Palestine Action activists have clashed with police in ugly scenes during a mass protest in London as the Government moves to proscribe the group as a terrorist organisation.
Hundreds of protesters waving Palestinian flags and holding placards gathered at Trafalgar Square today as the group’s leaders called for an ’emergency mobilisation’ in response to the Government’s plans.
The Palestine Action protest comes just days after two of its members broke into RAF Brize Norton and damaged two military planes in a stunt condemned by MPs including Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper.
It is feared that one engine of a plane targeted at Britain’s largest RAF base is damaged beyond repair and could cost £25million to replace.
The group, whose Brize Norton ambush is being treated by counter-terrorism police, have conducted 356 attacks on sites across the UK in the last five years – with Ms Cooper revealing the damage caused is ‘running into the millions of pounds’.
Monday’s demonstration was initially due to be staged outside Parliament but protesters were forced to descend on Trafalgar Square instead after the Metropolitan Police imposed an exclusion zone.
Protesters, some wearing black face coverings, were seen scuffling with police and shouting up close into their faces, with officers forced to drag activists out of the crowds.
Officers were seen surging into the crowd to detain masked protesters, prompting activists to respond by pushing back, throwing water and chanting at police.
Pro-Palestine protesters also clashed with a small group of pro-Israeli counter-demonstrators who were swiftly escorted out to the sound of jeers.
The Met has been forced to deploy more than 100 officers to the rally which started at midday but quickly spilled into chaotic scenes. At least three protesters were arrested – two for obstruction and a third for a racially aggravated public order offence.
Met commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said he was ‘shocked’ by the protest and described Palestine Action as an ‘organised extremist criminal group’.
As the protest was going on, Ms Cooper announced she has decided to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist group and will lay an order before Parliament next week to make membership and support for the them illegal.
The proscription of Palestine Action puts the group on a par with Hamas, al-Qaeda or ISIS under British law, banning anyone from promoting the group, arranging meetings or carrying its logo in public.
Those breaching the rules could face up to 14 years in jail.
Dozens of Palestinian flags have adorned Trafalgar Square as music from the pro-Palestinian northern-irish rap group ‘Kneecap’ was blasted from speakers.
A flurry of placards say: ‘Hands off Palestine Action’.
By 1.30pm, protesters completely blocked the corner of Trafalgar Square going off to Duncannon Street.
Police officers made a blockade leading down the exit and all traffic grounded to a halt.
Officers received a barrage of verbal abuse from the crowds, with some shouting ‘f*** you’ and ‘who do you serve?’. Other chants include ‘oink oink piggy, we’re going to make your lives s****y’.
One demonstrator said: ‘We will cause mayhem today. We’re here to break and smash the system. The police will get it. We don’t care.’
Scotland Yard said the protest had to be finished by 3pm but demonstrators have vowed to stay ‘well beyond’.
One said: ‘They’ll have to arrest us to get rid of us. We’re not leaving. This is just the start.’
Calls have been growing for Palestine Action to be proscribed amid the group committing acts of serious damage to property with the aim of progressing its political cause and influencing the Government.
On Friday morning, the group posted footage online showing two people inside the base at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire.
The clip shows one person riding an electric scooter up to an Airbus Voyager air-to-air refuelling tanker and appearing to spray paint into its jet engine. They managed to infiltrate the base and escape without being caught.
The group has staged a series of demonstrations in recent months, including spraying the London offices of Allianz Insurance with red paint over its alleged links to Israeli defence company Elbit, and vandalising US President Donald Trump’s Turnberry golf course in South Ayrshire.
The seriousness of these attacks includes the extent and nature of damage caused, including to targets affecting UK national security, and the impact on innocent members of the public fleeing for safety and subjected to violence.
The extent of damage across these three attacks alone, spreading the length and breadth of the UK, runs into the millions of pounds.
The Home Secretary has confirmed she is launching the process that will make it a criminal offence to belong to or support the group. She said the government ‘will not tolerate those that put that security at risk’.
‘I have decided to proscribe Palestine Action under section 3 of the Terrorism Act 2000. A draft proscription order will be laid in Parliament on Monday 30 June. If passed, it will make it illegal to be a member of, or invite support for, Palestine Action.
‘This decision is specific to Palestine Action and does not affect lawful protest groups and other organisations campaigning on issues around Palestine or the Middle East.
‘The disgraceful attack on Brize Norton in the early hours of the morning on Friday 20 June is the latest in a long history of unacceptable criminal damage committed by Palestine Action.’
Ms Cooper added: ‘Since its inception in 2020, Palestine Action has orchestrated a nationwide campaign of direct criminal action against businesses and institutions, including key national infrastructure and defence firms that provide services and supplies to support Ukraine, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), ‘Five Eyes’ allies and the UK defence enterprise.
‘Its activity has increased in frequency and severity since the start of 2024 and its methods have become more aggressive, with its members demonstrating a willingness to use violence.
‘Palestine Action has also broadened its targets from the defence industry to include financial firms, charities, universities and government buildings. Its activities meet the threshold set out in the statutory tests established under the Terrorism Act 2000.
‘This has been assessed through a robust evidence-based process, by a wide range of experts from across government, the police and the Security Services.’
Ms Cooper said that the group had caused damage ‘running into the millions of pounds’.
A spokesman for Palestine Action responded to the Home Secretary’s decision by saying: ‘This is an unhinged reaction to an action spraying paint in protest the UK Government arming Israel’s slaughter of the Palestinian people.
‘The real crime here is not red paint being sprayed on these war planes, but the war crimes that have been enabled with those planes because of the UK Government’s complicity in Israel’s genocide.
‘It also smacks of rank hypocrisy from Keir Starmer, who rightly defended protesters who broke into an RAF base in 2003 to stop US bombers heading to Iraq, with Starmer asserting that this protest as lawful because their intention was to prevent war crimes.
‘He is now cowing down to the pro-Israel groups and the private arms companies who have been lobbying government to stop Palestine Action because we have successfully hit the profits of these blood-soaked companies and disrupted Israel’s war machine.
‘We are teachers, nurses, students and parents who take part in actions disrupting the private companies who are arming Israel’s genocide, by spray painting or entering their factory premises. It is plainly preposterous to rank us with terrorist groups like ISIS, National Action and Boko Haram…’
