London police arrest 474 people as pro-Palestinian protesters defy new law

LONDON — British police said they arrested 474 people in central London on Saturday as supporters of a recently banned pro-Palestinian group intentionally flouted the law as part of their effort to force the government to reconsider the ban.

Parliament in early July passed a law banning Palestine Action and making it a crime to publicly support the organization. That came after activists broke into a Royal Air Force base and vandalized two tanker planes to protest Britain’s support for Israel’s offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Backers of the group, who have held a series of protests around the U.K. over the past month, argue that the law illegally restricts freedom of expression.

More than 500 protesters filled the square outside the Houses of Parliament on Saturday, many daring police officers to arrest them by displaying signs reading “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.” That was enough for police to step in.

But as the demonstration began to wind down, police officers and protest organizers sparred over the number of arrests as the organizers sought to show that the law was unworkable.

“The police have only been able to arrest a fraction of those supposedly committing ‘terrorism’ offenses, and most of those have been given street bail and allowed to go home,” Defend Our Juries, which organized the protest, said in a statement. “This is a major embarrassment to (the government), further undermining the credibility of this widely ridiculed law, brought in to punish those exposing the government’s own crimes.”

London’s Metropolitan Police Service quickly hit back, saying this wasn’t true and that many of those who gathered in the square were onlookers, media or people who didn’t hold placards supporting the group.

“We are confident that anyone who came to Parliament Square today to hold a placard expressing support for Palestine Action was either arrested or is in the process of being arrested,” the police force said in a statement.