Number of Arrests at Palestine Action Protest Rises to 532

The number of militant activists arrested at a chaotic Palestine Action protest has surged past 530. The Mail has more.

During a day of mayhem and farce, Left-wing protesters swamped London’s Parliament Square on Saturday in support of the organisation, which was proscribed by the Government last month as a terrorist group.

Hundreds held placards declaring “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action” in deliberate “idiotic” acts of law-breaking designed to overwhelm police resources and the courts. 

Last night, the Metropolitan Police announced more than 360 people had been detained following the scenes of disorder – at an estimated cost of about £3 million.

Protesters were accused of a “colossal” waste of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money after seemingly getting deliberately arrested by officers. 

However, in an update on Sunday afternoon, the Met said the number of total arrests had skyrocketed to 532 – with 522 of these being for people allegedly displaying placards supporting the proscribed terror group. …

There were a further 10 arrests, which included six for assaulting police officers, one for racially aggravated public order, two for breaching a Section 14 Public Order Act condition and one for obstructing a constable in the execution of their duties. 

The average age of those detained by police was 54, the force said, with the youngest person cuffed by cops being aged just 17. …

More than 850 officers were deployed on the huge operation, including 120 drafted in to bolster the Met from Wales, Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Cheshire. 

Officers endured a torrent of abuse as they made arrests, with demonstrators screaming “shame on you”, “terrorists” and “fascist scum”. Violent scuffles broke out as officers attempted to lead those arrested away. The Met said none of its officers was seriously injured.

Speaking last night, Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp estimated the police operation and subsequent legal costs to prosecute those arrested, including court time and legal aid, could cost taxpayers up to £3 million.

However, the latest arrests could see this figure soar to more than £4 million. 

The cost comes on top of the more than £53 million that the Met has already spent policing pro-Palestine protests in Central London since the October 7th attacks against Israel in 2023. …

Some activists said they had previously been arrested while demonstrating for eco-militant groups such as Just Stop Oil. …

Legislation to proscribe Palestine Action made it a criminal offence to show support for the organisation, carrying a prison sentence of up to 14 years

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JohnK
8 months ago

14% up compared with the Mail article mentioned in the “roundup”. Did they all happen yesterday, or have they been catching up on prospective culprits? Maybe it’s just as well that they’re planning to deport foreign inmates, to leave enough space in the prisons. That said, the alleged reduced expenditure via deportation might be an illusion.

soundofreason
soundofreason
8 months ago
Reply to  JohnK

I think he illusion is the proposed deportations.

Mogwai
8 months ago

They’re Islam’s ‘useful idiots’, nothing more. With emphasis on ‘idiots’. However, due to their large numbers, and when combined with the Muslims, they do pose a real threat; ”The first – placards screaming “genocide” and pledging solidarity with Palestine Action – shows the Left at its most deluded: loud, self-righteous, and blind to the reality it serves. They pose as rebels “speaking truth to power” but in truth they are mouthpieces for movements that, if ever in control, would tear up their rights, crush their causes, and silence them without a second thought. The second – Muslims gathered in Parliament Square for public prayer – shows the other half of the pact. This is not quiet devotion. It is a visible show of unity, identity, and territorial confidence, staged in the symbolic heart of Britain’s political life. A demonstration that their faith and community are strong, organised, and unafraid to claim space in the nation’s civic core. One side provides the useful idiots – the activists, NGOs, and student radicals who dress the cause in the language of “justice” and “human rights.” The other provides the strategic vision – patient, disciplined, and rooted in an unshakable belief that their worldview… Read more »

Richard Austin
Richard Austin
8 months ago
Reply to  Mogwai

Queers For Palestine says it all.

MajorMajor
MajorMajor
8 months ago
Reply to  Mogwai

Muslims might be praying at Parliament Square but their solidarity does not seem to extend to giving the Palestinians refuge in any of the neighbouring Muslim countries.

