Hundreds of Palestine Action supporters clashed with police in London after the Government unveiled plans to proscribe it a terrorist organisation.
Protesters gathered at Trafalgar Square on the same day Home Secretary Yvette Cooper drafted a proscription order that would be laid before Parliament on June 30.
If passed, the order would make it illegal to be a member of, or invite support for, Palestine Action — a group that uses direct action tactics to disrupt the arms industry in Britain amid the conflict in Gaza.
It comes a week after two Palestine Action members broke into RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire and damaged two Voyager planes.
Monday’s protest had initially been planned to take place outside Parliament, but the location was changed at the last minute after the Metropolitan Police imposed an exclusion zone.
Hundreds of protesters gathered in Trafalgar Square and chanted “We are all Palestine Action”, as they waved Palestinian flags and held banners which read “Defend the right to protest, drop the charges”.
Sir Mark Rowley, the Met’s commissioner, labelled Palestine Action “an organised extremist criminal group”, adding that he was “shocked and frustrated” that the gathering went ahead.
Scotland Yard said 13 people were arrested. Six were detained for assaulting an emergency worker, while one was held on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offence.
Four people who refused to disperse from the protest at the imposed 3pm cut-off were arrested for breaching Public Order Act conditions.
Two more individuals were held for obstructing a constable in the execution of their duty.
A spokesman for the force said: “While the protest initially began in a peaceful manner, officers faced violence when they went into the crowd to speak to three individuals whose behaviour was arousing suspicion.
“This sequence of events repeated itself on multiple occasions, with officers being surrounded on each occasion they tried to deal with an incident.”
A Holocaust survivor was among those gathered to voice their anger at Palestine Action being proscribed.
Stephen Kapos, 87, who was forced to live under the Nazis in Budapest, told The Standard: “I am here because I am a supporter of the cause of Palestine and against the genocide in Gaza.
“Some of the most heroic protests have been by Palestine Action, though sometimes what they do comes under civil disobedience.”
Another protester, Dr Vanessa Crawford, 61, added: “We immediately change the definition of terrorism to mean humanitarianism.
“A group with humanity trying to stop the killing of children. If that’s what a terrorist is, then we are all terrorists here.”
Palestine Action called the proposed ban “unhinged” and accused Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer of “rank hypocrisy”.
They claim that as a lawyer, Sir Keir defended activists who broke into RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire in 2003 to stop United States bombers heading to Iraq.
Meanwhile, solicitors for the group claim that the terrorism proscription was “unlawful, dangerous and ill thought out”.
But in her statement, Ms Cooper said: “The UK’s defence enterprise is vital to the nation’s national security and this government will not tolerate those that put that security at risk.”
Palestine Action would to join 81 other organisations in being effectively banned in the UK, including the likes of Hamas, the far-right National Action and the Russian Wagner Group.
Being a member of Palestine Action is set carry a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
Israel's response to the massacre of October 7, 2023 has killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, according to Gazan health officials, and destroyed much of the coastal territory.
