\n<\/p>\n
A mass protest against the ban on Palestine Action on Saturday could set a record for the number of people arrested at a single event of civil disobedience, organisers have said.<\/p>\n
Defend Our Juries said it had received 1,500 pledges to attend the demonstration in London and risk arrest and was expecting hundreds more to register by the weekend.<\/p>\n
The group said the record number of arrests at a single event was 1,314, made by the Metropolitan police during the Committee of 100\u2019s 1961 anti-nuclear demonstration in Trafalgar Square. The central London square was also the centre of the 1990 poll tax uprisings when 339 people were arrested in one day.<\/p>\n
More than 1,600 people have been arrested since the ban under the Terrorism Act came into effect on 5 July, mainly for holding signs reading: \u201cI oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.\u201d The highest arrest tally so far was on 6 September at a demonstration in Parliament Square when 890 people were detained, 857 for showing support for a proscribed group.<\/p>\n
A Defend Our Juries spokesperson said: \u201cWith over 1,500 people already pledging to take part, and hundreds more expected to register by the weekend, this is set to be the biggest mass action yet defying the ban on Palestine Action.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile Keir Starmer ignores the demands of his own party members to recognise Israel\u2019s genocide and take action \u2013 including sanctions and a full arms embargo \u2013 thousands are stepping up where his government refuses to act.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis Saturday could soon see the number of arrests nearly double from the current total of 1,600, setting a new record for the largest mass arrest \u2013 an extraordinary misuse of counter-terror and policing resources.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Sunday, Merseyside police arrested 66 people, including an 83-year-old, on suspicion of supporting Palestine Action at a rally outside the Labour party conference in Liverpool. Two were later dearrested.<\/p>\n
Yvette Cooper, the then home secretary, announced the proscription plans in June, three days after Palestine Action claimed responsibility for a break-in at RAF Brize Norton. She had been advised to proscribe the group in March. She said the group, which targeted Elbit Systems UK and other organisations it claimed were directly or indirectly complicit in Israeli war crimes against Palestinians, had a \u201clong history of unacceptable criminal damage\u201d and was a threat to national security.<\/p>\n
Its proscription, the first of a direct action protest group, placed it alongside groups such as Islamic State and National Action. The group\u2019s co-founder, Huda Ammori, is seeking to overturn the ban in the courts.<\/p>\n
skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n
Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what\u2019s happening and why it matters<\/p>\n
Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n The Defend Our Juries spokesperson said: \u201cIt\u2019s nothing short of a scandal that thousands of people are being arrested \u2013 from vicars and priests to students and retired healthcare workers \u2013 as our fundamental rights to free speech and protest have been stripped away, not to keep us safe, but to protect weapons manufacturers\u2019 interests and enable Israel to continue to slaughter Palestinian people.<\/p>\n \u201cThe new home secretary must urgently rethink what has become a poll tax moment for this imploding Labour government. Their own party conference has already been overshadowed by the sight of pensioners and former Labour councillors dragged away by police for peacefully protesting the ban.\u201d<\/p>\n They claimed that the government was prioritising companies\u2019 profits over protest rights, citing the latest Home Office transparency data showing that a meeting took place on 3 June, shortly before the ban, between the then policing minister, Diana Johnson, and the insurance giant Allianz UK to discuss \u201cprotest activity and the destruction of property\u201d. Allianz UK was repeatedly targeted by Palestine Action for allegedly providing insurance for Elbit Systems UK.<\/p>\n The Home Office has previously said it is \u201ccategorically false\u201d that any private company influenced the decision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A mass protest against the ban on Palestine Action on Saturday could set a record for the number of people arrested at a single event of civil disobedience, organisers have said. Defend Our Juries said it had received 1,500 pledges to attend the demonstration in London and risk arrest and was expecting hundreds more to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25113,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[919,5718,1661,15193,1240,560,1099,620],"class_list":{"0":"post-25112","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-action","9":"tag-arrest","10":"tag-london","11":"tag-organisers","12":"tag-palestine","13":"tag-protest","14":"tag-record","15":"tag-set"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}