The British Quakers are shaking from what they say, an unprecedented violation of one of the places of worship by police officers who have been forced into a London meetinghouse and arrested activists who gathered there to plan protests in the Gaza War.
“No one has been arrested at the Quakers meetinghouse of Living Memory,” British Quakers record clerk Paul Parker said in a statement issued after the attack.
But on Thursday evening, a pacifist group said more than 20 uniformed police officers shoved into a Westminster meetinghouse and smashed the front door “without warning or cries.”
Officers searched the building and arrested six women in a gathering of young demand.
The metropolitan police said the arrests followed a plan for the youth's demands to “close” London in protests next month, according to British media. Police said they recognize their right to protest, but “we are responsible for intervening to prevent the Line from protesting.”
The arrests came amid a warning in the UK and amid crackdowns on US Gaza War protesters, particularly on university campuses.
Legal experts say the Trump administration has trampled on its right to free speech, and after the assault on the assembly hall, the British Quakers have expressed similar concerns.
“This active violation of our places of worship and the strong removal of young people holding protest group meetings clearly shows what happens when society criminalizes protests,” Parker said.
In recent years, the UK has enacted several measures to crack down on protests, giving the police new powers.
One of the measures, the Public Order Act 2023, was described as “deeply troublesome” by the UN Human Rights Director Volker Türk. According to the United Nations, the law imposes “serious and excessive restrictions” on the right to peaceful assembly, and criminalizes several forms of peaceful protest by British people.
The youth demand said they were “welcome talk” at Quaker's home when the attacks took place, discussing Gaza, the West Bank and the climate crisis and sharing plans for non-violent civil resistance action scheduled for next month.
The activists were said to be in custody on suspicion of “conspiracy that caused public trouble,” according to the group. Additional activists from the group said they were arrested the following day.
Youth Demand said in an email Sunday that “we don't have the big picture yet” but that around 10 arrests were made on Thursday and Friday, appearing to have been attacked on 11 activists' homes. All activists have been released and no charges have been filed, the group said.
A demand for young people began last year to seek the British government to halt all trade with Israel and raise funds from wealthy people to pay for the environmental damage caused by burning fossil fuels. Though relatively small, some of the protests have produced headlines.
In April, the group hung banners and lined up children's shoes outside the home of Labour leader Kiel Starmer before becoming prime minister. Banner reads Gaza's “Stop the Killing.”
In a statement after the attack, the group “Youths should be taken on the streets every day and close London.”
Ella Grace Taylor, 20, is an associate student of the actor who was arrested at the Congress Hall on Thursday, and in a video after her release, the group said that the group “will not be stopped.”
“We know that this means we're outweighing us, so we're going to fuel this,” she said. “It means that the government, the police and the nation are afraid of us, they are aware of the power we have.”
The metropolitan police did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
