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Ministers are set to grant police new authorities to address recurring demonstrations, with a particular focus on cracking down against Middle East protests, according to the Home Office.

Recent Arrests and Planned Modifications

This declaration follows the morning after almost five hundred people were arrested in London for showing solidarity for a proscribed group, a banned entity. The new measures could enable police to order frequent protests to be relocated to different sites.

Shabana Mahmood, is also set to review all anti-protest laws, with the possibility to enhance powers to ban certain demonstrations outright.

Proposed Legislative Modifications

Under the planned powers, Mahmood will implement rapid amendments to the Public Order Act 1986, allowing law enforcement to take into account the "combined effect" of repeated protests. Specific details will be released "in due course", as per the announcement.

Should a demonstration has caused what authorities termed "repeated disorder" at the same location for multiple consecutive weeks, police would gain the power to order protest leaders to move the event to another location, with those who do not obey facing arrest.

Wider Examination and Community Safety

Mahmood added that she would "examine current laws to ensure that authorities are adequate and being consistently applied", including law enforcement authorities to ban some protests completely.

"The freedom to demonstrate is a basic right in our country. However, this right must be balanced with the freedom of their neighbours to go about their daily lives without fear," Mahmood said.

"Frequent, sizable demonstrations can cause certain communities, especially faith groups, feeling unsafe, intimidated and scared to leave their homes. This has been particularly evident in relation to the significant anxiety within the Jewish population, which has been expressed to me on numerous instances during these recent difficult days."

"These measures mark an important step in ensuring we safeguard the freedom to demonstrate while ensuring all feel secure in this nation."

Current Situation and Law Enforcement Reaction

The broader powers appear to be aimed at both mass Gaza-support protests, which took place in London and some other cities over a series of weeks, and gatherings held to back Palestine Action.

Recently, police detained about five hundred individuals at the most recent such protest. The event occurred despite government officials, among them senior figures, asking that it be delayed following this week's tragic incident on a Jewish place of worship in Manchester.

Police Viewpoint

After Saturday's protest, the leader of the Metropolitan Police Federation commented that officers managing demonstrations in the capital were "emotionally and physically exhausted".

"Enough is enough. Our focus should be on ensuring public safety at a period when the nation is on increased security from a terrorist attack. And instead police are being pulled away to facilitate these continuous demonstrations," Paula Dodds stated.

Further Legislative Actions

These changes come after protest-related measures in the crime and policing bill currently under parliamentary consideration, which prohibits the carrying of masks or pyrotechnics at demonstrations, and criminalises the scaling of certain war memorials.