MORE than 500 people were arrested for showing support for a proscribed organisation — Palestine Action — at a protest in London’s Trafalgar Square on Saturday.

It brought the total number held since the July 5 2025 ban to more than 3,300, according to protest organisers Defend Our Juries.

In February a court overturned the Home Office’s proscription of the direct-action group, but last month London’s Metropolitan Police, Britain’s largest force, decided to resume arrests pending a government appeal.

Today the Met confirmed that 523 people aged between 18 and 87 had been arrested; they included Massive Attack musician Robert Del Naja, who sat with an “I Support Palestine Action” sign and was later carried away by three police officers.

Earlier on Saturday a former senior Met officer told BBC Radio 4 that conducting arrests of peace protesters was very challenging for the police because of the “huge amount of people who have sympathy with what is going on.”

Former Met chief superintendent Dal Babu said: “I think the difficulty is, when you’ve got 700 or 800 people who are willing to be arrested, that just isn’t practical. The optics of this will be very challenging for the police.

“It will present some significant difficulties for the police in terms of how they manage it, and also be aware of the fact that there will be a huge amount of people who have sympathy with what is going on with the views of Palestine Action.”

A Defend Our Juries spokesperson said it was “truly surreal that over 500 people have been arrested for defying a ban the High Court has declared unlawful.”

They said: “An already absurdly authoritarian measure has now descended even further into farce ahead of the Court of Appeal hearing this month.

“The Met Police has inexplicably reversed its position that, in light of the High Court ruling and pending the government’s attempt to appeal, it would not arrest peaceful protesters defying the ban.

“Everyone who cares for democracy and the rule of law should be appalled by what is happening, and should ask themselves what they can do personally to prevent the descent into fascism.”