London police arrest hundreds of pro-Palestinian demonstrators challenge the new British law

British police said they had arrested more than 200 people in central London on Saturday while supporters of a recently prohibited pro-Palestinian group intentionally flouted the law in the context of their efforts to force the government to reconsider the ban.

At the beginning of July, Parliament adopted a law prohibiting action in Palestine and making a crime to publicly support the organization. This came after the militants burst into a royal air force base and vandalized two petroleum planes to protest against the support of Great Britain at the Israel offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The group’s donors, who organized a series of demonstrations across the United Kingdom during the last month, argue that the law illegally limits freedom of expression.

More than 500 demonstrators filled out the place outside the parliament houses on Saturday, many daring police officers arrested them by displaying panels reading “I oppose the genocide. I support the action of Palestine”. It was enough for the police to intervene.

But while the demonstration was starting to end, the police and protest organizers clashed on the number of arrests when the organizers were trying to show that the law was impracticable.

“Police could not stop only a fraction of those who supposedly committed offenses to” terrorism “, and most of them were caused by the street and authorized to return home,” said our juries, who organized the demonstration in a statement. “This is a major embarrassment for (the government), more about the credibility of this largely ridiculed law, led to punish those who expose the own crimes of the government.”

The London Metropolitan Police Service quickly retaliated, saying that it was not true and that many of those who gathered in the place were spectators, media or people who did not hold the group supporting.

“We are convinced that whoever came to the Place du Parliament today to hold a sign expressing his support for action in Palestine has been arrested or is being arrested,” the police said in a statement.

Police said on Friday that the demonstration was unusual insofar as the demonstrators wanted to be arrested in large numbers in order to rupture the police and the wider criminal justice system.

Why the group is banned

The British Labor Government has moved to the ban on Palestine’s action after the activists burst into a British air base in southern England on June 20 to protest British military support for the War of Israel-Hamas. Activists sprayed red paint in the engines of two oil aircraft from the Norton Raf Brize base in the Oxfordshire and caused new damage with crochets.

Palestine Action had previously targeted Israeli defense entrepreneurs and other sites in the United Kingdom who, according to them, have links with the Israeli army.

Supporters of the group dispute the prohibition in court, claiming that the government went too far in the declaration of action in Palestine as a terrorist organization.

“Once the meaning of” terrorism “is separated from the campaigns of violence against a civilian population, and has spread to include those who cause 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,” said our jurors on his website.

Weekend in charge of protests

Arrests outside the Parliament occurred in the midst of what should be a weekend responsible for demonstrations in London as a war in Gaza and concerns concerning the demonstrations and counter-mailifies of immigration across the United Kingdom

While Prime Minister Keir Starmer angry Israel with plans to recognize a Palestinian state later this year, many Palestinian supporters in Great Britain criticize the government for not having done enough to end the war in Gaza.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered on Saturday afternoon in central London for a walk that ended outside the doors of rue Downing n ° 10, the official residence and the Prime Minister’s offices.

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On Sunday, a number of groups are expected to walk in the center of London to demand the safe release of Israeli hostages in Gaza. Palestinian activists have kept the captives since the attackers led by Hamas reached Israel on October 7, 2023.

Police are also preparing for demonstrations outside hotels across the country that are used to house asylum seekers. The demonstrators and the counter-demonstrators have faced themselves outside hotels in recent weeks, some saying that migrants have a risk for their communities and others denounced anti-immigrant racism.

ADE ADELEKAN, deputy deputy assistant commissioner of the metropolitan police, said that the extent of the events “would exert pressure” in the department.

“This will be a particularly busy day in London with many simultaneous events and events that will require a major police presence,” said Adelekan before the start of the demonstrations.