Dozens arrested outside court hearing Palestine Action ban challenge

Dozens of protesters have been arrested outside the Supreme Court ahead of a hearing challenging the ban on Palestine Action.

More than 20 demonstrators assembled outside the central London court before the start of the hearing on Wednesday, with police officers seen carrying several people away and into nearby vans.

Activists also held up a sign reading: "How is trying to stop a genocide a crime? Is the UK a democracy?"

Under the current law, passed when Sir Keir Starmer was prime minister, anyone showing support for Palestine Action is committing an offence under the Terrorism Act.

The Metropolitan Police said officers outside the court arrested 27 people on suspicion of expressing support for a proscribed organisation.

Palestine Action's co-founder, Huda Ammori, has taken a legal battle to quash the government's decision to categorise the group as a terror organisation to the UK's highest court.

In February, the High Court ruled the group's ban was "disproportionate", but in June the Court of Appeal ruled banning Palestine Action was lawful.

It has let to more than 3,000 arrests at demonstrations around the country since the law was passed in June 2025.

Ahead of Wednesday's hearing, the demonstrators outside the court building were holding placards with the same wording as an X post written by journalist and author Sarah Helm, the wife of Jonathan Powell - national security adviser to Prime Minister Andy Burnham.

In October Ms Helm posted on X: "God help us authors who support Palestine and Palestine Action."

Her post faced scrutiny from the Metropolitan Police, as Palestine Action is banned as a terrorist organisation, but the force said it did not meet the criminal threshold and no further action would be taken.

The protesters had inserted different words instead of "authors" on their signs, including "normal people", "students" and "sons of Holocaust survivors".

The final protester to be arrested held a placard reading: "God help us who are not married to the UK's national security adviser who support Palestine and Palestine action."

As she was arrested, the woman shouted "Sarah Helm had the same sign as me", referring to the author's X post.

Many demonstrators lay on the floor as police arrested them, with around four to five officers carrying each protester to a van.

British actor Alfred Enoch, who starred in Harry Potter, was among those in attendance at the demonstration and held a sign reading "this is democracy not terrorism".

He was not arrested by police and later said he hoped the ban on Palestine Action would be dropped.

He said: "You can see the chilling effect it's had.

"I think it's part of a wider erosion of rights of protest, which is fundamental to a democracy.

"People don't even feel safe enough to come out and say that."

During the hearing, Raza Husain KC, for Ms Ammori, told the court that the objectives of Palestine Action "were aligned with, rather than abhorrent to liberal democratic values".

In written submissions, the barrister said that only three out of 385 actions carried out by Palestine Action over a five-year period were assessed as meeting the definition of terrorism under part of the Terrorism Act.

He added: "This was solely on the basis that they involved 'serious damage to property'.

"In other words, the Home Secretary's advisers assessed that less than 1% of Palestine Action's direct action protest activities over five years fell within a definition of terrorism."

Mr Husain later said that Palestine Action is the first of 98 proscribed organisations to be banned exclusively for causing serious damage to property "with no suggestion that it advocated serious violence against the person".

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Sir James Eadie KC, for the Home Office, said the Court of Appeal had rejected Ms Ammori's attempt to portray Palestine Action as a "non-violent direct action protest group".

He later said acts which involved serious damage to property could be considered terrorism and the action did not need to involve violence or an intent to endanger life.

Sir James also said that the group's ban does not prevent public support for Palestine or opposition to Israel and the Israel Defence Forces, and that there are still "vocal large-scale and frequent expressions of support for the pro-Palestinian cause" with only direct support of Palestine Action restricted.

The hearing before Lords Reed, Sales, Lloyd-Jones, Briggs and Stephens is due to last two days, with a decision expected at a later date.

(c) Sky News 2026: Dozens arrested outside court hearing Palestine Action ban challenge