{"id":3602,"date":"2026-10-31T22:04:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T17:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=3602"},"modified":"2026-10-31T22:04:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T17:04:07","slug":"uk-police-arrest-palestine-action-supporters-ahead-of-supreme-court-hearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=3602","title":{"rendered":"UK police arrest Palestine Action supporters ahead of Supreme Court hearing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

London police arrested Saturday dozens of Palestine Action supporters, who protested there and in Edinburgh days before the Supreme Court hears an appeal over the government\u2019s contentious ban of the group.<\/strong><\/p>\n

London\u2019s Metropolitan Police began detaining people shortly after hundreds began a lunchtime \u201cmass action\u201d outside the US Embassy in the British capital, an AFP<\/em> reporter witnessed.<\/p>\n

The force said in a mid-afternoon update that 48 people had been arrested and that officers were \u201ccontinuing to make arrests\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe majority of arrests have been for expressing support for a proscribed organisation,\u201d it added on X.<\/p>\n

Officers have arrested nearly 4,000 people for allegedly showing support for Palestine Action, according to police and campaigners, after the British government outlawed it under anti-terror laws in July 2025.<\/p>\n

Many of those arrested, including senior citizens and Holocaust survivors, have displayed signs at rallies reading: \u201cI oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.\u201d<\/p>\n

In July, hearings related to more than 2,000 of those cases were postponed until later this year.<\/p>\n

The ban puts the group on a blacklist that also includes Palestinian militants Hamas and the Lebanese Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah.<\/p>\n

It made membership of, or support for, Palestine Action a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.<\/p>\n

The group\u2019s co-founder Huda Ammori has legally challenged the ban, arguing it was \u201cdisproportionate\u201d and impacted human rights.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court is set to hold a two-day hearing on the high-profile case from Wednesday, after the Court of Appeal in June ruled in the government\u2019s favour.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u2018Losing faith\u2019<\/h3>\n

Saturday\u2019s London protesters held banners bearing slogans like \u201cHow is trying to stop a genocide a crime?\u201d and \u201cWe are protesters, not terrorists\u201d.<\/p>\n

Attendee Angie Zelter, 75, told AFP<\/em> she had already been charged at least eight times at previous rallies but wanted to protest again ahead of the Supreme Court hearing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am hoping they will come to their senses and agree PA (Palestine Action) should not have been proscribed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Marji Mansfield, 70, a retired financial adviser, said she had previously been arrested about 10 times.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am losing faith in [the] judicial system,\u201d she told AFP.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cBut if they lift the ban, it would be a way out for the government,\u201d Mansfield added, while noting there was currently \u201cno sign\u201d of the ban\u2019s reversal.<\/p>\n

A bestselling Irish author, Sally Rooney, has become embroiled in the controversy, with her publisher Faber revealing this month it can no longer sell her books in the UK because she supports the group.<\/p>\n

Set up in 2020, Palestine Action\u2019s stated goal on its website \u2014 blocked to UK internet users \u2014 is to end \u201cglobal participation in Israel\u2019s genocidal and apartheid regime\u201d.<\/p>\n

It gained visibility after Israel began bombarding Gaza following the October 7, 2023, attack by fighters from the Palestinian group Hamas in southern Israel.<\/p>\n

The group has mainly targeted weapons factories in Britain, especially those belonging to the Israel-based defence group Elbit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

London police arrested Saturday dozens of Palestine Action supporters, who protested there and in Edinburgh days before the Supreme Court hears an appeal over the government\u2019s contentious ban of the group. London\u2019s Metropolitan Police began detaining people shortly after hundreds began a lunchtime \u201cmass action\u201d outside the US Embassy in the British capital, an AFP reporter witnessed. The force said in a mid-afternoon update that 48 people had been arrested and that officers were \u201ccontinuing to make arrests\u201d. \u201cThe majority of arrests have been for expressing support for a proscribed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3602\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}