Palestine Action supporters organise terror ban protest on foreign website
At least 500 demonstrators are planning to gather on August 9 in central London to hold signs saying: 'I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.'
The Metropolitan Police has warned the protesters to 'expect to be arrested'.
The demonstration has been organised by Defend Our Juries, which is leading a campaign to reverse Palestine Action's proscription, under which hundreds have already been arrested.
It is using the United States-based website Action Network to tell would-be protesters to express support for the group in such large numbers that the police cannot arrest all of them.
But Defend Our Juries has denied the use of a foreign website is a ploy to dodge the UK ban on Palestine Action.
'500 is more than double the total number of people arrested under the Terrorism Act in 2024,' the organisers say in an 'action briefing document' published on the Action Network website.
'It would be practically and politically difficult for the state to respond to an action on this scale. Even assuming it had the physical capacity to arrest so many people on the same day, the political fallout from such an operation would be incalculable, causing irreparable damage to the reputation of the Government and the police.'
Defend Our Juries said the protest was required because Palestine Action's proscription was 'a major assault on democracy and everyone's rights to freedom of expression'.
It added: 'Our assessment is that an action on this scale could be enough for the ban to be lifted.
'Charging and prosecuting at least 500 more people, in addition to the 200 people already arrested, is likely to be beyond the capacity of the state, given the current situation in the criminal justice system.'
Palestine Action took down its own website after it was proscribed earlier this month.
Expressing support for the group is now a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison under the Terrorism Act 2000. But supporters have since turned out to to protest against the ban, and confronted police outside the Royal Courts of Justice early this month when the court was hearing an unsuccessful bid to block the ban.
Action Network allows protest groups to 'organise for progressive causes' without having to set up their own online infrastructure.
'We encourage responsible activism, and do not support using the platform to take unlawful or other improper action,' its website reads.
'We do not control or endorse the conduct of users and make no representations of any kind about them.'
Defend Our Juries organised protests across the United Kingdom over the weekend in which more than 100 people were arrested and some pro-Palestinian activists chanted 'f--- your Jewish state'.
Demonstrations were held in Manchester, Edinburgh, Bristol, Truro, and London.
We have detailed plan, says Met
A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: 'While we would not go into the details of our approach, the public can be reassured that we will have a detailed plan in place to respond to any eventuality.
'Our officers will continue to apply the law in relation to Palestine Action as we have done over the past three weekends.
'Anyone showing support for the group can expect to be arrested.'
A spokesman for Defend Our Juries said: 'If the Home Secretary and the Met Commissioner think it's a good use of public resources to arrest, detain and interview more than 500 people for quietly expressing an opinion about the genocide in Gaza, that's on them.
'We have been asked if our use of Action Network is a devious attempt to circumvent the proscription of Palestine Action, since the website is based in the US.
'The answer is 'No'. That never even occurred to us. If our aim was to put ourselves beyond the reach of UK law enforcement, we wouldn't have opted for the US.
'We have always used Action Network for our campaigns, as many other groups and movements do, for its user friendliness and functionality.'
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