LONDON — The Metropolitan Police said on Sunday that 325 people were arrested at Saturday's protest outside the US Embassy in London in support of the proscribed group Palestine Action, more than double the 139 arrests the force first reported on Saturday evening, when it said officers were continuing to make arrests.
Source: Press Association via Chelmsford City News, Nov 1, 2026
In a post on X on Sunday, the Met said the majority — 320 people — were detained for expressing support for a proscribed organisation under the Terrorism Act. Expressing support for Palestine Action is an offence after the group was proscribed under terrorism laws in 2025. Hundreds of people took part in the protest in Nine Elms, south-west London, many holding signs reading 'I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action', while others held signs reading 'we are protesters, not terrorists' and waved Palestinian flags.
Officers started arresting demonstrators one by one around midday on Saturday, sometimes carrying them if they refused to walk, and took them to police vans on Ponton Road, just off the embassy grounds, before transferring them to police stations. A Section 35 dispersal order covering parts of London, including the embassy grounds, was in place from 8am to 11pm on Saturday. A parallel demonstration outside the US consulate in Edinburgh drew no arrests, Police Scotland said.
The protest was organised by Defend Our Juries ahead of a Supreme Court appeal against Palestine Action's designation as a terrorist group, due to be heard on November 4. A spokesperson for the group said Saturday's arrests took the total number of people detained for defying the ban to more than 4,000 since July 2025 — the campaign group's own count — and called the milestone 'truly dystopian'. The group said one of those arrested on Saturday was human rights lawyer Margaret Owen, 94.
Among those who spoke to PA at the protest was Charles Allison, 75, a retired lawyer who travelled from Cumbria. 'I fear for our civil liberties, which are being devalued and watered down,' he said. 'So I'm dejected, but enthused that there are so many wonderful people protesting.' He was taken away by two officers just before 1pm after being told he posed a 'threat', PA reported.
Source: Press Association, Nov 1, 2026
What happens next is in court, not on the street: the Supreme Court hearing on November 4 will test whether the proscription itself stands. Saturday's final tally — 325 arrests in one afternoon, on the police's own updated count — is the scale of defiance the justices will be deciding against, and both the government and the campaign say the case is about free speech as much as about Palestine Action itself.