MORE than 522 people were arrested for supporting banned group Palestine Action on Saturday as police were condemned for using excessive force.

Despite it being among the largest mass arrests the capital has seen, only half of the protesters were detained by police, organisers said, demonstrating just how “unworkable” the ban is.

More than 1,000 people gathered in Parliament Square holding signs expressing support for Palestine Action in a silent demonstration co-ordinated by Defend Our Juries.

Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg, NHS workers and a blind wheelchair user were among those arrested under Section 13 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

The government proscribed Palestine Action in July, making membership or support a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years.

Speaking ahead of the protest, Mr Begg said: “We cannot and should not allow our basic rights to be shredded by an authoritarian government.

“It is not terrorism for all right-thinking people to demand our government stop all support for a regime that is engaged daily in war crimes and genocide.”

Police were seen using excessive force in videos on social media. In one post, officers violently shoved protesters who shouted “shame on you!” as they carried away an elderly woman.

A Defend Our Juries spokesperson said that the fact that only half of the protesters faced arrests “shows how unworkable and unenforceable this ban is.”

Most of those arrested were also given street bail and allowed to go home, the group said.

“This is an embarrassment for the Home Secretary, who must now justify this absurd waste of police resources and a ‘two-tier’ policing approach — arresting some as ‘terrorists’ for holding a sign, while hundreds of others were not arrested for holding the same sign.”

The number of arrests outnumbers the 306 made at an Extinction Rebellion demonstration in 2019, and the 339 carried out in a single day during the 1990 poll tax riots.

Amnesty International described Saturday’s arrests as “deeply concerning.”

The human rights charity’s chief executive Sacha Deshmukh said: “The protesters in Parliament Square were not inciting violence, and it is entirely disproportionate to the point of absurdity to be treating them as terrorists.

“We have long criticised UK terrorism law for being excessively broad and vaguely worded and a threat to freedom of expression. These arrests demonstrate that our concerns were justified.”

On Saturday, a woman was also arrested in Belfast for wearing a Palestine Action T-shirt at an anti-racism protest.

The ban on the group will face a legal challenge in November, after the High Court granted a full judicial review to the group’s co-founder Huda Ammori.

Greenpeace co-executive director Areeba Hamid said the review “cannot come quickly enough.”

“If this was happening in another country, the UK government would be voicing grave concerns about freedom of speech and human rights,” she said.

Palestine Action typically targeted Israel-linked arms factories that were supplying weapons used in the genocide in Gaza.

The government enforced the ban after members broke into RAF Brize Norton and sprayed red paint onto two refuelling planes to protest Britain’s military support towards Israel.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper doubled down on the government’s decision to proscribe the group, claiming it was “based on strong security advice following serious attacks the group has committed, involving violence, significant injuries and extensive criminal damage.”