Terrorism arrests soar by 660% after Palestine Action ban

Arrests for terrorism-related offences are up 660% from last year after Palestine Action was banned.

Official figures released by the government show 1,630, or 86%, of the 1,886 arrests for terrorism-related activity in the year to the end of September 2025 were linked to the group. There were a total of 248 terrorism-related arrests in the whole of the previous year.

Palestine Action was added to the list of banned terrorist organisations on 5 July, and the group's co-founder, Huda Ammori, is taking legal action against the Home Office over the decision. The law change made membership of, or support for, Palestine Action a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison, while wearing a T-shirt, or carrying a sign, with the group's name on it can attract a maximum six-month sentence.

The vast majority of the total arrests - 1,706 - came in the last reported quarter, July to September 2025, during which the ban came in, representing a 2,608% increase compared to April to June 2025, when there were 63 arrests. Of these arrests, 1,630 were linked to supporting Palestine Action.

The remaining 256 terrorism-related arrests across the year represent a 3% rise compared to the previous year. Of those, 76 were in the most recent quarter - a rise of 21% compared with April to June.

There was a record count of arrests involving children, with 53 aged 17 and under, just one of which had a Palestine Action connection, with minors accounting for around 20% of the 256. According to the figures, 319, or 17%, of the total arrests have resulted in a charge, including 243 linked to Palestine Action, compared to 47% of arrests resulting in charges for the previous year.

The data also show a demographic shift driven by the Palestine Action arrests, with those arrested 4.4 times more likely to be female and the average age of 57, compared to 30 for other terrorism arrests. It does not include figures for the last three months, which have seen further protests against the ban and more mass arrests.

Nearly 500 people, aged between 18 and 89 were arrested at a protest in central London, two days after the Manchester synagogue terror attack. A spokesperson for the Defend Our Juries campaign group, which organises protests against the ban, said 2,717 people have now been arrested for holding handwritten signs saying: "I oppose genocide.

I support Palestine Action." They said the proscription of the group by then Home Secretary Yvette Cooper "has resulted in a mis-application of counter-terrorism and policing resources with embarrassing scenes of retired vicars, magistrates and colonels being carried away into police vans being splashed across the world's media". "They are clearly not terrorists in the widely accepted meaning of the term and we look forward to the day when this wrongheaded ban is overturned," the spokesperson added..