The Quakers in Britain are coming from one of the unheard of places of worship for police violations, who forced them into a conference hall in London and arrested activities where they gathered there to plan the Gaza War protests.
“No one was arrested in the Quaker conference room to commemorate the creature,” Paul Parker, a recording clerk of the Quaker UK, said in a statement after the raid.
But on Thursday night, the pacifist group said more than 20 uniformed policemen, some armed with tasers, forced them into Westminster's conference hall, breaking the front door, “no warning or ringing the bell.”
The nobles said officers searched the building and arrested six women at a youth demand gathering, a non-affiliated radical group, which is renting a room to party.
Metropolitan police said the arrest comes after youths demanded plans to “close” London next month's protests. Police said that despite their recognition of the right to protest, “it is our responsibility to intervene to prevent the activities from going beyond the protests and thus severely undermine and other criminal acts,” the British media reported.
The arrests sparked an alarm from England and were suppressed in a crackdown on U.S. Gaza war protesters, especially on university campuses, with some students condemning Israeli war prosecutions against Hamas.
Legal experts say the Trump administration has been trampling on the right to freedom of speech, and the British Quaker expressed similar concerns after a raid on the conference room.
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“This positive violation of our place of worship and the powerful removal of young people who hold protest panels clearly shows what happens when a society criminalizes protests,” Parker said.
In recent years, the UK has formulated several measures to combat protests and grant new powers to the police.
Volker Türk, the head of human rights at the United Nations, described one of the measures, the Public Order Act of 2023, as “disturbing.” According to the United Nations, the law imposes “serious and improper restrictions” on the right to peaceful assembly and criminalizes certain forms of peaceful protest by the British.
Youth Demand said in a statement that it gave a “welcome speech” at the Quaker House when the raid occurred, discussing the Gaza, the West Bank and the climate crisis and sharing plans for nonviolent civil resistance operations scheduled next month.
The group said militants were told they were detained on suspicion of “conspiracy to cause public nuisance.” It said the next day, other militants from the group were arrested.
Youth Demand said in an email on Sunday that there was no “full picture” yet, but it appears that about 10 people were arrested Thursday and Friday and raided the homes of 11 militants. All militants were released and not charged, the group said.
The demand for young people calls on the British government to stop all trade with Israel and raise funds from the wealthy to pay for environmental damage to the burning of fossil fuels, thus starting last year. Although relatively small, some of these protests have caused headlines.
In April, the group hung a banner and lined up outside the home of labor leader Keir Starmer before becoming prime minister. The banner reads that “stop killing” in Gaza.
In a statement following the raid, the group Call for “young people to take to the streets day after day to close London.”
Ella Grace-Taylor, 20, an actor musicologist arrested in a conference room on Thursday, said in a video after his release that the group “will not be stopped.”
“We’re going to let this up because we know it means we’re winning,” she said. “It means the government, the police, the state is afraid of us and they recognize the power we have.”
Metropolitan police did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
