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UK police hold 55 at rally for banned Palestine Action

By AAP Newswire

Jul 20, 2025

Police officers remove a person from Parliament Square — Officers removed people from a protest rally in London and put them in police vans. -AP

Fifty-five people have been arrested at a rally for the banned Palestine Action group outside the United Kingdom parliament, London's Metropolitan Police say.

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The crowd in Parliament Square had been waving placards supporting the group that was banned this month under anti-terrorism legislation, the force said in a post on X.

People from the rally, some wearing black and white Palestinian scarves, were taken away in police vans.

MPs proscribed the group earlier this month after some of its members broke into a Royal Air Force base and damaged planes in protest against the UK's support for Israel.

Membership of Palestine Action now carries a prison sentence of up to 14 years.

The group has called the decision "authoritarian" and a challenge to the ban will be heard at London's High Court on Monday.

Palestine Action is among groups that have regularly targeted military firms and other companies in the UK linked to Israel since the start of the conflict in the Gaza Strip.

Police have arrested scores of the group's supporters at rallies across the UK since the ban came in.

By AAP Newswire

Australian Associated Press