LONDON (Dispatches) – UK police on Saturday arrested 86 protesters who were demanding the reversal of a ban on the pro-Palestine direct action group, Palestine Action, according to the campaign group Defend Our Juries (DOJ).
The government proscribed the activist group under anti-terror laws on 4 July, after the group broke into RAF Brize Norton earlier this month and spray-painted two planes that they said were “used for military operations in Gaza and across the Middle East.” 
The legislation made membership of, and support for, the group a criminal offense punishable by up to 14 years in prison, marking the first time a direct action group has been proscribed in the UK as a terrorist group.
In response, the DOJ announced rallies on Saturday in several UK cities to protest the ban and the Zionist regime’s war on Gaza.
In a statement on X, the Metropolitan Police in London said it had “made 41 arrests for showing support for a proscribed organization”.
The DOJ said additional arrests were made during protests in Manchester, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
“Over 300 police officers have been seen carrying away dozens of people from the foot of statues of Nelson Mandela and Gandhi for alleged ‘terrorism offences’,” the group said in a statement on X.
“Those arrested are accused of holding signs in support of Palestine Action,” it added.
This marks the second successive week of a police crackdown on Palestine Action supporters.
On 5 July, twenty-seven people were arrested in London’s Parliament Square, including an 83-year-old priest, a former government lawyer, an emeritus professor, and health workers. 
UN experts, human rights groups, and leading figures have condemned the ban as draconian and warned that it will have major adverse consequences for the freedom of expression, with implications for the rule of law.
“Terrorism legislation hands the authorities massive powers to arrest and detain people, suppress speech and reporting, conduct surveillance, and take other measures that would never be permitted in other circumstances,” Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International UK’s Chief Executive, said in a statement ahead of the ban.
“Using them against a direct-action protest group is an egregious abuse of what they were created for,” Deshmukh said.