# Police arrest 474 after London protest over first day of Palestine Action ban
Police in London said 474 people were arrested during a protest in support of Palestine Action on the group's first day as a proscribed terrorist organisation.
The Metropolitan Police said the protest took place in central London and that the arrests followed the new legal status of the group, which was banned on 5 July. Support for the organisation is now a criminal offence, and the demonstration immediately became a test of how quickly the new proscription would be enforced.
The BBC report says protesters gathered with placards in Parliament Square and elsewhere in Westminster. Police made arrests as the demonstration unfolded, reflecting the government's decision to treat public support for Palestine Action as unlawful under terrorism legislation.
The scale of the arrests suggests a rapid and deliberate enforcement response. The number, 474, is smaller than the later figure reported for another protest, but it still represents a substantial mass detention in a single operation and shows how seriously the Met is taking the ban.
The group was proscribed after a series of actions against military and defence-linked targets, including damage to aircraft at RAF Brize Norton. Under the legal framework, membership of or support for a proscribed organisation can carry severe penalties. That change is what transformed Saturday's protest from a political demonstration into a criminal justice operation.
The BBC excerpt does not describe every arrest individually, but the broad picture is clear: police moved against demonstrators on the first day the ban took effect, and the number of arrests was large enough to make the protest a major policing event.
The issue has become one of law, politics and public protest. Supporters argue they are expressing opposition to the ban itself. Police and ministers argue that the law requires action once a group is proscribed. Saturday's arrests show how quickly that legal line can translate into large-scale custody operations on the streets of London.
As with later protest actions, the central question is whether the ban will be easy to enforce in practice. The initial response from the Met suggests a force willing to make mass arrests to prove the law is real, even if that means major resource use and a crowded custody system.
For now, the figure of 474 marks the first large-scale enforcement of the Palestine Action ban and sets the tone for what may become a recurring confrontation over the limits of protest in the UK.
