LONDON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0London police said Sunday that 532 people were arrested the previous day when supporters of a pro-Palestinian group recently outlawed as a terrorist organization intentionally broke the law to test the government\u2019s ability to enforce the ban.<\/p>\n
The Metropolitan Police Service released the updated figures as a separate group of protesters, demanding the immediate release of the remaining Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip, held its own march through central London on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n
The vast majority of those detained Saturday were arrested for displaying placards declaring their support for the banned group, known as Palestine Action. Police updated their earlier totals and said 522 people were arrested for supporting a proscribed organization in violation of anti-terrorism laws. Ten others were arrested on a variety of charges, including assaulting and obstructing police officers.<\/p>\n
Supporters of Palestine Action staged the protest to underscore their contention that the government is illegally restricting freedom of expression by banning a direct-action organization that has challenged its policies.<\/p>\n
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, who oversees law enforcement in Britain, rejected that characterization, saying Palestine Action was outlawed after committing serious attacks involving violence, significant injuries and extensive criminal damage.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe right to protest is one we protect fiercely but this is very different from displaying support for this one specific and narrow, proscribed organization,\u201d Cooper said in a statement. \u201cMany people may not yet know the reality of this organization, but the assessments are very clear, this is not a nonviolent organization,\u201d<\/p>\n
Police released updated information on the Palestine Action protest after the front pages of Sunday newspapers featured photos of elderly protesters being carted off by officers.<\/p>\n
One of those was La Pethick, an 89-year-old retired psychotherapist, who told the Times of London that she had the support of her five grandchildren. \u201cWe are having our right to peaceful protest being taken away,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Almost half of those arrested were over the age of 60, according to figures released by the Metropolitan Police Service. <\/p>\n
Police said the process of deciding whether to file charges against those arrested is likely to take weeks as officers from the Met\u2019s Counter Terrorism Command put together case files and seek approval from prosecutors and, in some cases, the attorney general.<\/p>\n
Parliament voted to ban Palestine Action after activists broke into a Royal Air Force base and damaged two tanker planes to protest British support for the war in Gaza. Palestine Action previously targeted Israeli defense contractors and other sites in Britain that it believes have links with the Israeli military.<\/p>\n
Supporters of Palestine Action are challenging the ban in court, saying the government has gone too far in declaring the group a terrorist organization.<\/p>\n
More than 500 protesters filled the square outside the Houses of Parliament on Saturday, many daring police to arrest them by displaying signs reading, \u201cI oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.\u201d That was enough for police to step in.<\/p>\n
As the demonstration began to wind down, police and protest organizers disagreed over the number of arrests, as the organizers sought to show that the law was unworkable.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe police have only been able to arrest a fraction of those supposedly committing \u2018terrorism\u2019 offenses, and most of those have been given street bail and allowed to go home,\u201d Defend Our Juries, which organized the protest, said in a statement. \u201cThis is a major embarrassment to [the government], further undermining the credibility of this widely ridiculed law, brought in to punish those exposing the government\u2019s own crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n
London\u2019s Metropolitan Police Service rejected that assertion, saying that many of those gathered in the square were onlookers, media members or people who didn\u2019t hold placards supporting the group.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are confident that anyone who came to Parliament Square today to hold a placard expressing support for Palestine Action was either arrested or is in the process of being arrested,\u201d the police force said in a statement Saturday.<\/p>\n
On Friday, police said the demonstration was unusual in that the protesters wanted to be arrested in large numbers to place a strain on police and the criminal justice system.<\/p>\n
The government moved to ban Palestine Action after the activists broke into an air force base in southern England on June 20. The activists sprayed red paint into the engines of two tanker planes at the RAF Brize Norton base in Oxfordshire and caused further damage with crowbars.<\/p>\n
Supporters of the group are challenging the ban in court, saying the government has gone too far in declaring Palestine Action a terrorist organization.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce the meaning of \u2018terrorism\u2019 is separated from campaigns of violence against a civilian population, and extended to include those causing economic damage or embarrassment to the rich, the powerful and the criminal, then the right to freedom of expression has no meaning and democracy is dead,\u201d Defend Our Juries said on its website.<\/p>\n
Though Prime Minister Keir Starmer has angered Israel with plans to recognize a Palestinian state later this year, many Palestinian supporters in Britain criticize the government for not doing enough to end the war in Gaza.<\/p>\n
Pro-Palestinian protesters gathered Saturday afternoon in central London for a march that ended outside the gates of 10 Downing St., the prime minister\u2019s official residence and offices.<\/p>\n
Sunday\u2019s march in London called for the release of some 50 hostages still being held by the militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip, of whom about 20 are believed to be alive. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are united in one clear and urgent demand: the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages,\u201d Stop the Hate, a coalition of groups organizing the march, said in a statement. \u201cRegardless of our diverse political views, this is not a political issue \u2014 it is a human one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Police were also preparing for protests outside hotels across the U.K. that are being used to house asylum seekers. Protesters and counterprotesters have squared off outside the hotels in recent weeks, with some saying the migrants pose a risk to their communities and others decrying what they see as anti-immigrant racism.<\/p>\n
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ade Adelekan said the scale of the events would \u201cput pressure\u201d on the police department.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is going to be a particularly busy few days in London with many simultaneous protests and events that will require a significant policing presence,\u201d Adelekan said before the protests began.<\/p>\n
Kirka writes for the Associated Press. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0London police said Sunday that 532 people were arrested the previous day when supporters of a pro-Palestinian group…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[2865,748,22228,393,2194,1234,4884,119753,119754,257,119756,457,529,12184,18744,119755,34389,21029,16,15,771],"class_list":{"0":"post-334209","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-activist","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-central-london","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-gaza","13":"tag-government","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-group-palestine-action","16":"tag-hostage","17":"tag-london","18":"tag-mideast-tension","19":"tag-people","20":"tag-police","21":"tag-prime-minister","22":"tag-protest","23":"tag-protester","24":"tag-release","25":"tag-saturday","26":"tag-uk","27":"tag-united-kingdom","28":"tag-war"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115006810028871867","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}