Roy Everett
8 months ago

Presumably as the Green Scam collapses, the protestors will move towards the latest fashionable target. The current generation of seasoned and apprentice protestors contains both newbie middle-class Waitrose-shopping students and ageing working class protestors from Old Labour, veterans of the Miners’ Strikes) In my own student years the pressure groups were opposing the Vietnam War and the Nuclear Deterrent. In my children’s student years the fashion was Global Warming (later “Climate Change”). In my children’s student years it is this new anti-Israel, pro-Palestine movement. Nothing much changes save the extent of video coverage: it is the usual “useful idiots” who do not realise how much they are being used by well-organised movements. There is still the contrast between the beautifully printed, laminated and distributed left-wing placards and the general public’s which are hastily-penned, Sellotaped and passed around just before setting out. Perhaps the organisers nowadays are more from the Islamic world of the 2020s rather than the Communist world of the 1920s?

Ordinarily, I would say that public protesting is a right-of-passage for the young; however, this time round the mood of the general public, as opposed to vocal youth, seems much more angry.

stewart
8 months ago

I don’t like their cause, personally.

But I am vigorously opposed to the government arresting people for speaking and protesting (even if in favour of a so called proscribed terrorist group.)

It’s just a question of time before something we believe in is also considered illegal.

Arum
Arum
8 months ago
Reply to  stewart

I agree the government has made a mistake proscribing Palestine Action, and it’s made a rod for its own back. I expect what will happen is that the continued demonstrations will stretch the police to such an extent that the organisation gets de-listed as a terrorist group, thus sending the message that if you have enough support, the law doesn’t apply. Something to do with tiers.

JDee
JDee
8 months ago
Reply to  stewart

Why does supporting an organisation which supports the destruction of Israel, read the Hamas charter, count as free speech ?

JDee
JDee
8 months ago
Reply to  JDee

The saying ; I might disagree with you, but I will defend your right to say it. Needs to be reciprocal. I do not believe it extends to I disagree with your support for a group whose stated aim is to wipe another group out, but I will support your right to say it. Partly because whose to say they won’t come for me next .

JDee
JDee
8 months ago
Reply to  JDee

If it’s not reciprocal then it’s just foolishly letting someone get the better of you.

stewart
8 months ago
Reply to  JDee

Why is it not reciprocal?

Heretic
Heretic
8 months ago
Reply to  JDee

Inciting rape, murder and seizing hostages for ransom is not “Freedom of Speech”.

stewart
8 months ago
Reply to  JDee

Depends what you mean by support.

People should be allowed speak up in support of whatever they chose.

I want that for.myself, so I have to defend it for others too.

stewart
8 months ago
Reply to  JDee

Incidentally, I know I will instantly be attacked for making this point, possibly be called anti-Semite, even though it couldn’t be further from the truth, but has anyone stopped to consider what is the difference between Hamas, Palestinians, Iranians, whoever declaring they don’t want the state of Israel and Israel (and other countries, like the US) actively opposing the creation of a Palestinian state – the famous two state solution.

It seems to me that in both cases each is denying the other the right to exist.

And yet, I only see one being branded terrorists and seemingly being denied even the right to express that view, in the UK at least.

Seems somewhat one sided.

I’m fully prepared for the pile on. I wonder if any of the rebuttals will be measured and reasonable or mostly emotional responses in the form of ad hominem and straw man arguments.

brachiopod
8 months ago
Reply to  stewart

Of course, everyone conveniently forgets that when ‘Israel’ was created, the Palestine was also ‘created’. The two state solutions has just been about how much the Palestinians should be allowed to keep, some say none some say all.The extant UN Resolution 242 says that Israel’s occupation of Gaza, the West Bank, the Golan Heights etc are illegal and Israel should leave…..but AIPAC
It isn’t that there is no two-state solution possible, it is legally there but one side refuses to accept it and has been chipping away at the maps since Balfour because g o d

brachiopod
8 months ago
Reply to  JDee

Find and watch Dr John Mearsheimer’s explanation of the rise of Israel. It is necessary illumination on the conflict.

