London Arrests 325 at Palestine Action Protest as Supreme Court Showdown Nears
London police arrested 325 people outside the U.S. Embassy after hundreds gathered to challenge Britain’s ban on Palestine Action, turning one Saturday demonstration into a mass test of how far the state can push anti-terror law into the realm of political speech. ITV reported the final police tally on Sunday, November 1.
The Metropolitan Police said 320 of those detained were arrested for allegedly expressing support for a proscribed organisation under the Terrorism Act. Its public tally did not specify the grounds for the other five arrests. Officers began carrying demonstrators away shortly after the gathering started in Nine Elms on October 31. Many held the same stark message: “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.”
That sentence now sits at the centre of Britain’s widening civil-liberties crisis. The government outlawed Palestine Action in July 2025 after activists entered RAF Brize Norton and damaged two military aircraft. Proscription made membership, support and some forms of public expression criminal offences carrying sentences of up to 14 years.
A terror law aimed at placards
Saturday’s operation showed the ban’s extraordinary reach. Police did not announce accusations that 320 people planned violence. They arrested them for words and placards interpreted as support for a banned group. Before the protest, Commander Adam Slonecki warned that arrests could extend beyond sign-holders to organisers and people providing logistical help.
The enforcement has transformed the country’s terrorism statistics. Sky News reported that Britain recorded 3,867 arrests for suspected terrorist activity in the year to June, with 94 percent linked to alleged support for Palestine Action. The previous 12 months produced 234 terrorism arrests. A law presented as an exceptional instrument now processes pensioners, lawyers, clergy and other peaceful demonstrators on an industrial scale.
Retired lawyer Charles Allison, 75, travelled from Cumbria to join the protest. “I fear for our civil liberties, which are being devalued and watered down, even by this new Labour Government,” he told the Press Association before officers led him away. “I speak as an ex-lawyer, so it’s uncomfortable for me to break the law deliberately. But I felt that I could do no other.”
Defend Our Juries, which organised the action, said the latest arrests pushed the number detained for defying the ban above 4,000 since July 2025. The Associated Press reported that a parallel vigil took place outside the U.S. Consulate in Edinburgh. Police Scotland reported no arrests at the gathering but said it was reviewing evidence.
The state puts Palestine solidarity on trial
The location sharpened the demonstrators’ argument. Britain and the United States have backed Israel diplomatically and militarily throughout the destruction of Gaza. Washington sanctioned Palestine Action in August and designated it a terrorist organisation. Outside the embassy, London police enforced a British ban against people protesting that alliance.
Ministers insist the proscription targets criminal conduct rather than lawful Palestine solidarity. The Home Office says the Court of Appeal found that Palestine Action carried out terrorist acts, celebrated participants and promoted violence. Yet Saturday’s arrest ledger exposes the unresolved question: whether the state may collapse support for a political campaign, endorsement of property damage and participation in terrorism into one criminal category.
A Supreme Court test after 325 arrests
The Supreme Court will confront that question on November 4. In February, the High Court ruled the ban disproportionate. The Court of Appeal reversed that judgment in June and upheld proscription, sending co-founder Huda Ammori’s challenge to Britain’s highest court. The Guardian documented the protest and the legal stakes.
The justices will not decide in a vacuum. They will hear the case after a single protest generated 325 arrests and after thousands of people entered police custody for displaying political messages. Whatever the ruling, the government has already demonstrated the machinery it built: one designation can convert mass dissent into a terrorism offence, one placard at a time.
Sources: ITV News; Associated Press; The Guardian; Metropolitan Police; and Sky News.
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