Dozens of demonstrators have been arrested after they gathered outside the US embassy in London in support of proscribed group Palestine Action.
More than 100 people took part in the protest in Nine Elms, south-west London, on Saturday afternoon, with many holding signs reading: “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.”
In a post on X shortly at around 6.15pm, the Metropolitan Police said it had arrested 139 people, with the majority detained for expressing support for a proscribed organisation, and further arrests expected throughout the day.
Expressing support for the group is an offence under the Terrorism Act after it was proscribed in June 2025.
Some protesters could be heard applauding and chanting “free, free Palestine” when people were taken away to police vans parked on Ponton Road, just off the embassy grounds, before being transferred to police stations.
One protester climbed a tree outside the US embassy and could be seen waving a placard reading “God help us. Teachers who support Palestine. Palestine Action”, with the crowd below chanting “Tree, tree Palestine”.
Officers started arresting some protesters one by one shortly after 12.30pm, sometimes carrying them if they refused to walk.
A retired lawyer who travelled from his home in Cumbria to attend the protest on Saturday said he was demonstrating because he “feared for our liberties”.
Charles Allison, 75, told the Press Association: “I decided that I ought to try and do something, and this is the little bit that I’m doing.
“I fear for our civil liberties, which are being devalued and watered down, even by this new Labour Government.
“So I’m dejected, but enthused that there are so many wonderful people protesting.”
Organised by activist group Defend Our Juries, the protest took place before an appeal at the Supreme Court against Palestine Action’s designation as a terror group on November 4.
Asked why he was protesting on Saturday, Mr Allison told PA: “To show that there is no declining level of protest.
“I hope the Supreme Court justices, they won’t necessarily be influenced by it, but I hope that they will take a long-term view of what is happening in this country and decide that the proscription was unlawful, as I believe it was.
“I speak as an ex-lawyer, so it’s uncomfortable for me to break the law deliberately. But I felt that I could do no other.”
Mr Allison was taken away by two police officers just before 1pm, after he was told he posed a “threat”.
A Defend Our Juries spokesperson said arrests on Saturday took the total number of people detained for defying the ban to more than 4,000 since July 2025.
“It is truly dystopian that there have now been over 4,000 arrests under terror laws for peaceful vigils silently expressing opposition to genocide and support for the protest group Palestine Action,” the Defend Our Juries spokesperson said.
“The ban on Palestine Action was straight out of Trump’s playbook so it’s fitting that this significant milestone has been reached on Halloween and outside the US embassy, laying bare the terrifying attacks on free speech that this authoritarian ban has unleashed.
“That is what the proscription of Palestine Action was always about – Starmer’s government appeasing Trump and the Israeli weapons companies that Palestine Action disrupted, not about any kind of terrorist threat.
“How can Andy Burnham possibly justify arrests today for holding up words which, just weeks ago, were deemed to be below the criminal threshold when expressed by the wife of his own national security adviser?
“This makes a further mockery of the proscription, which becomes more impossible to sustain by the day.”
The Metropolitan Police said a Section 35 dispersal order was in place in parts of London, covering the embassy grounds, from 8am to 11pm on Saturday.
The force said the measure, which means people can be ordered to leave the area or face arrest, followed “information that a group are planning to attend an event and express support for a proscribed organisation”.
Lauren Wallace, 36, told PA she had brought her four-year-old daughter Lilah to the demonstration to show her “the power of protest and how important it is to be political”.
She said: “My mum’s here today to hold a sign, and I’m unbelievably proud of her and respect her so much for doing it.
“And I think, in her words, she maybe has like a freedom to do it that me, with a young daughter and a job, probably don’t have.
“So I came to support her and show solidarity with her, and also to, I guess, show my daughter the power of protest and how important it is to be political.
“And if anything, I hope Lilah’s way more political and radical than I am because I think that’s what the world kind of needs.”
Talking about the chosen location for the protest, Defend Our Juries said the US had “not shied away” from participation in the Palestine conflict.
In August, the US government announced sanctions against Palestine Action, designating it as a terror group.
“It is truly dystopian that there have now been over 4,000 arrests under terror laws for peaceful vigils silently expressing opposition to genocide and support for the protest group Palestine Action.
“The ban on Palestine Action was straight out of Trump’s playbook so it’s fitting that this significant milestone has been reached on Halloween and outside the US embassy, laying bare the terrifying attacks on free speech that this authoritarian ban has unleashed.
“That is what the proscription of Palestine Action was always about – Starmer’s Government appeasing Trump and the Israeli weapons companies that Palestine Action disrupted, not about any kind of terrorist threat.
“How can Andy Burnham possibly justify arrests today for holding up words which, just weeks ago, were deemed to be below the criminal threshold when expressed by the wife of his own national security adviser?
“This makes a further mockery of the proscription, which becomes more impossible to sustain by the day.”
Demonstrators held signs reading “we are protesters, not terrorists” and “heroes, not terrorists”, while some wore keffiyehs and waved Palestinian flags.
Scotland Yard said Palestine Action-related protests “take significant police resources away from the neighbourhoods and communities where they are most needed”.
The Met spent £1.3 million on six “Palestine-Israel public order events” in June and July, according to its response to a freedom of information request.
Another demonstration in support of Palestine Action took place outside the US consulate near Holyrood in Edinburgh on Saturday.
In June, five Court of Appeal judges said the ban on Palestine Action as a terror group was a “justified and proportionate” interference on freedom of expression rights.
This overturned the judgment of three judges at the High Court who ruled in February that the then-home secretary Yvette Cooper’s decision to ban Palestine Action was unlawful, after a legal challenge from the group’s co-founder Huda Ammori.
