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More than 400 people are expected to gather outside the United States embassy in London on October 31 in the latest act of mass defiance against the British government’s ban on the Palestine Action group.

Protesters plan to hold placards reading: “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action,” and campaign group Defend Our Juries said a parallel action will take place outside the US consulate in Edinburgh, Scotland.

More than 3,850 people have been arrested for publicly backing Palestine Action since the United Kingdom’s government proscribed it as a “terrorist” organisation in July 2025, Defend Our Juries said.

The timing of the demonstrations is calculated. In June, the Court of Appeal sided with the government and overturned a High Court ruling that had found the proscription unlawful.

On November 4 and 5, the UK Supreme Court will hear an appeal by Palestine Action cofounder Huda Ammori.

‘Arrested again and again’

Among those Al Jazeera spoke to at the group’s previous action outside Westminster Magistrates’ Court was Teresa, a former teacher-turned-activist who has been arrested multiple times for protesting against the proscription.

“It’s a badge of honour, to be able to do this for Gaza” she told Al Jazeera.

She is not alone. Those arrested at recent actions include Massive Attack’s Rob del Naja, 94-year-old human rights barrister Margaret Owen, former government adviser Jonathan Porritt and the Reverend Sue Parfitt.

Why the US embassy?

Organisers want to raise the possibility that the UK move to ban Palestine Action came under pressure from US President Donald Trump.

The proscription followed an incident in which activists spray-painted Trump’s Turnberry golf course in Scotland. The US president labelled the action “terrorism” on his Truth Social platform and praised then-Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s response.

During the legal challenge, it emerged that Trump and Starmer had spoken by phone twice about Palestine Action in March 2025. Starmer had requested updates from Police Scotland on the arrests and briefed Trump on developments.

The US president’s son Eric Trump also met Scottish First Minister John Swinney before the ban was announced, and documents released under the Freedom of Information Act showed the Turnberry protest was discussed.

The Halloween protests will also come three days after a hearing in the trial of the Turnberry protesters at the High Court in Glasgow. Prosecutors are now seeking to have the seven defendants sentenced as “terrorists”, a move critics called “completely disproportionate”.

The same week that the prosecutors made that call, Washington designated Palestine Action a “terrorist organisation”.

Defend Our Juries said the resulting sanctions have blocked Ammori from crowdfunding for her Supreme Court challenge.

Growing opposition

This week, actors Paul Mescal, Jessie Buckley and Susan Sarandon along with broadcaster Gary Lineker signed a letter published on the cover of the New Statesman magazine urging Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s government to drop the “draconian” legislation.

Campaigners said the ban on the group has also in effect halted UK sales of books by the Irish novelist Sally Rooney, a Palestine Action supporter.

However, when author Sarah Helm, wife of National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell, publicly declared her support for Palestine Action, the Metropolitan Police took no action. Defend Our Juries said that exposes a ban that cannot be enforced evenly.

Shami Chakrabarti, a senior figure in the ruling Labour Party, has urged the home secretary to lift the ban.

Speaking to the LBC radio station, the former shadow attorney general said it “makes a mockery” of counterterrorism law and the power to proscribe should be exceptional and kept under constant review.

“I’d better be careful what I say, or I’ll be arrested,” she added.

The government’s case

The government argued that Palestine Action’s campaign of break-ins and criminal damage at defence sites, including those linked to Israeli arms maker Elbit Systems, meets the legal threshold for proscription. The Court of Appeal described it as a covert organisation operating through secret cells.

Defend Our Juries insisted its own protests are entirely peaceful.

“This mass defiance and the mass arrests expected to follow will lay bare the fundamental rights to free expression at stake in the Supreme Court hearing just days later,” a spokesperson said.

Earlier this month, South Korea recalled its ambassador from Kyiv after Zelenskyy disclosed the prisoner transfer.

South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs says it will withdraw additional embassy personnel from Ukraine following Kyiv’s lack of “constructive response” in a dispute about North Korean prisoners of war (POWs).

Seoul had told Kyiv of its position via multiple channels but had not received a sufficient response from Ukraine, ministry spokesperson Park Doo-soon said on Tuesday.

Earlier this month, South Korea recalled its ambassador from Kyiv after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) that Ukraine had transferred two captured North Korean soldiers to the South.

The disclosure angered Seoul, which said the operation should have remained confidential to protect the soldiers’ families in North Korea.

“This measure was taken because we judged it necessary to facilitate an amicable resolution of the issue and restore trust between the two countries,” Park told a regular press briefing, without saying how many staff members would leave.

A charge d’affaires would stay on in Kyiv to maintain diplomatic communication along with all consular staff to protect South Korean nationals, Park added.

Persistent threats of air strikes across Ukraine had also made it difficult to ensure staff safety, he said.

Seoul previously summoned the Ukrainian ambassador and threatened unspecified “further measures”.

‘Situation resolved’

Ukraine has insisted that “diplomacy must prevail over emotions” in relations between the countries, and also said Kyiv considered “the situation resolved”.

