More than 400 people are expected to gather outside the United States embassy in London on October 31 in the latest act of mass defiance against the British government’s ban on the Palestine Action group. Protesters plan to hold placards reading: “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action,” and campaign group Defend Our Juries said a parallel action will take place outside the US consulate in Edinburgh, Scotland.
More than 3,850 people have been arrested for publicly backing Palestine Action since the United Kingdom’s government proscribed it as a “terrorist” organisation in July 2025, Defend Our Juries said. The timing of the demonstrations is calculated. In June, the Court of Appeal sided with the government and overturned a High Court ruling that had found the proscription unlawful.
On November 4 and 5, the UK Supreme Court will hear an appeal by Palestine Action cofounder Huda Ammori. Among those Al Jazeera spoke to at the group’s previous action outside Westminster Magistrates’ Court was Teresa, a former teacher-turned-activist who has been arrested multiple times for protesting against the proscription. Those arrested at recent actions include Massive Attack’s Rob del Naja, 94-year-old human rights barrister Margaret Owen, former government adviser Jonathan Porritt and the Reverend Sue Parfitt.
Organisers want to raise the possibility that the UK move to ban Palestine Action came under pressure from US President Donald Trump. The proscription followed an incident in which activists spray-painted Trump’s Turnberry golf course in Scotland. The US president labelled the action “terrorism” on his Truth Social platform and praised then-Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s response.
During the legal challenge, it emerged that Trump and Starmer had spoken by phone twice about Palestine Action in March 2025. Starmer had requested updates from Police Scotland on the arrests and briefed Trump on developments. The US president’s son Eric Trump also met Scottish First Minister John Swinney before the ban was announced, and documents released under the Freedom of Information Act showed the Turnberry protest was discussed.
The Halloween protests will also come three days after a hearing in the trial of the Turnberry protesters at the High Court in Glasgow. Prosecutors are now seeking to have the seven defendants sentenced as “terrorists”, a move critics called “completely disproportionate”. The same week that the prosecutors made that call, Washington designated Palestine Action a “terrorist organisation”.
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