POLICE in London said more than 500 people were arrested at a pro-Palestinian protest in support of the banned group Palestine Action on Saturday.
The demonstration took place in Trafalgar Square, where protesters staged a sit-down protest. Officers carried away activists as others cheered and clapped.
Protesters held placards backing Palestine Action, which made them liable for arrest.
London's Metropolitan Police said on X just before midnight that 523 people aged between 18 and 87 had been arrested.
Palestine Action was proscribed as a terrorist organisation in July, making it a criminal offence to belong to or support the group, punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
The High Court in London upheld a challenge to the ban in mid-February, saying it had interfered with the right to freedom of speech.
The government has been granted leave to appeal the decision.
The Metropolitan Police had paused arrests after the High Court ruling, before saying in late March that they would resume them.
"It's really important to continue to show up," said Freya, 28, manager of a London environmental organisation, who was sitting near the front of the protest.
"It's important that we all continue to oppose genocide... The government might flip-flop in their legal argument but the morals of these people (here) do not change," she said.
'Misguided crackdown'
Nearly 3,000 arrests have been made since the ban on Palestine Action, mainly for carrying placards in support of the group. Hundreds of people are facing charges.
Protester Denis MacDermot, 73, from Edinburgh, said he had been arrested before and had returned again.
"I'm a supporter of these great people," he said, gesturing towards other protesters, adding that if the court process was definitive "there would be no need for all this".
Protest organisers Defend Our Juries said hundreds of people joined Saturday's protest, opposing "the UK government's complicity in Israel's genocide in Gaza and the misguided crackdown on peaceful protest at home".
Police were "choosing to make arrests despite the government's ban on the group being ruled unlawful by the High Court, and leading lawyers warning that any arrests would be unlawful", it said.
Amnesty UK said the arrests were "yet another blow to civil liberties in this country".
"The Met rightly said it would stop making arrests. It has now gone back to its old, failed policy - mass arrests of people holding pieces of card, including today an elderly woman with walking sticks," it said on X.
The ban placed Palestine Action on a list that includes Hamas and Hezbollah, and has led to backlash.
A judge has put on hold all trials of those charged with supporting Palestine Action, with a review of cases set for July 30.
Founded in 2020, Palestine Action says its aim is to end "global participation in Israel's genocidal and apartheid regime".
The group has mainly targeted weapons factories, especially those linked to the Israeli defence company Elbit Systems.
