British police stated they arrested 365 individuals in central London on Saturday as supporters of a not too long ago banned pro-Palestinian group deliberately flouted the legislation as a part of their effort to drive the federal government to rethink the ban.
Parliament in early July handed a legislation banning Palestine Motion and making it against the law to publicly help the group. That got here after activists broke right into a Royal Air Pressure base and vandalized two tanker planes to protest in opposition to Britain’s help for Israel’s offensive in opposition to Hamas within the Gaza Strip.
Backers of the group, who’ve held a collection of protests round the UK over the previous month, argue that the legislation illegally restricts freedom of expression.
Richard Baker /In Photos by way of Getty Photos
Greater than 500 protesters stuffed the sq. outdoors the Homes of Parliament on Saturday, many daring police to arrest them by displaying indicators studying “I oppose genocide. I help Palestine Motion.” That was sufficient for police to step in.
However because the demonstration started to wind down, police and protest organizers sparred over the variety of arrests because the organizers sought to indicate that the legislation was unworkable.
“The police have solely been in a position to arrest a fraction of these supposedly committing ‘terrorism’ offenses, and most of these have been given avenue bail and allowed to go dwelling,” Defend Our Juries, which organized the protest, stated in an announcement. “This can be a main embarrassment to (the federal government), additional undermining the credibility of this extensively ridiculed legislation, introduced in to punish these exposing the federal government’s personal crimes.”
London’s Metropolitan Police Service shortly hit again, saying this wasn’t true and that lots of those that gathered within the sq. had been onlookers, media or individuals who did not maintain placards supporting the group.
“We’re assured that anybody who got here to Parliament Sq. at present to carry a placard expressing help for Palestine Motion was both arrested or is within the means of being arrested,” the police drive stated in an announcement.
On Friday, police stated the demonstration was uncommon in that the protesters wished to be arrested in massive numbers in order to position a pressure on police and the broader felony justice system.
HENRY NICHOLLS/AFP by way of Getty Photos 
Why is Palestine Motion banned within the U.Ok.?
The federal government moved to ban Palestine Motion after the activists broke right into a British air drive base in southern England on June 20 to protest British navy help for the Israel-Hamas warfare. The activists sprayed purple paint into the engines of two tanker planes on the RAF Brize Norton base in Oxfordshire and triggered additional harm with crowbars.
Palestine Motion had beforehand focused Israeli protection contractors and different websites within the U.Ok. that they imagine have hyperlinks with the Israeli navy.
Supporters of the group are difficult the ban in court docket, saying the federal government has gone too far in declaring Palestine Motion a terrorist group.
Whereas Prime Minister Keir Starmer has angered Israel with plans to acknowledge a Palestinian state later this 12 months, many Palestinian supporters in Britain criticize the federal government for not doing sufficient to finish the warfare in Gaza.
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