Defend Our Juries is announcing today, Wednesday 1 October, that the mass action defying the Palestine Action ban will take place in Trafalgar Square this Saturday 4 October. Over 1,500 people have signed a pledge making a firm commitment to join the action and therefore risk arrest.
Defend Our Juries to turn out in defiance again over Palestine Action ban
The action confirmation comes after prime minister Keir Starmer’s conference speech. In it, he ignored the Labour membership’s demand that his government recognise Israel is committing a genocide – as confirmed by the UN Commission of Inquiry report – and takes action to stop it by imposing sanctions on Israel and a full arms embargo. Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ speech was also disrupted by a protester asking why the government is still arming Israel, saying:
Labour is complicit in the mass starvation of Palestinians.
Although 1,500 have pledged to risk arrest for peacefully holding signs saying “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action”, hundreds more are expected to join the action on the day without registering in advance. It will make this the biggest ever mass action defying the ban on Palestine Action.
Police have arrested over 1,500 people for peaceful sign-holding under the Terrorism Act 2000 since the government brought the Palestine Action ban into effect on 5 July. This is more than six times the total number of counter-terror arrests in the whole of last year. The mass action in Trafalgar Square could see the total number of people arrested so far nearly double.
Surpassing historic protest mass arrests
This marks the first of the mass actions defying the Palestine Action ban that activists have held in Trafalgar Square. It’s where in 1961, the Met Police made a record 1,314 arrests during the Committee of 100’s anti-nuclear demonstration. The protest was the largest number of arrests ever made at a single event. This Saturday’s action could surpass that historic figure and set a new record of mass arrests by the Met.
This is the first time protesters have carried out a week of ‘Lift The Ban’ mass actions defying the proscription. It began at Labour conference in Liverpool and will end in Trafalgar Square, the epicentre of the 1990 Poll Tax uprisings. Defend Our Juries describes the public backlash to the Palestine Action ban as “Labour’s Poll Tax moment”.
Mass arrests overshadowed the Labour Party conference on Sunday. Protesters confronted Labour ministers with the consequences of the ban on Labour’s own doorstep. Despite deploying hundreds of officers, Merseyside Police took over nine hours to arrest 66 people out of about 100 people taking part in the action. It later de-arrested two people, bringing the total to 64. Arrestees included an 83 year-old woman, and another elderly woman who had to have oxygen delivered for her breathing apparatus while she was holding the sign.
Companies complicit in genocide lobbied for the ban
The Home Office has published new transparency data confirming a meeting took place between the Minister of Policing and Crime Prevention Diana Johnson MP with insurance giant Allianz UK on 3 June 2025, to discuss:
protest activity and the destruction of property.
Palestine Action had targeted Allianz dozens of times as it provides insurance for Elbit Systems UK, a UK subsidiary of the Israeli weapons giant Elbit Systems. This included a recent action targeting Allianz’ city headquarters office in March 2025. Weeks after the meeting between the Home Office Minister and Allianz, Palestine Action was proscribed as a terrorist organisation.
In addition to the Home Office data release, a new letter obtained through an FOI request from the ADS Group’s chief executive Kevin Craven to the Scottish Government’s cabinet secretary confirms that he would be meeting with the Home Office minister, Diana Johnson, soon to discuss a “structured nationwide response” to Palestine Action protests targeting arms factory sites. ADS Group is the UK trade association which lobbies government on behalf of weapons manufacturers. Its members include Elbit Systems, Palestine Action’s primary target.
A recent UN report named both Elbit Systems and Allianz as companies both profiting from and enabling genocide in a recent UN report.
Time to make the proscription unenforceable, says Defend Our Juries
A Defend Our Juries spokesperson said:
With over 1,500 people already pledging to take part and hundreds more expected to register by the weekend, this is set to be the biggest mass action yet defying the ban on Palestine Action. While Keir Starmer ignores the demands of his own Party members to recognise Israel’s genocide and take action – including sanctions and a full arms embargo – thousands are stepping up where his Government refuses to act.
This Saturday could soon see the number of arrests nearly double from the current total of 1,600, setting a new record for the largest mass arrest – an extraordinary misuse of counter-terror and policing resources.
This comes as new evidence of meetings between the Policing Minister and the weapons manufacturers’ insurer and lobbyist group make clearer than ever why Palestine Action has been banned as a ‘terrorist’ group: not because it posed any threat to the public, but because it threatened the profits of the arms companies enabling Israel’s genocide. These companies lobbied for Palestine Action to be banned, and Starmer’s Government delivered. The British public sees through this, and that’s why they are refusing to accept it.
It’s nothing short of a scandal that thousands of people are being arrested – from vicars and priests to students and retired healthcare workers – as our fundamental rights to free speech and protest have been stripped away, not to keep us safe, but to protect weapons manufacturers’ interests and enable Israel to continue to slaughter Palestinian people.
The new Home Secretary must urgently rethink what has become a Poll Tax moment for this imploding Labour Government. Their own party Conference has already been overshadowed by the sight of pensioners and former Labour councillors dragged away by police for peacefully protesting the ban. It took nine hours to arrest just 64 of 100 protesters at the conference gates – if they can’t enforce the ban on their own doorstep, how will they be able to respond to the biggest act of mass civil disobedience in Trafalgar Square this weekend?
Feature image via Guardian/Youtube.
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.