Protesters holding signs supporting Palestine Action risk prosecution for two Terrorism Act offences of supporting a terrorist group and using images or placards showing their support.
If convicted under section 13 of the Terrorism Act, the most likely penalties are fines, community orders or conditional discharges. However, it can carry a maximum sentence of six months in jail.
Organisers have a pre-arranged law firm, Hodge, Jones & Allen, to help those arrested. Protesters are advised to give “no comment” interviews.
Organisers estimate 1,000 attendees in London
About 1,000 people have joined the demonstration in London to overturn the Palestine Action ban, according to the organisers, Defend Our Juries.
This is less than the 1,500 individuals the group said it anticipated would join the silent vigil.
A spokesman said that throughout the course of the day, the names of 18,500 “Palestinian children slaughtered by Israeli military are being read out, one by one“.
The protest has so far been peaceful, with some minor scuffles breaking out at the fringes as officers make room to carry out their arrests.
‘Israel is repeating Second World War’
David Barry, 79, from Hastings, is taking part in the protest directly in front of Nelson’s Column.
Barry, who was terminally ill with heart failure, said he was a Jewish man who believed what was happening in Gaza was wrong.
“Israel is repeating history and doing what was done during the Second World War,” he said.
“I want to support the people in Palestine and resist this ridiculous idea that Palestine Action is a terrorist group.”
He said the attack at the Manchester synagogue this week was not a reason to suspend the protest, adding it was important to have freedom of expression and not to give in to terrorism.
Police arrest vicar at London protest
Police arrested a vicar who was sat in Trafalgar Square holding a poster declaring support for the banned group Palestine Action.
Officers carried the woman out of the crowd in Trafalgar Square after she did not respond to requests to stand up.
People in the crowd shouted “shameful” as the woman was taken away, Press Association reported.
Israeli strikes kill Gazans amid Hamas ceasefire progress
More than 67,000 Palestinians have died in Gaza since the war began two years ago, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
The death toll was updated by officials on Saturday, after Hamas said it accepted parts of President Trump’s peace plan including the release of Israeli hostages.
Israel struck Gaza on Saturday, local authorities told Reuters, after Trump’s call for an immediate halt to the bombing.
Israeli fire was said to have killed six people across the Gaza Strip. One strike killed four people in a house in Gaza City, while another killed two others in Khan Younis in the south, medical workers and local authorities said.
Manchester protest commemorates children of Gaza
In St Peter’s Square in Manchester a number of stalls have been set up for the group Greater Manchester Friends of Palestine.
Nearby a woman is reading out the names of children who have died in Gaza into a microphone, as police prepare for the arrival of the demonstrators.
One officer said: “They are on their way.”
Observers outnumber the hundreds of protesters
BEN MONTGOMERY FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES
Trafalgar Square is busy but many of the people here appear to be supporters and observers rather than participants in the protest.
There are several hundred people expressing support for Palestine Action. Police are continuing to make arrests, including several elderly people who have been carried or led away to a processing area near St James’s Park.
Near St Nelson’s column a women’s choir has started singing Bella Ciao, the Italian anti-fascist folk song.
In pictures: Police arrest six on Westminster Bridge
Protesters unfurled a banner on Westminster Bridge as part of the demonstration organised by Defend our Juries
STEFAN ROUSSEAU/PA
Met begins removing those holding signs
Police have begun making the first arrests of the main group of protestors. Dozens of officers have marched over to the square and lifted up activists holding signs in support of Palestine Action.
Most of the protesters go limp when it comes to the arrest, requiring at least four or five officers to pick them up and take them to a processing area nearby.
BEN MONTGOMERY FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES
As officers stream in, the nearby crowd applauds those being arrested and shout: “Met Police, shame on you!”
Protests take place across Europe
Pro-Palestinian protests are taking place today in Spain, Italy and Portugal.
Thousands of people are marching in Barcelona to call for an end to the war in Gaza, with further demonstrations planned at several other Spanish cities including Madrid.
