'Kafkaesque': London Cops Allow 'I Support Genocide' Sign, Arrest 320 Palestine Action Protesters

British police on Saturday arrested 325 people outside the US Embassy in London—almost all of them supporters of the banned peace group Palestine Action—while allowing at least one demonstrator to hold a sign reading "I support genocide."

Metropolitan Police said 320 of the people arrested at the demonstration organized by the group Defend Our Juries were apprehended for showing support for a proscribed group under the Terrorism Act. Many of those taken into custody were holding placards reading, "I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action."

Meanwhile, video posted to social media showed a Met officer allowing a woman to hold a sign with the deliberately provocative message, "I support genocide, I oppose Palestine Action."

It was the largest mass arrest of Palestine Action supporters since Prime Minister Andy Burnham took office following the resignation of former Prime Minister Keir Starmer—both members of the Labour Party.

"The Kafkaesque UK laws adopted under the Starmer [government] to appease Israel are such that you'll get arrested for terrorism if you hold a sign saying, 'I support Palestine Action.' But if you hold a sign saying 'I support genocide, I oppose Palestine Action,' then you'll be fine," said Trita Parsi, the executive vice president of the US-based Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

The arrested protesters are charged under Section 13 of the Terrorism Act 2000, which carries a punishment of six months' imprisonment for carrying the signs.

Among those arrested Saturday were 94-year-old human rights lawyer Margaret Owen, who was also apprehended outside September's Labour Party conference in Liverpool for holding a sign supporting Palestine Action. According to reporting, Owen is Jewish.

"This is truly dystopian," UK Green Party Leader Zack Polanski said in response to Owen's arrest Saturday. "Not in our name."

"Israel killed eight people, including a child, in Gaza this weekend as they continue their genocide," Polanski noted in a separate social media post on Monday. "After a weekend of arresting pensioners for protesting against this horror, Labour has [put] Israel far above serving our local communities."

More than 250,000 Palestinians have been killed or wounded by Israeli forces since the Hamas-led attack of October 2023. That figure includes over 74,000 Palestinians killed, including upward of 21,500 children.

Undaunted, Owen was reportedly arrested again on Monday along with other members and supporters of the peace group No More Bloody Wars, who blocked an entrance to Royal Air Force-Lakenheath, a military base used by the US Air Force.

Rev. Bill White, 72—who also held a sign at Saturday's protest reading, "I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action"—told The Guardian that he had "hoped for better" from Burnham's government.

“This is the right thing to do," White said of the protest. "There’s a bad law, and it is wrong to criminalize people that are trying to prevent genocide,” he added. “How can I not be here?”

A spokesperson for Defend Our Juries said Saturday that the "overzealous response outside the US Embassy today only serves to further expose how far authorities in the UK will go to appease American interests."

"Israel’s war crimes that have caused death and injury to thousands could not happen without the US’ approval," the spokesperson added.

Saturday's crackdown came as Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori prepared to challenge the ban before the UK Supreme Court starting on Wednesday. The lower High Court found the proscription unlawful in February, finding violations involving the government's own policy and free expression protections. The Court of Appeal overturned that decision in June, prompting Ammori's appeal.

The Palestine Action ban took effect in July 2025 after members of the group damaged warplanes on the Royal Air Force base at Brize Norton.

On Monday, members of another UK direct action group, People Against Genocide, broke into a factory in Tring, Hertfordshire owned by the Texas-based arms manufacturer Ultra Intelligence and Communications—which reportedly supplies UAV Tactical Systems, a subsidiary of Israeli weapons-maker Elbit Systems—and smashed equipment with hammers. Three people were reportedly arrested.

According to Novara Media, Monday's action "was timed to coincide with the 109th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, a statement issued by the British government in 1917 that is widely seen as laying the foundation for the colonization and ethnic cleansing of Palestine."