British police mentioned they arrested 365 folks in central London on Saturday as supporters of a just lately banned pro-Palestinian group deliberately flouted the legislation as a part of their effort to pressure the federal government to rethink the ban.
Parliament in early July handed a legislation banning Palestine Motion and making it a criminal offense to publicly help the group. That got here after activists broke right into a Royal Air Drive base and vandalized two tanker planes to protest in opposition to Britain’s help for Israel’s offensive in opposition to Hamas within the Gaza Strip.
Backers of the group, who’ve held a collection of protests round the UK over the previous month, argue that the legislation illegally restricts freedom of expression.
Richard Baker /In Photos by way of Getty Pictures
Greater than 500 protesters stuffed the sq. outdoors the Homes of Parliament on Saturday, many daring police to arrest them by displaying indicators studying “I oppose genocide. I help Palestine Motion.” That was sufficient for police to step in.
However because the demonstration started to wind down, police and protest organizers sparred over the variety of arrests because the organizers sought to indicate that the legislation was unworkable.
“The police have solely been capable of arrest a fraction of these supposedly committing ‘terrorism’ offenses, and most of these have been given avenue bail and allowed to go house,” Defend Our Juries, which organized the protest, mentioned in an announcement. “This can be a main embarrassment to (the federal government), additional undermining the credibility of this broadly ridiculed legislation, introduced in to punish these exposing the federal government’s personal crimes.”
London’s Metropolitan Police Service shortly hit again, saying this wasn’t true and that lots of those that gathered within the sq. had been onlookers, media or individuals who did not maintain placards supporting the group.
“We’re assured that anybody who got here to Parliament Sq. right this moment to carry a placard expressing help for Palestine Motion was both arrested or is within the means of being arrested,” the police pressure mentioned in an announcement.
On Friday, police mentioned the demonstration was uncommon in that the protesters wished to be arrested in giant numbers in order to put a pressure on police and the broader legal justice system.
HENRY NICHOLLS/AFP by way of Getty Pictures 
Why is Palestine Motion banned within the U.Okay.?
The federal government moved to ban Palestine Motion after the activists broke right into a British air pressure base in southern England on June 20 to protest British army help for the Israel-Hamas battle. The activists sprayed purple paint into the engines of two tanker planes on the RAF Brize Norton base in Oxfordshire and induced additional injury with crowbars.
Palestine Motion had beforehand focused Israeli protection contractors and different websites within the U.Okay. that they consider have hyperlinks with the Israeli army.
Supporters of the group are difficult the ban in courtroom, saying the federal government has gone too far in declaring Palestine Motion a terrorist group.
Whereas Prime Minister Keir Starmer has angered Israel with plans to acknowledge a Palestinian state later this yr, many Palestinian supporters in Britain criticize the federal government for not doing sufficient to finish the battle in Gaza.