Marches are set to take place in Rome and Lisbon later in response to Israel’s interception of the humanitarian aid flotilla and the arrest of activists including Greta Thunberg.
Police warn campaigners in Trafalgar Square
Police have begun entering the protest area and warning protesters that they could be arrested and searched.
In line with the advice of organisers, protesters are refusing to speak to police or answer questions.
The crowd are surrounded by vocal supporters and people filming the interactions.
‘Lift the Ban’ protest begins
As the clock strikes one, several hundred protesters have taken their seats in Trafalgar Square and have begun writing their message on blank placards: “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.”
They are watched by dozens of police officers standing nearby, lined up in formation ready to swoop in and arrest those believed to be supporting a proscribed terrorist organisation.
At first glance, it seems as though there are far fewer than the 1,500 protesters that were anticipated this morning.
Jewish protester criticises proscription
Elizabeth Morley, 79, travelled from Wales for the London protest. On her lapel is a Palestinian flag badge and in her hands is a sign that says “I oppose genocide”. The rest has been left blank in anticipation for the protest to begin at 1pm.
Morley said she was Jewish and that her parents fled the Holocaust from their native Hungary.
“I have always supported Palestine and I think it’s wrong that the government has turned protestors who opposed a genocide into a terrorist organisation,” she said.
Organisers hope to break mass arrest record
The London protest is going ahead despite pleas from the Metropolitan Police to cancel the demonstration.
The force said that the manpower needed to arrest as many as 1,500 people would divert resources away from protecting synagogues and mosques after the synagogue attack in Manchester on Thursday.
Defend Our Juries, the organisers, said: “The protection of our democracy and the prevention of countless deaths are critical issues. Therefore, our protest will go ahead as planned.”
If 1,500 people are arrested today in Trafalgar Square, it has the potential to be the largest mass arrest event in modern British history.
The previous record number of arrests at a single event was 1,314, made by the Metropolitan Police during the Committee of 100’s anti-nuclear demonstration in Trafalgar Square in 1961.
First arrests made in London
The first six arrests for supporting Palestine Action have been made before the planned demonstration began.
At about midday, a group of six people unfurled a banner declaring support for Palestine Action on Westminster Bridge.
ANDREA DOMENICONI/STORY PICTURE AGENCY
A statement from the Met Police said that officers were “quickly on scene, the banner had been removed and the six people involved have been arrested for supporting a proscribed organisation”.
London campaigners risk arrest with placards
Participants in the London protest are asked to hold signs with the same wording as past demonstrations: “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.”
Such a sign potentially breaches the Terrorism Act for showing support for a proscribed organisation.
Organisers have asked protesters to bring a blank placard which they will write on before sitting down in Trafalgar Square from 1pm.
They are hoping for more than 1,500 people to take part.
Crowd gathers in Manchester city centre for Gaza march
About 50 pro-Palestinian demonstrators have gathered in a car park by Manchester Cathedral in the city centre, holding a banner reading “Stop Arming Israel”.
The group intends to march to St Peter’s Square, by the Central Library, close to where preparations are currently being made for the Conservative Party conference. About ten counterprotesters have arrived with a banner reading: “F**k Hamas.”
Demonstrators assemble at Manchester Cathedral
RYAN JENKINSON/PA
Organisers and police prepare in Trafalgar Square
In just under an hour a protest in support of the proscribed group Palestine Action will get underway in central London. Defend Our Juries, who organised the event, said it was expecting about 1,500 people to turn up to Trafalgar Square today.
In the square right now, there are few signs of the mass demonstration that is to come. Tourists are milling around outside the National Gallery and a nearby busker is singing My Way by Frank Sinatra.
But alongside the edge of the square, dozens of police vans are parked and waiting, including the Territorial Support Group and police from the City of London, who are supporting the Met today.
JAMES VEYSEY/SHUTTERSTOCK
At the group’s past protest on September 6, almost 900 people were detained, 857 of those for showing support for a proscribed organisation.
