DOZENS of protesters demonstrated against the proscription of the Palestine Action direct action group outside the Home Office today.

The Defend Our Juries protest marked the latest in a wave of actions this month ahead of a judicial review against the ban which has seen more than 2,350 people detained during peaceful demonstrations since July.

Some 50 protesters sat holding signs saying “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action” outside the department, with a further protest planned outside the High Court on Wednesday.

A spokesperson for Defend Our Juries said: “With four grounds to challenge the ban and almost nobody left to defend it, apart from arms and Israel lobbyists such as Lord Walney, we have high hopes that common sense will prevail in the High Court.

“Our wave of action has shown that the proscription is both unnecessary and unenforceable in Scotland, the North of Ireland and in towns and cities across the UK.

“The ban was never in the public interest. It was an act of authoritarian overreach whose only purpose was to protect Israel, the arms companies supplying its genocide, and the government ministers who have been so shamefully complicit in that genocide.

“Conflating property damage with terrorism is an insult to everyone who has lost loved ones through acts of genuine terror. 

“Meanwhile there are six prisoners who have allegedly taken action with Palestine Action to disrupt the UK-Israel weapons pipeline who are being held in UK prisons beyond the maximum time limit of six months before trial, and who are now in their fourth week on a collective open-ended hunger strike.”