HUNDREDS of pensioners will risk arrest today by demonstrating outside Westminster magistrates’ court against an increase in terrorism charges being brought against pro-Palestine protesters.

The action will coincide with a scheduled review hearing for the prosecution of 1,579 people who held signs in support of the banned Palestine Action group.

To date, more than 3,500 arrests have been made under section 13 of the Terrorism Act 2000 for carrying signs reading: “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.”

In the year to March 2026, 92 per cent of arrests under terrorism legislation were linked to alleged support for Palestine Action.

The average suspect was a 59-year-old white British woman.

A Defend Our Juries spokesperson said that today’s “celebration is a testament to how much public resistance has increased” since the government proscribed Palestine Action last July.

They said: “While the UK continues to support and supply weapons to Israel, Palestine Action activists who took direct action against the machinery of war face sentences as severe as if they’d committed manslaughter.

“This is a shameful attempt to silence those who acted to save lives.

“The fact that 1,579 people were listed together on a single day for allegedly supporting ‘terrorism’ by holding seven-word signs demonstrates the crisis this absurdly authoritarian proscription has created for our courts.”

Noting that new Prime Minister Andy Burnham has “inherited this crisis,” the spokesperson asked: “Does he really want to be seen locking up pensioners, priests and 84-year-old Rev Sue Parfitt while people convicted of violent offences are released early?

“History teaches us that unjust laws become unenforceable when they are met with mass opposition.

“With more than 3,500 arrests already made, it is clear that the unjust proscription of Palestine Action cannot hold and that the new government will have to scrap it.”

Marji Mansfield, 69, a retired tax adviser and grandmother of seven, said she would take part in the action because she opposes genocide and supports “the only people in the UK who have actually done something meaningful to directly challenge the Israeli weapons industry.

She insisted: “I refuse to allow these terrible crimes against humanity to be carried out in my name.

“The UK government is on the wrong side of history. They want to lock us up for years just for speaking the truth.”