London police arrest 212 people at protest over Palestine Action ban

London’s Metropolitan Police said on Saturday they had arrested 212 people at a protest in Trafalgar Square opposing Britain’s banning of the Palestine Action group.

The gathering was the first since London’s High Court ruled in February that a ban designating the pro-Palestinian group as a terrorist organisation was unlawful.

UK Interior Minister Shabana Mahmood has been granted approval to appeal the ruling.

Lawmakers banned Palestine Action — which accuses Britain’s government of complicity in what it says are Israeli war crimes in Gaza — under anti-terrorism legislation last July after some members broke into a Royal Air Force base.

During Saturday’s demonstration, placard-holding protesters, some wearing black and white Palestinian scarves and waving Palestinian flags, sat on the ground or on camping chairs.

London’s Metropolitan Police said in a post on X that they were “continuing to make arrests where people are showing support for a proscribed organisation”.