Hundreds to defy Palestine Action ban in protest at US embassy in London

Hundreds of campaigners are set to defy the UK's ban on Palestine Action by gathering outside the US embassy in London on October 31, organizers say, in a planned act of mass civil disobedience days before the Supreme Court considers the group's legal challenge.

Defend Our Juries said more than 400 people are expected to take part in the Halloween demonstration, where protesters plan to hold placards reading: "I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action." Publicly supporting the proscribed group can lead to arrest, and more than 3,850 people have been detained for backing it since the ban took effect.

The timing is deliberate. On November 4 and 5, the UK Supreme Court will hear an appeal from Palestine Action cofounder Huda Ammori against the group's proscription as a terrorist organization, after the Court of Appeal backed the government in June.

Organizers chose the US embassy to suggest the UK ban may have been influenced by pressure from Washington. The proscription followed activists spray-painting Donald Trump's Turnberry golf course, and it emerged during legal proceedings that Trump and Keir Starmer had twice discussed Palestine Action by phone. Eric Trump also met Scotland's first minister before the ban was imposed, and the US later designated the group a terrorist organization — sanctions that organizers say have blocked Ammori from crowdfunding her legal fight.

The ban faces growing opposition. Actors Paul Mescal, Jessie Buckley and Susan Sarandon, broadcaster Gary Lineker and Labour peer Shami Chakrabarti have all called for it to be lifted, while Massive Attack's Rob Del Naja and a 94-year-old Jewish barrister are among those arrested for supporting the group. The government argues the ban is justified by break-ins and criminal damage at defense sites. Defend Our Juries insists its own protests are entirely peaceful.