Hundreds of people gather in Trafalgar Square for demonstration, as elderly woman with cane is escorted away by police.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Published On 11 Apr 2026<\/span>11 Apr 2026<\/span><\/p>\n |<\/span><\/p>\n Updated: an hour ago<\/span>Updated: an hour ago<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n London, United Kingdom<\/strong> \u2013 Police have arrested hundreds of people during a mass vigil in central London to oppose the ban on campaign group Palestine Action.<\/p>\n More than 1,000 people gathered in Trafalgar Square for the demonstration on Saturday, with many holding signs saying, \u201cI oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.\u201d<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n Police carried many people away from the demonstration. At one point, an elderly woman with walking sticks was escorted away by police.<\/p>\n The Metropolitan Police said they arrested 212 people for allegedly showing support for a proscribed orgnanisation.<\/p>\n It said the ages of those arrested range from 27 to 82.<\/p>\n One demonstrator told Al Jazeera he was taking part in the vigil because he \u201cbelieved in the democracy\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI think Britain has now descended into a non-democratic situation and I think that is very dangerous [for] free speech,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Defend Our Juries (DOJ), a United Kingdom-based activist group that organised the protest, demanded that the government lift the ban on Palestine Action, and drop all charges and investigations into those who have been arrested under the Terrorism Act, for allegedly supporting the campaigners.<\/p>\n The group said it\u2019s also protesting against the Metropolitan Police\u2019s U-turn on its policy to arrest people who show support for Palestine Action.<\/p>\n Palestine Action is a direct action group which says it wants to end British complicity in Israel\u2019s mistreatment of Palestinians.<\/p>\n It has claimed responsibility for actions including a break-in at an RAF base, where aeroplanes were painted, and an attack on a London business that it said was linked to weapons manufacturers for Israel.<\/p>\n The UK government proscribed Palestine Action as a \u201cterrorist organisation\u201d in July 2025, placing it in the same category as armed groups including al-Qaeda and Hezbollah.<\/p>\n The proscription also makes it illegal to be a member of, or express support for, the group, offences punishable by up to 14 years in prison.<\/p>\n Eight activists linked to the network had staged hunger strikes while in prison on remand to protest against the government\u2019s proscription of the group.<\/p>\n On February 13, the High Court ruled the government\u2019s proscription of Palestine Action to be unlawful. It called the move \u201cdisproportionate\u201d and in breach of freedom of expression.<\/p>\n Initially, Metropolitan Police indicated they were unlikely to arrest people showing support for the group following the High Court\u2019s ruling.<\/p>\n But on March 25, police said they will resume arrests for those showing support. Critics say this U-turn defies the court ruling.<\/p>\n One of the Palestine Action hunger striker activists, Qesser Zuhrah, told Al Jazeera at the demonstration in London that the Met\u2019s decision to resume arrests shows that the police \u201cdon\u2019t serve us\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIt just shows that the Met police, they don\u2019t serve us, they don\u2019t protect us, they work only to reinforce what the government wants,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Organisers said an estimated 1,500 people took part in the vigil.<\/p>\n The UK government\u2019s appeal against the High Court ruling is scheduled to be heard by the Court of Appeal on April 28 and 29.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Hundreds of people gather in Trafalgar Square for demonstration, as elderly woman with cane is escorted away by police. Published On 11 Apr 202611 Apr 2026 | Updated: an hour agoUpdated: an hour ago London, United Kingdom \u2013 Police have arrested hundreds of people during a mass vigil in central London to oppose the ban […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18549,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG_0623-1775920012.jpg?resize=96%2C96&quality=80)
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