Labour lacks power to stop protests at critical time
Sir Keir Starmer and Shabana Mahmood are decent, deeply committed public servants who have formed strong bonds with Jewish communities in Britain (John Woodcock writes).
So when the prime minister and the home secretary promised to do “whatever it takes” to keep British Jews safe in the aftermath of Thursday’s heinous attack on Heaton Park Synagogue, it is clear their pledge was genuinely meant.
But will it make a difference in this dark hour? The frightening reality of life for so many Jews in Britain, and the deadening sense of doubt that the country still has their back, shows how much the government will need to raise its game to make good on its promise.
• Read in full: Allowing protests does little to uphold PM’s promise to British Jews
Police increase patrols around Manchester
Greater Manchester police have stepped up patrols at synagogues in the area to reassure the Jewish community after the terror attack that killed two people.
A spokesman said: “We’re continuing to respond effectively to emergencies in the region while ensuring that every available officer in Greater Manchester is currently deployed to provide reassurance, particularly amongst our Jewish communities, at what is a time of profound distress and sorrow.
“We have been patrolling places of worship across the city-region, with a particular focus on providing a high-visibility presence within our Jewish communities in north Manchester, Bury and Salford.”
Marches risk ‘taking police resources’ from protecting Jews, warns charity
It is “phenomenally tone deaf” for pro-Palestine protests to go ahead after the Manchester synagogue attack, a leader of the Community Security Trust said.
Dave Rich, director of policy at the charity which provides security to the Jewish community, told the Radio 4 Today programme: “I think it’s phenomenally tone deaf, to say the least, for so many people who claim to care about human rights and care about freedoms, to be taking police resources away from protecting the rights and freedoms of Jewish people to live their lives and go to synagogue in safety, all to support a proscribed terrorist organisation, which is not the same thing as supporting the Palestinians. The two are not the same.
“And I think it’s remarkably self-absorbed and insensitive to say the least.”
Protests would be ‘grossly insensitive to Jewish community’
It is “disgraceful” that pro-Palestine marches are set to go ahead after the Heaton Park synagogue attack, the shadow home secretary has said.
Chris Philp, a Conservative former policing minister, told BBC Breakfast: “I don’t think these protests should go ahead at all.
“I think it’s extremely insensitive, grossly insensitive to the Jewish community in Manchester, but across the whole United Kingdom, who are still grieving following the appalling murder that we saw on Thursday morning.
“And secondly both the police in Greater Manchester but also the Metropolitan Police in London have said that the resources, the police resources required to police these protests mean they may not be able to properly protect synagogues and the Jewish community at this obviously very sensitive time.
We will stand up for Gaza, says campaigner
A member of Defend Our Juries, the group behind a pro-Palestine protest in London today, said it would be “unwise” to heed calls to cancel it.
The human rights campaigner Sir Jonathon Porritt told the Radio 4 Today programme: “I have no doubt whatsoever that everyone taking part in the Defend Our Juries silent vigil today will demonstrate huge respect and real grief for those affected by the absolute atrocity at Heaton Park [synagogue].
“But I don’t think that means that we should be asked to give up on our right to stand up for those who are being devastated by an ongoing, real-time genocide in Gaza.”
Asked about calls from politicians to delay the protest, he said: “I think that would be an unwise move for Defend Our Juries. We’ve been persistent in trying to bring these concerns to the attention of the government.”
Hatred and violence will never win, says Starmer
Sir Keir Starmer has urged those considering protesting today to “respect the grief of British Jews” as this is “not a time to stoke tension and cause further pain” after the attack on a Manchester synagogue on Thursday.
The prime minister wrote on X this morning: “This is a moment of mourning. It is not a time to stoke tension and cause further pain. It is a time to stand together.
“We are a country that welcomes all people, no matter their faith, to stand under the same flag as neighbours and friends.
“That is who we are and who we will always be. Hatred and violence will never win.”