’s co-founder Huda Ammori’s challenge over the ban of the organisation as a terror group
THOUSANDS of people are expected to demonstrate against the ban on Palestine Action in central London on Saturday despite police lifting their pause on arresting the sit-down sign-holders.
Protest group Defend Our Juries said the demonstration is to show resistance to the ban, which was ruled unlawful by the High Court in February, “is stronger than ever.”
The 60-minute action will see protesters sit silently holding banners reading “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action” in Trafalgar Square from 1pm.
Last month, the Metropolitan Police announced officers would resume arresting suspected Palestine Action supporters, after the High Court ruled the ban unlawful by allowing it to continue pending the outcome of an appeal by the Home Office.
A Defend Our Juries spokesperson said: “The protest against the proscription of Palestine Action has grown beyond a question of the right to protest.
“The actions of the UK government and police following the High Court’s ruling expose what many have long known: democracy in the UK is on its knees.
…
They added: “This campaign now extends far beyond Palestine Action, beyond Gaza, and beyond the principles of protest and free speech.
“It speaks to a fundamental erosion of the right to dissent and to hold power to account. This is no longer a marginal issue – it concerns everyone who values democratic freedoms.”
Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/Palestine Action joke that appeared in the UK satirical magazine ‘Private Eye’.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer boards a plane at the airport in Doha, Qatar, following his visit to the Gulf region, April 10, 2026
… KEIR STARMER’S claims that he’s “fed up” of Donald Trump’s wars ramping up the cost of living ring hollow until he stops the US using British military bases and arming Israel, anti-war campaigners said yesterday.
The Prime Minister compared the US leader with Russian President Vladimir Putin as he expressed frustration over skyrocketing global oil prices following Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for US-Israeli bombings.
“I’m fed up with the fact that families across the country see their bills go up and down on energy, businesses’ bills go up and down on energy, because of the actions of Putin or Trump,” he told ITV’s Talking Politics Podcast.
A spokeswoman for Stop the War Coalition told the Morning Star: “Keir Starmer continues in his cowardly appeasement of Donald Trump, even in his failure to stand up for working people as the economic crisis caused by the US’s illegal war on Iran hits home.
“He may be ‘fed up’ but he remains complicit until he stops allowing US planes to use British bases and stops arming Israel.”
Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/Keir Starmer explains that UK is defensively bombing Iraq in support of Israel’s genocidal expansionism. He explains that while his bombs still kill people that they are especially called defensive for the gullible and to be harder to convict of war crimes.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Protesters celebrate outside the High Court, central London, where Dame Victoria Sharp, Mr Justice Swift and Mrs Justice Steyn have ruled in favour of Palestine Action’s co-founder Huda Ammori’s challenge over the ban of the organisation as a terror group
