London police arrest 117 at protest backing banned Palestine Action group

LONDON, United Kingdom — Metropolitan Police officers detained 117 people outside London's Royal Courts of Justice, where a legal challenge to the British government's ban on Palestine Action was being heard. A Scotland Yard source said the arrests were made on suspicion of supporting a proscribed organization, with more than 100 people held for processing. On the same day, the England and Wales Court of Appeal upheld the government's decision to outlaw the group. In February, the High Court had ruled that the Home Office's classification of Palestine Action as a terrorist organization lacked a legal basis. The Home Office subsequently appealed that decision. Palestine Action was banned in 2025. Under British law, membership in or support for a proscribed organization carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison. Opponents of the ban have continued to hold repeated demonstrations, each drawing large crowds and mass arrests, to protest the designation.