Met Police arrest 325 Palestine Action supporters outside the US embassy days before the Supreme Court hears the ban challenge
OVER 4,000 TOTAL TERRORISM ARRESTS AS 94 YEAR OLD MARGARET OWEN ARRESTED AGAIN Today's arrests outside the US Embassy in London bring the total number of…, in a picture posted on X by Defend Our Juries.Palestine Action supporters detained by Metropolitan Police officers outside the US Embassy in London, days before a Supreme Court hearing on 4 November that will challenge the group's proscription as a terrorist organisation.
Of the 325 arrests, 320 were made under the Terrorism Act for showing support for a proscribed organisation, pushing the overall tally of people held for backing Palestine Action beyond 4,200 since the ban took effect in July 2025. Defend Our Juries, which organised Saturday's demonstration outside the Nine Elms embassy, said that figure accounts for the vast majority of all terror-related arrests in Britain during that period. The Metropolitan Police imposed a Section 35 dispersal order across the area from 8am to 11pm, and officers carried away protesters who refused to walk.
The UK Supreme Court is set to hear a challenge to the Palestine Action ban on Wednesday, with the case granted on the basis the proscription may disproportionately breach freedom of speech and protest rights.
Defend Our Juries asked how Prime Minister Andy Burnham could justify arrests for holding signs that, 'just weeks ago, were deemed below the criminal threshold when expressed by the wife of his own national security adviser.'
At 75, retired lawyer Charles Allison travelled nearly 300 miles from Cumbria with the deliberate intention of being arrested, saying he 'feared for our civil liberties, which are being devalued and watered down.'
