London: Police in London arrested at least 365 people Saturday for supporting Palestine Action, at the latest and largest protest backing the group since the government banned it last month under anti-terror laws.
The Metropolitan Police said it made the hundreds of arrests, thought to be one of the highest ever at a single protest in the UK capital, for “supporting a proscribed organisation”.
It also arrested seven for other offences including assaults on officers, though none were seriously injured, it added.
The government outlawed Palestine Action in early July days after it took responsibility for a break-in at an air force base in southern England that caused an estimated £7 million ($9.3 million) of damage to two aircraft.
The group said its activists were responding to Britain’s indirect military support for Israel amid the war in Gaza.
Britain’s interior ministry reiterated ahead of Saturday’s protests that Palestine Action is also suspected of other “serious attacks” that involved “violence, significant injuries and extensive criminal damage”.
But critics, including the United Nations and NGOs like Amnesty International and Greenpeace, have lambasted the move as legal overreach and a threat to free speech.
– ‘Unprecedented’ –
A group called Defend Our Juries, which organised Saturday’s protests and previous demonstrations against the ban, said “unprecedented numbers” had risked “arrest and possible imprisonment” to “defend this country’s ancient liberties”.
“We will keep going. Our numbers are already growing for the next wave of action in September,” it added.
Attendees began massing near parliament at lunchtime bearing signs saying “oppose genocide, support Palestine Action” and other slogans, and waving Palestinian flags.
Psychotherapist Craig Bell, 39, was among those holding a placard.
He branded the ban “absolutely ridiculous”.
“When you compare Palestine Action with an actual terrorist group who are killing civilians and taking lives, it’s just a joke that they’re being prescribed a terrorist group,” he told AFP.