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Ministers are set to provide law enforcement additional authorities to target ongoing protests, with a particular focus on cracking down against Gaza-related protests, as stated by the Home Office.

Latest Arrests and Planned Modifications

This announcement comes just after nearly 500 individuals were arrested in the capital for expressing support for Palestine Action, a banned entity. These changes could allow police to instruct frequent protests to be relocated to alternative locations.

Shabana Mahmood, will also review all legislation regarding demonstrations, with the potential to enhance authorities to prohibit some protests completely.

Planned Legal Changes

As part of these measures, Mahmood will implement swift amendments to the Public Order Act 1986, allowing police to take into account the "cumulative impact" of repeated protests. Further information will be released "at a later date", according to the announcement.

If a protest has resulted in what officials termed "ongoing disruption" at the identical location for several weeks, authorities would have the authority to order protest leaders to move the gathering elsewhere, with those who fail to comply facing detention.

Wider Review and Community Safety

The Home Secretary added that she would "also review existing legislation to ensure that authorities are adequate and being uniformly enforced", including law enforcement authorities to prohibit certain protests completely.

"The right to protest is a fundamental freedom in our nation. However, this right must be weighed with the freedom of other citizens to go about their daily lives without anxiety," the Home Secretary said.

"Large, repeated protests can cause certain communities, especially religious communities, experiencing insecurity, threatened and scared to leave their homes. This has been especially noticeable in regarding the significant anxiety within the Jewish population, which has been communicated with me on many occasions during these recent difficult days."

"These measures mark an significant move in guaranteeing we safeguard the right to protest while ensuring all feel secure in this country."

Current Context and Police Response

These expanded authorities seem targeting both mass Gaza-support protests, which occurred in the capital and various urban centers over a period of weeks, and gatherings organized to back Palestine Action.

Recently, police arrested approximately 500 individuals at the most recent such protest. The event took place even though ministers, including political leaders, asking that it be delayed following the recent deadly attack on a Jewish place of worship in Manchester.

Police Perspective

Following the recent demonstration, the leader of the Metropolitan Police Federation stated that officers policing protests in the capital were "emotionally and physically exhausted".

"This cannot continue. Our focus should be on keeping people safe at a time when the nation is on increased security from a terrorist attack. And instead officers are being drawn in to facilitate these relentless protests," Paula Dodds said.

Further Legislative Actions

These changes come after protest-related measures in the crime and policing bill currently going through parliament, which bans the carrying of face coverings or fireworks at protests, and makes illegal the climbing of certain war memorials.