The arrests come after the UK authorities mentioned it will proscribe Palestine Motion underneath anti-terror legal guidelines.
UK police have arrested 4 individuals in reference to a pro-Palestinian protest final week, through which navy planes had been vandalised at an airbase in England in an motion claimed by the Palestine Motion group.
Two activists from Palestine Motion broke into the Royal Air Force base in Brize Norton, Oxfordshire, on June 20, damaging and spraying purple paint over two planes used for refuelling and transport.
A girl, 29, and two males aged 36 and 24, had been arrested on Friday on suspicion of the fee, preparation or instigation of acts of “terrorism”, whereas one other girl, 41, was arrested on suspicion of helping an offender, in line with an announcement by Counter Terrorism Policing South East (CTPSE).
The 4 arrests had been made in London and Berkshire, in southeastern England, it mentioned.
Palestine Motion condemned the arrests, accusing the federal government of being “within the pocket of the weapons corporations arming Israel’s battle crimes”.
It accused authorities of “cracking down on non-violent protests which disrupt the circulation of arms to Israel throughout its genocide in Palestine”.
The group posted footage on-line final Friday displaying individuals inside the bottom, with one particular person showing to experience an electrical scooter as much as an Airbus Voyager air-to-air refuelling tanker, earlier than spraying paint into its jet engine.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the act as “disgraceful”.
Residence Secretary Yvette Cooper made the choice to proscribe Palestine Action following the incident, with the arrests coming only one week earlier than the ban is ready to return into drive. If parliament approves the proscription, help for the group would change into a prison offence punishable by as much as 14 years in jail.
Cooper has mentioned its strategies have change into “extra aggressive”, with its members displaying a “willingness to make use of violence” and that “such incidents don’t symbolize reliable or peaceable protest”.
“Proscribing Palestine Motion is a political gesture to fulfill pro-Israel teams and arms corporations who’ve been lobbying for us to be banned as a result of we’re hitting their income and having an actual impression on Israel’s battle machine,” mentioned one in all its spokespeople on X. The group additionally mentioned the transfer was an assault on free speech and an “unhinged response”.
The federal government additionally mentioned final week that it was reviewing safety throughout all British defence websites following the incident.
Palestine Motion has staged different demonstrations, together with spraying the London workplaces of Allianz Insurance coverage with purple paint and vandalising US President Donald Trump’s Turnberry golf course in South Ayrshire, southern Scotland.