More than 20 arrests at Palestine Action protest after group banned by authorities | EUROtoday

A complete of 29 individuals have been arrested on suspicion of terror offences at a Palestine Action protest, hours after the group had been formally proscribed by the federal government.

A mass of Metropolitan Police officers circled dozens of protesters standing silently beneath the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Parliament Square. Labour MP Clive Lewis pointed to the placement of the arrests and the truth that these arrested included “a priest, a professor, medics”. “This is not about terrorism. It’s about silencing dissent – and it’s leading us down an ever-darkening path,” Mr Lewis wrote on X (Twitter).

The protesters had been holding placards that stated: “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.”

Occasional chants of “Free Palestine” broke out from the encircling onlookers, and a few criticised the police presence.

It got here hours after Palestine Action misplaced a late-night Court of Appeal problem on Friday, which sought to cease the protest group from being banned.

The transfer was confirmed lower than two hours earlier than the brand new laws got here into pressure at midnight.

The designation as a terror group signifies that membership of or help for Palestine Action is a legal offence punishable by as much as 14 years in jail.

The protest began at about 1.10pm and officers had been seen taking individuals away shortly after 1.30pm.

An aged girl in a canine collar, who was sitting in a camp chair with one of many placards at her ft, gave the impression to be taken away by officers.

A girl seen mendacity on the ground in handcuffs was carried away within the air by officers and put in a police van.

While suspended and flanked by a big group of police, she stated calmly: “Free Palestine, stop the genocide, I oppose genocide, I support the rights of the Palestinian people, I support freedom of speech, I support freedom of assembly.”

A mass of individuals crowded round to movie the scene.

Officers positioned her within the automobile parked on the highway behind the sq. earlier than returning to the Mahatma Gandhi statue, the place nearly no protesters remained.

Chants of “shame” broke out, directed on the police, and officers moved behind the Gandhi statue.

One supporter, who wished to stay nameless, stated: “These brave people are prepared to keep the spirit of support for Palestine alive, and they’ve stepped up to defend our civil liberties.

“It’s making me feel powerless. I think so carefully about what I can say.

“I can’t be true to my life, to my feelings and beliefs.

“I’ve never felt like that before. It’s a frightening feeling. It’s chilling.

“I was a Labour Party support member for years, and I’m shocked that the Labour government is doing this: Yvette Cooper is doing this, and she’s had heavy pressure from the Zionist regime, this government, from the board of deputies.

“They’ve all been lobbying her to get heavy on Palestine Action.”

Latifa Abouchakra, 35, initially from Nazareth, the most important Palestinian Arab metropolis in Israel, was on the protest in London and stated: “We are protesting and resisting this because there’s an unjust law that deserves resistance.

“Yesterday, Palestine Action wrote an open letter to the press, and in it they stated their strategy, and that they will be doing this more and more, because in this way, they are demonstrating to the government that we will not stop. It is an unjust law.

“We will continue to resist an unjust law. We’re starting with 26 [protesters] today. I do believe that within a very short amount of time, there will be 260.

“The decision demonstrated the British government’s friendship, alliance with a genocidal state, and it demonstrated its reluctance to do anything about it.

“I’m a Palestinian activist, I’m a Palestinian teacher, I came to the UK in my childhood, and I am supposed to feel grateful to this country for the liberties and the freedoms that it allows me supposedly – to wear my scarf and to protest.”

In a press release on X, the Metropolitan stated: “Officers have arrested more than 20 people on suspicion of offences under the Terrorism Act 2000.

“They have been taken into custody. Palestine Action is a proscribed group and officers will act where criminal offences are committed.”

Most of the police dispersed at round 2.10pm.

Palestine Action misplaced their late-night Court of Appeal problem on Friday night.

In a letter to the house secretary, protesters stated: “We do not wish to go to prison or to be branded with a terrorism conviction. But we refuse to be cowed into silence by your order.”

A Home Office spokesperson stated concerning the ban on Saturday: “We welcome the court’s decision and Palestine Action are now a proscribed group.

“The government will always take the strongest possible action to protect our national security, and our priority remains maintaining the safety and security of our citizens.”

It comes after two Voyager plane had been broken at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on 20 June, an incident claimed by Palestine Action.

Police stated it precipitated round £7m of harm.

Home secretary Ms Cooper introduced plans to proscribe Palestine Action on 23 June, stating that the vandalism of the 2 planes was “disgraceful” and that the group had a “long history of unacceptable criminal damage”.

MPs within the Commons voted 385 to 26, majority 359, in favour of proscribing the group on Wednesday, earlier than the House of Lords backed the transfer and not using a vote on Thursday.

Four individuals – Amy Gardiner-Gibson, 29, Jony Cink, 24, Daniel Jeronymides-Norie, 36, and Lewis Chiaramello, 22 – have all been charged in reference to the incident at Brize Norton.

They appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday after being charged with conspiracy to enter a prohibited place knowingly for a objective prejudicial to the security or pursuits of the United Kingdom, and conspiracy to commit legal harm, underneath the Criminal Law Act 1977.