Demonstrators gather in British capital for second week in a row in support of recently banned activism group.<\/p>\n
United Kingdom police have arrested dozens of people at a protest in London calling for a ban on the campaign group Palestine Action<\/a> to be lifted.<\/p>\n The protest at London\u2019s Parliament Square on Saturday was the latest demonstration against the UK\u2019s crackdown on Palestinian rights activism.<\/p>\n \u201cOfficers have made 41 arrests for showing support for a proscribed organisation. One person has been arrested for common assault,\u201d London\u2019s Metropolitan Police said in a statement.<\/p>\n The arrests followed last Saturday\u2019s detention of 29 people, including a priest and some health professionals, who had gathered at Parliament Square after a last-ditch legal bid<\/a> to stop the group from being proscribed under \u201canti-terrorism<\/a>\u201d legislation failed.<\/p>\n The ban, which cleared Parliament in early July, was passed after activists broke into a military base last month and sprayed red paint on two planes in protest at the UK\u2019s support for Israel\u2019s war on Gaza, which leading rights groups have described as a genocide<\/a>.<\/p>\n The move has raised fears about freedom of expression in the country, putting Palestine Action on a par with armed groups like al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS) in the UK, making it a criminal offence to support or be part of the protest group, punishable by up to 14 years in prison.<\/p>\n Protesters at this week\u2019s demonstration had gathered near a statue of former South African President Nelson Mandela outside the British Parliament, silently holding up placards saying \u201cI oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.\u201d<\/p>\n The last of the protesters was lifted from the Nelson Mandela statue shortly after 2:30pm local time (13:30 GMT).<\/p>\n Campaign group Defend Our Juries, which had announced it was holding rallies in several UK cities, called the ban \u201cOrwellian\u201d \u2013 a reference to the late English writer George Orwell, who wrote about totalitarianism and social injustice.<\/p>\n \u201cWho do the police think they are serving in this?\u201d challenged a spokesperson.<\/p>\n Defend Our Juries posted on X that police had also made arrests at other demonstrations in support of Palestine Action in Manchester, Cardiff and in Northern Ireland. Police have not yet confirmed the alleged arrests.<\/p>\n Launched in July 2020, Palestine Action says it uses \u201cdisruptive tactics\u201d to target \u201ccorporate enablers\u201d and companies involved in weapons manufacture for Israel, such as Israel-based Elbit Systems and French multinational Thales.<\/p>\n