96 arrested around England ahead of legal challenge to group’s proscription, no arrests in Edinburgh and Derry
~ Tim Simon ~
Nearly 100 more people across England have been arrested today (19 July) under the Terrorism Act 2000 for holding signs saying “I oppose genocide—I support Palestine Action”. Protest group Defend Our Juries reported that 55 people were arrested in Parliament Square in London, 17 in Bristol, 16 in Manchester, and 8 in Truro. In contrast, protests in Edinburgh and Derry were left undisturbed.
In Truro, police were slow to respond to the display at first, handing out leaflets outlining the legislation surrounding support for proscribed groups. They later began to slowly arrest those holding the signs—among them 81 year-old Deborah Hinton, a former magistrate.
Edinburgh. Photo: Defend Our Juries
In a statement made during their arrest, one activist stated: “We want Yvette Cooper to remove the proscription of Palestine Action. We want the government to take action on genocide and to stop complying with Israel in killing and slaughtering babies, women, children, and men. If this was in 1930s Germany, it would be the same as helping the Nazis with their concentration camps”.
The ban on the group was announced by Cooper after supporters of Palestine Action entered the RAF base at Brize Norton and spray-painted two military planes. The High Court is to hear a legal challenge to the ban on Monday, when Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori will seek permission for a full judicial review of the group’s proscription.
Vote Labour for Genocide.UK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone obect 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.
Keir Starmer’s home secretary Yvette Cooper (right) has banned Palestine Action. (Photo: Alastair Grant / Alamy)
The Home Office briefed the Times that Palestine Action could be funded by Iran, and then UK media kicked into action spreading the story.
The proscription of Palestine Action took place alongside claims made in sections of the British media that the group could have been funded by Iran.
On the same day, 23 June, that home secretary Yvette Cooper formally announced to parliament she would proscribe the group, the Times published a report saying “Iran could be funding Palestine Action, Home Office officials claimed”.
It added: “Officials are understood to be investigating its source of donations amid concerns that the Iranian regime, via proxies, is funding the group’s activities given that their objectives are aligned”.
The Times provided no quotes from Home Office officials or any evidence of Iranian funding to Palestine Action.
The same day, the paper published another article, stating: “Support for the group [Palestine Action] from campaigns with alleged links to Iran has fuelled concerns it is unwittingly and covertly being funded by Tehran. It received backing yesterday by a group described in a government report as ‘aligned with the Iranian regime’”.
This referred to the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC), a pro-Iranian UK-based NGO which had posted on X: “We stand in solidarity with our comrades PalestineAction!”
The Times noted that the IHRC was described in a 2023 government review of the Prevent counter-extremism programme as an “Islamist group ideologically aligned with the Iranian regime, that has a history of ‘extremist links and terrorist sympathies’”.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone obect 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.UK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.Vote Labour for Genocide.
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Police arrest Palestine Action activist during a solidarity protest outside Royal Courts of Justice as co-founder of Palestine Action Huda Ammori takes Home Secretary to High Court over proscription of the group in London, United Kingdom on July 4, 2025. [Tayfun Salci – Anadolu Agency]
Scores of protesters were arrested in London on Saturday after a ban on the group Palestine Action officially came into effect, Anadolu reports.
The UK government will, for the first time, legally redefine a non-violent protest group, Palestine Action, as a terrorist organization after a last-minute legal challenge to suspend the group’s ban under anti-terrorism laws failed at a high court on Friday.
As of this Saturday, membership in, or showing support for, Palestine Action will become a criminal offense in Britain.
The Metropolitan Police confirmed on Saturday afternoon that officers were responding to a demonstration in Parliament Square and had begun making arrests.
“The group is now proscribed, and expressing support for them is a criminal offense,” the force said in a statement. “Arrests are being made.”
Officers have arrested more than 20 people on suspicion of offenses under the Terrorism Act 2000.
It added: “There are a number of events taking place in London this weekend and anyone attending should be aware that officers policing these will act where criminal offenses, including those related to support of proscribed groups or organizations, are committed.”
MPs overwhelmingly voted in favor of Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s decision to proscribe the group under the Terrorism Act 2000 on Wednesday. The House of Lords has also approved the move.
