About 150 people were arrested on Saturday (6) in a protest in support of the Palestine Action terrorist group in a protest in London, UK, local police said. There were violent clashes between protesters and the authorities.
A spokesman for Scotland Yard has stated that agents “will continue to arrest those who demonstrate support for the proscribed terrorist organization Palestine Action,” banned by the British government.
“There was a coordinated effort to prevent agents from doing their duty, which included physical and verbal abuse,” he added, confirming several detention for aggression.
Police had warned before the protest expressing support for a proscribed organization is a crime under the terrorism law and that the offenders would be arrested. During the protest there were episodes of violence, especially in adjacent streets, while the main concentration in Parliament Square passed peacefully, police said.
The tension increased when some participants resisted prison, insulted the police or shot objects such as water bottles. According to the organizers, about 1,500 people gathered to protest against the illegalization in July of Palestine Action, a collective that acts against defense companies that sell armaments to Israel.
Protesters carried posters with slogans such as ‘opposing genocide, support for Palestine Action’ and chanted slogans against the forces of the Order. In addition, a group identified as family members of Holocaust survivors condemned “the genocide perpetrated by the State of Israel.”
Among those present there were elderly and disabled people, some of whom refused to leave the square when the agents tried to remove them. At the same time, hundreds of people gathered at Russell Square of the British capital in another demonstration called by the coalition that is part of the Solidarity Campaign with Palestine and the War Movement, while in Belfast (Northern Ireland) and Edinburg (Scotland) were also planned similar concentrations.
Banned organization
Palestine Action was declared a terrorist organization in the United Kingdom in July after claiming damage to military aircraft and blocking facilities by Israeli Defense Company Elbit Systems in England.
Since then, more than 138 people have been prosecuted for demonstrating support to the group, while the Ministry of Interior plans to appeal the court decision that allowed the organization to contest its illegalization.