South Korea’s Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said earlier this month that Ukraine had sent a message that “included words of apology” over Zelenskyy’s disclosure, but it fell short of “the level” Seoul had in mind.

Under South Korea’s constitution, all North Koreans are considered citizens of the Republic of Korea, as the country is officially known, and those who reach its territory and seek to defect are generally allowed to stay.

Palestinian officials condemn move by Colombia’s new government that marked a major shift after former President Petro had severed ties with Israel.

Colombia has opened its embassy to Israel in Jerusalem, joining a small group of countries in taking the controversial step of backing Israel’s claim to sovereignty in the contested city.

Palestinian officials swiftly denounced the inauguration on Wednesday that came as Israel is facing mounting international pressure over the genocidal war on Gaza, where three years of attacks have killed more than 74,000 people.

The move by the administration of new Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella is a major shift from his left-wing predecessor Gustavo Petro, who in 2024 severed ties with Israel over the war on Gaza.

De la Espriella, who was sworn in in August, has also restored a free trade agreement between Israel and Colombia that Petro terminated.

Colombian Minister of Foreign Affairs Omar ‌Bula Escobar said on Wednesday that relations between the two countries “should ⁠never have been broken” and that Bogota was taking “taking a concrete step towards ⁠restoring diplomatic relations”.

“Israel is a strategic partner. It always has been, and from now on, it will be an even stronger one,” he said during a ceremony that marked the embassy’s opening.

The opening made Colombia the 10th country to establish its embassy in Israel in Jerusalem – most countries keep their formal diplomatic missions in Tel Aviv.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar welcomed the move during the ceremony. “This is an important date for the State of Israel. It’s also an important date for the city of Jerusalem,” he said while signing the Colombian embassy’s guest book.

Colombian Ambassador Tania Gilinski said Israel had always been a “strategic partner” and that moving forward it “will be so with even greater determination and strength”.

‘Violation of international law’

The Palestinian Authority condemned Colombia’s embassy move, calling it “a violation of international legitimacy resolutions” that undermines “the international consensus on the legal status of the holy city”.

Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also criticised the move as a “violation of international law and relevant international resolutions”.

United States President Donald Trump moved the US embassy to Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem during his first term in 2018, angering Palestinians and sparking international condemnation. Previous US presidents, as well as nearly every other country, refrained from opening embassies in Jerusalem, arguing that the city’s final status should first be resolved in negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.

The status of Jerusalem remains one of the core unresolved issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with Israel claiming the undivided city as its capital while Palestinians view occupied East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem and annexed it in 1967, in a move not recognised by the vast majority of the international community.

Since Trump relocated the US embassy to Jerusalem, only a handful of small, US-aligned countries have followed suit, namely Fiji, Guatemala, Honduras, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay and Nauru. Kosovo and Somaliland, which are not member-states of the United Nations, have also opened what they consider their embassies in Jerusalem.

Colombian President Abelardo De la Espriella had promised closer ties with Israel on the campaign trail.

Israel has announced that Colombia will open an embassy in Jerusalem, becoming the latest country to establish a diplomatic mission in the disputed city claimed as a capital by Israelis and Palestinians. Most countries have their embassies in Israel in Tel Aviv.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Thursday the Latin American country’s embassy would open next week as he touted expanding relations with the region.

“Next Wednesday, we are going to inaugurate … the Colombian embassy,” Saar told attendees at a conference in Jerusalem.

An official at the Colombian Foreign Ministry in Bogota told AFP news agency the country’s Foreign Minister Omar Bula Escobar would travel to Jerusalem on Sunday ahead of the opening.

Colombian President Abelardo De la Espriella, who was sworn in as president in August, promised close relations with Israel during his election campaign. When he came into office, he restored diplomatic ties between Colombia and Israel. Colombia had previously severed ties with the country over Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza.

The announcement comes as a small but growing list of countries has opted to route their diplomatic ties with Israel through Jerusalem.

Since 2018, the US, Guatemala, Paraguay, Kosovo, Honduras, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Nauru and Somaliland, which has been recognised as an independent entity only by Israel, have opened embassies in the city.

Other countries that have diplomatic relations with Israel have located their embassies in Tel Aviv, as Jerusalem is not recognised by the international community as Israel’s capital.

“We will work hard because this is the diplomatic battle over the truth. And the truth is, Jerusalem was always the capital of one nation,” Saar said, dismissing Palestinian claims to the capital.

The Israeli minister said the Democratic Republic of the Congo would open its embassy in Jerusalem “very soon” and hinted at another opening.

“I think that with the possible results in Brazil, they might have the same move,” he said after right-wing Senator Flavio Bolsonaro won the first round in the country’s presidential election.

Protesters in Colombia took to the streets of Bogota on Wednesday to rally against the new far-right government’s policy towards Israel, including the decision to open the Jerusalem embassy.

“When diplomatic relations with Israel were broken off, the message was that we would not be a nation complicit in their atrocities,” Nicolas Isaza, who took part in the protest, told Al Jazeera.

“Today our government is no longer drawing a line against the atrocities being committed in Palestine,” he added.