Organizers of a protest against the UK’s ban on the Palestine Action group reportedly rejected a plea from London police to postpone their rally in the wake of a deadly attack on a Manchester synagogue over Yom Kippur on Thursday.
Postponing the planned Saturday protest would have allowed law enforcement to focus on protecting Jewish and Muslim communities in wake of the attack, police said in their letter to the organizers obtained by The Guardian.
But the organizing group Defend Our Juries nevertheless rejected the police’s request and stated that they would go ahead with their weekend demonstration, which is expected to draw a massive crowd.
Police said the London demonstration would require a “significant policing plan” enlisting hundreds of officers, thereby detracting from efforts to step up protective security in Jewish and Muslim communities in the attack’s aftermath.
“Your previous large-scale events and other concurrent protests place a significant pressure on policing and draw officers away from the communities they serve to be in central London,” the Metropolitan police wrote in its letter to the activist group.
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Postponing the demonstration would allow police to dedicate resources to ensuring “Jewish Londoners can be as reassured as is possible during the Jewish high holy days, and that Muslim communities can be protected against those who may exploit these tragic events,” the letter continued.
Members of the Armed Forces work at a Bomb Disposal lorry parked inside a Police cordon near the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue in Crumpsall, north Manchester, on October 2, 2025 (Oli SCARFF / AFP)
In a response to police, Defend Our Juries urged officers to “prioritize protecting the community rather than arresting those peacefully holding signs in opposition to the absurd and draconian ban of a domestic direct action group.”
While condemning the Manchester attack, which left two dead and four seriously injured, the activist group insisted that it is up to law enforcement to decide whether it wants to dispatch police to secure the protest.
“It appears the political oversight in proscribing Palestine Action, which aimed to save lives in Palestine, is taking away from the police protecting the community from those who seek to take lives,” their letter continued.
Palestine Action, a direct action group that targets Israel-linked companies in Britain, was proscribed as a terrorist organization in July, making it a crime to be a member.
Membership in the organization carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison. More than 1,000 people have since been arrested for holding signs in support of Palestine Action.
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