Overview

• About 150 activists were arrested in London on August 9 for displaying support for Palestine Action, an organization outlawed as a terrorist group by the UK Parliament.
• Metropolitan Police said the mass detentions responded to intentional breaches of the ban on public support for the group.
• Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government defends the crackdown, citing intelligence of planned violent property damage at military sites such as RAF Brize Norton.
• Activists have lodged legal challenges against the terrorist designation, arguing it unfairly targets peaceful dissent and oversteps civil liberties.
• The United Nations condemned the designation as a threat to freedom of expression and legitimate protest in a democratic society.