86 supporters of outlawed Palestine Action arrested in UK

Police in London arrested 41 people on Saturday who are affiliated with the recently outlawed radical group Palestine Action. An additional 16 people were arrested in Manchester. In total, British police detained 86 supporters of the extremist group across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

"Officers have made 41 arrests for showing support for a proscribed organization. One person has been arrested for common assault," London's Metropolitan Police announced in an official statement.

Prior to the arrests in the British capital, around 50 activists gathered near the statue of former South African President Nelson Mandela outside the British Parliament, holding placards that read: "I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action."

The United Kingdom decided last month to outlaw Palestine Action under the British anti-terrorism laws. London’s decision came after members of the radical anti-Israel group caused damage to two British Air Force planes due to accusations of alleged support by the British government for Israel’s ongoing military operations against the terrorist organization Hamas in the Gaza Strip. 

The British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper condemned the acts of vandalism as “disgraceful.” 

Cooper noted that the extremist group has a “long history” of criminal activities in the United Kingdom, emphasizing that since the Hamas Oct. 7 massacre in 2023, "its activity has increased in frequency and severity."

"The UK's defense enterprise is vital to the nation's national security, and this government will not tolerate those that put that security at risk," Cooper stated at the time. 

The legal action against the Palestine Action group means that it is now defined as a terrorist organization in the same category as USIS, Hamas and al-Qaida. Under British law, members of the Palestine Action group face a potential prison sentence of up to 14 years. 

Individuals who oppose the British legal ban argue that the Palestine Action group has been mainly involved in acts of "vandalism" rather than conventional "terrorism." However, some Palestine Action members have previously clashed with police officers and have also attacked Israeli and Israeli-linked companies in the United Kingdom, such as the Israeli defense firm Elbit Systems.

The common accusation that the British government backs Israel is not supported by the facts on the ground. The current Labour government has been vocal in its criticism of Israel’s military operations against Hamas operatives in Gaza.

In May, the British government announced that it would freeze the free trade talks with the Jewish state due to the Israeli military’s ongoing “Operation Gideon’s Chariots,” claiming that Israel’s military actions caused the “prospect of starvation” among Gaza’s civilian population. 

Israel launched the military operation after Hamas refused to release the remaining Israeli hostages who are still held under very difficult living conditions in Gaza in flagrant violation of international law and fundamental human rights. 

“I want to put on record today that we’re horrified by the escalation from Israel,” the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer stated at the time. 

The British Foreign Secretary David Lammy also blasted the Israeli plan to evacuate Gazan civilians from war zones as “morally unjustifiable, wholly disproportionate and utterly counter-productive.”

In March 2024, the United Kingdom threatened to impose an arms embargo on Israel after Jerusalem denied visitation rights to Hamas's Nukhba terrorists who took part in the Oct. 7 atrocities against Israeli civilians.