UN experts, civil liberties organizations, cultural figures, and hundreds of lawyers have condemned the ban as “draconian.”
They argue that it sets a dangerous precedent by conflating protest with terrorism.
Palestine Action said it is seeking an “urgent appeal to prevent a dystopian nightmare, which criminalizes thousands of people overnight.”
Another court hearing is scheduled for July 21, when Palestine Action will apply for permission to launch a judicial review in an effort to overturn the order.
Unless the review is successful, being a member of or inviting support for the group that protests Israeli genocide in Gaza will carry a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
Meanwhile, pro-Palestine activists disrupted the London Pride parade by covering a float in red paint.
Four protesters from the group Youth Demand targeted a truck belonging to US-based company CISCO, accusing the firm of “genocide” and claiming it has “no place” at the event.
The incident comes less than 24 hours after the protest group Palestine Action was officially banned and designated a terrorist organization.
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Keir “I support Zionism without Qualification” Starmer supporting genocide.UK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.Vote Labour for Genocide.The original Fascists Mussolini and Hitler
A protest in support of Palestine Action in London last month. Photograph: Vuk Valcic/Sopa Images/Shutterstock
Minister argues move will not impinge on people’s right to protest but critics call it ‘grave abuse of state power’
MPs have voted to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation despite concerns that the move could risk criminalising legitimate protest.
The draft order to amend the Terrorism Act 2000 and proscribe the group, laid by the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, passed the Commons on Wednesday by 385 votes to 26.
The order also bans two neo-Nazi groups, the Maniacs Murder Cult (MMC) and the Russia Imperial Movement (RIM).
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It will become a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison for anyone to become a member of and support the direct action of Palestine Action.
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After the vote, a Palestine Action spokesperson said: “We are confident that this unlawful order will be overturned. As United Nations experts have made clear, spraying red paint and disrupting the British-based operations of Israel’s largest weapons firm, Elbit Systems, is not terrorism.
The terrorism and war crimes are being committed by Israel against the Palestinian people – armed and enabled by this government.”
The announcement came as police imposed restrictions on Palestine Solidarity Campaign protests outside parliament.
Before the vote, the lawyers group Network for Police Monitoring and the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers had warned the home secretary in two separate letters that proscribing Palestine Action would conflate protest and terrorism. The letters collectively were signed by hundreds of lawyers and by UN experts.
Several UN special rapporteurs said they had contacted the UK government to say that “acts of protest that damage property, but are not intended to kill or injure people, should not be treated as terrorism”.
Last week, Cooper linked Palestine Action with the MMC and the RIM, saying each of them had “passed the threshold for proscription based on clear national security evidence and assessments”. She said: “Violence and serious criminal damage has no place in legitimate protests.”
Vote Labour for Genocide.Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone obect 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.UK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.Keir “I support Zionism without Qualification” Starmer supporting genocide.
Pro-Palestine demonstrators in London earlier this week after the ban was announced. Photograph: Sean Smith/The Guardian
Anonymous source describes ‘tense atmosphere’ after Yvette Cooper announced plans to proscribe protest group
Home Office staff are concerned about the “absurd” decision to ban Palestine Action under UK anti-terrorism laws, a senior civil servant has said.
On Monday the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, announced plans to ban the group, which would make membership of it, or inviting support for it, a criminal offence under the Terrorism Act, carrying a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
It would be the first time a direct action protest group has been classified as a terrorist organisation, joining the likes of Islamic State, al-Qaida and National Action. The move has been condemned as draconian by many other protest groups, civil society organisations and politicians of different stripes.
A senior Home Office official, who requested anonymity as they are not allowed to speak to the press, said concerns about proscribing Palestine Action extended into the home secretary’s own department.
“My colleagues and I were shocked by the announcement,” they said. “All week, the office has been a very tense atmosphere, charged with concern about treating a non-violent protest group the same as actual terrorist organisations like Isis, and the dangerous precedent this sets.
Vote Labour for Genocide.Keir “I support Zionism without Qualification” Starmer supporting genocide.UK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
