Twenty-nine people have been arrested after protesters gathered in central London holding signs referencing Palestine Action a day after the group was banned as a terrorist organisation.
The direct action protest group was banned on Friday after a last-minute legal attempt to suspend the group’s proscription under anti-terrorism laws failed. It means that, from Saturday, being a member of, or expressing support for, the organisation became a criminal offence, punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
The campaign group Defend Our Juries, which organised the demonstration, said “a priest, an emeritus professor and a number of health professionals” were among those arrested.
More than two dozen people gathered close to the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Parliament Square, holding signs that appeared to express support for the group.
At about 1.40pm, Metropolitan police officers began arresting people who were holding the signs.
In a statement on X, the Met said: “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.”
The force posted another update on X on Saturday evening to say 29 arrests had been made and added that those arrested remain in custody.
A spokesperson for Defend Our Juries said: “We commend the counter-terrorism police for their decisive action in protecting the people of London from some cardboard signs opposing the genocide in Gaza and expressing support for those taking action to prevent it. It’s a relief to know that counter-terrorism police have nothing better to do.”
On Friday, the group wrote to the Met commissioner, Mark Rowley, to give him advance warning of the demonstration.
Before officers made arrests, the Guardian spoke to some of the demonstrators.
Tim Crosland, of Defend Our Juries, said: “What we’re doing here as a group of priests, teachers, health workers, human rights lawyers [is] we’re refusing to be silenced. Because it goes to the core of what we believe in: that we oppose genocide – I didn’t think that was that controversial – and we support the people who resist genocide.
“In theory we are now terrorist supporters and can go to prison for 14 years, which is kind of crazy. I think what we are here to do is just expose the craziness of that.”
An environmental campaigner, Donnachadh McCarthy, said: “To proscribe an organisation of peaceful direct action as terrorists is a huge red line for our democracy. It means that all the rest of us, whether we’re climate activists, Greenpeace, women’s suffragettes, disabled activists, it means that the government can now declare any act of property damage to be terrorism, which gives you a sentence of 14 years.
“This is worse than Putin’s Russia. I don’t say that lightly. It’s 10 years for doing what we’re doing today in Russia; it’s 14 years in the UK, because of Yvette Cooper’s outrageous betrayal of democracy, liberalism, and what is in my view a step towards fascism.”
A retired priest, Sue Parfitt, 83, said the group’s ban was “a very dangerous move that has to be challenged”.
“We are losing our civil liberties, we must stop that for everybody’s sake. Whatever you want to protest about,” she said.
Cooper, the home secretary, Cooper announced plans to ban Palestine Action late last month, days after activists from the group broke into RAF Brize Norton and defaced two military aircraft with spray paint.
MPs voted in favour of proscribing the group on Wednesday. The House of Lords backed the move without a vote on Thursday.
UN experts, civil liberties groups, cultural figures and hundreds of lawyers have condemned the ban as draconian and said it sets a dangerous precedent by conflating protest with terrorism.
The ban means Palestine Action has become the first direct action protest group to be banned under the Terrorism Act, placing it in the same category as Islamic State, al-Qaida and the far-right group National Action.
