Authorities unleash crackdown as demonstrators gather in London and other cities in support of recently banned group.

United Kingdom police have arrested at least 71 people at protests across the country calling for a ban on the campaign group Palestine Action to be lifted.

Saturday’s protests in London, Manchester, Cardiff and Derry – also known as Londonderry – were the latest demonstrations against the UK’s crackdown on Palestinian rights activism.

In London, the Metropolitan Police said in a statement that 41 people had been arrested in the capital’s Parliament Square “for showing support for a proscribed organisation”, while one other person had been detained for “common assault”.

Greater Manchester Police said 16 individuals had been arrested in the city’s St Peter’s Square under the Terrorism Act of 2000.

South Wales police arrested 13 people in Cardiff for the same offence, according to the AFP news agency.

The arrests followed last Saturday’s detention of 29 people, including a priest and some health professionals, who had gathered at London’s Parliament Square after a last-ditch legal bid to stop the group from being proscribed under “anti-terrorism” legislation failed.

The ban, which cleared Parliament in early July, was passed after activists broke into a military base last month and sprayed red paint on two planes in protest at the UK’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza, which leading rights groups have described as a genocide.

The move has raised fears about freedom of expression in the country, putting Palestine Action on a par with armed groups like al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS) in the UK, making it a criminal offence to support or be part of the protest group, punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

Protesters at this week’s demonstration in London had gathered near a statue of former South African President Nelson Mandela outside the British Parliament, silently holding up placards saying “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.”

The last of the protesters was lifted from the Nelson Mandela statue shortly after 2:30pm local time (13:30 GMT).

Campaign group Defend Our Juries, which had announced it was holding rallies in several UK cities, called the ban “Orwellian” – a reference to the late English writer George Orwell, who wrote about totalitarianism and social injustice.

“Who do the police think they are serving in this?” challenged a spokesperson.

Defend Our Juries posted on X that police had also made arrests in Derry, Northern Ireland. The Police Service of Northern Ireland has not yet confirmed the alleged arrests.

Launched in July 2020, Palestine Action says it uses “disruptive tactics” to target “corporate enablers” and companies involved in weapons manufacture for Israel, such as Israel-based Elbit Systems and French multinational Thales.

Even before the start of the war on Gaza, rights groups and UN experts have accused Israel of imposing a system of apartheid against Palestinians.

The British government has accused the group of causing millions of pounds of damage through its actions.

Opponents of the ban say using “anti-terrorism” law is inappropriate against a group focused on civil disobedience.