Westfieldmike
Westfieldmike
8 months ago
Reply to  stewart

So the October the 7th slaughter was ok by you?

Mogwai
8 months ago
Reply to  Westfieldmike

They should’ve just brought the water cannons in. Get rid of the human crud that’s stuck stubbornly to the ground. That’d surely work out cheaper and free up a large percentage of wasted manpower.
But they got exactly what they wanted, objectives met, which was to “overwhelm the police”. Crazy amount of money pissed up the wall due to these unhinged, traitorous Libtards.
Now, career criminals just need to check out when the next Lefty protest is and be rest assured they can get on with their robbing, and whatnot, because all police resources will be held up elsewhere.

stewart
8 months ago
Reply to  Westfieldmike

That’s a bit of a straw man, isn’t it? Not sure how anything I’ve written can be understood as me suggesting the October 7th massacre was ok by me. Or any massacre for that matter.

brachiopod
8 months ago
Reply to  Westfieldmike

Of course not. It would have been prevented by the IDF if warnings hadn’t been studiously ignored, a blind eye turned, and standing orders on regular border inspections allegedly stood down between 05:30 and 09:30 on 7th October.

modularist
8 months ago
Reply to  stewart

I concur, but I think those who desire it can forget about seeing these protestors getting the Lucy Connolly/Peter Lynch treatment.

For a fist full of roubles

I fail to see how any of this will have even the minutest effect on the conflict in Gaza. They may think they are martyrs but they are simply blunt tools in the hands of activists.

Richard Austin
Richard Austin
8 months ago

A woman is in jail for 21 months for a Tweet. These hundreds are supporting terrorism. How many sentences in excess of a Tweet will there be?

MajorMajor
MajorMajor
8 months ago
Reply to  Richard Austin

Ah, we can be sure that these protesters will be treated with maximum leniency. A warning, worst case.
They are the right sort of protesters, like BLM and the climate vandals.

Heretic
Heretic
8 months ago
Reply to  MajorMajor

Yes, most have already been granted bail, not remanded in Coercive Custody for months on end like Lucy Connolly…

Jonathan M
Jonathan M
8 months ago
Reply to  Richard Austin

The square root of zero.

Zipp0
Zipp0
8 months ago

Special court, take them to a camp on a remote Scottish Island.

Throw away the key

Heretic
Heretic
8 months ago

Well done those police officers!
532 arrested so far— it really warms the cockles of my heart. 🙂

Gezza England
Gezza England
8 months ago

Send the bill to the Far Lefties that fund the Palestine Action terrorist lovers.

Bettina
Bettina
8 months ago

If they are all sent down for 31 months each, there would be no more protests in support of terrorist groups.

RTSC
RTSC
8 months ago

Good.

Why hasn’t Bob Vylan been arrested? Somerset Police hoping we’ll forget?

Richard
Richard
8 months ago

Sorry to throw a large spanner into the works, but I have to defend this protest. It strikes me this is total hypocrisy. Whether or not the the readers of the DS (i.e the right) like it or not in a democracy they (i.R the left) are entitled to their opinion as much as we are and declaring a bunch of ordinary people, including a large amount of grannies who wouldn’t know a bomb from bullet, a terrorist organisation, because a couple of hotheads threw paint over an aircraft is about as a politically motivated, undemocratic action as you can make. One has to wonder if The Greenham Common protesters would in today’s climate have been banned as terrorists The basis of democracy is summed up in Voltaire – I may disagree with every word that you say but I will defend with my life your right to say it! Shutting them down and throwing them in jail is the action of a totalitarian state and now they have 500+ martyrs so they won’t be going away anytime soon.

brachiopod
8 months ago

I am told that under international law you have the right to fight a foreign force that invades your country (cf Ukraine and the Russian SMO) so why does this not apply in Gaza or the West Bank or Lebanon or Syria?

REG1US
REG1US
8 months ago

Imagine the chagrin of these brain washed idiots when they travel say, to the USA or Australia and their entry is rejected at the border due to having been arrested if not cautioned or even charged with such an offence.