AT least 14 people from Cornwall were among 857 arrested for protesting against the government ban of the Palestine Action group in London on Saturday.

Many of those arrested, who included a woman who walked from a Cornish village all the way to Westminster, have said that they are prepared to go to prison over the matter.

They were arrested under the Terrorism Act after sitting down and holding signs which said “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action”. The Metropolitan Police said 890 arrests were made in total – 857 arrests for supporting the proscribed protest group, while 33 were arrested for other offences, including 17 for assaults on police officers.

A group of Cornish protesters saw 14 of their members arrested, but there is likely to be many more from Cornwall who took part and were also arrested. They were processed at a prisoner reception point in the Westminster area and those whose details could be confirmed were released on street bail to appear at a police station at a later date. Those who refused to provide their details or were already on bail for a previous arrest were taken to custody suites.

Many of those protesting were making their feelings known about what they believe is an attack on freedom of speech just as much as they were campaigning against the situation in Gaza.

Oliver Baines OBE, who was previously arrested at a protest on the steps of Truro Cathedral, said: “The violence that the Met reported was violence around the edge.

“It didn’t involve us. There was a bit of pushing and shoving as the police were sending in snap squads, which was unusual for them. In the general chaos of 20 police rushing in, people were getting pushed out of the way. The fact that 857 arrests were us and 33 were for the rest shows the vast majority of it was completely peaceful.”

He added: “We’ve got to assume we are liable to up to six months in jail. I think that’s highly unlikely and I think it would take years for them to get around to it as there are so many people that need to be processed. I think the genocide is so serious and the loss of our rights to protest are so serious that I’m prepared to keep on pushing. We have to – our democracy is at stake here. I’ve committed myself to it.”

As far as going to prison, Oliver said: “If you’re in a nice comfortable position like I am, it’s a responsibility. I’m in this position because we have a democracy. My children and grandchildren won’t be if we don’t have a democracy.”

Jack Morrison, from Redruth, was also arrested on Saturday. He said: “There are two things happening. One is 64,000 people have died in and around Gaza and I would like my government to do something about it. I’ve written to MPs and gone through all the due process to raise my concerns and the government isn’t doing anything about it.

“The second thing is the idea that you can write some words on a piece of paper – some relatively anodyne words – and be arrested under the Terrorism Act. It boggles my mind.”

He added: “Palestine Action have been proscribed as a terrorist group for throwing some paint, doing some vandalising and setting fire to some things. It’s what the Suffragettes did, it’s what Greenpeace have done, it’s what socialist workers did, it’s what the miners did, it’s what people have always done when they feel they’re not being listened to. Nobody called the miners or the Suffragettes terrorists.

“The idea is that you take direct action and face the full weight of the law. I knew what I was doing, I knew what the police were going to do and that’s why I did it; to point out the ridiculousness of this.”

He said he didn’t hold anything against the police. “In the wagon I was in, we were having a right laugh. We were talking about human things – sandwiches, family, holidays, our jobs. They were ordered to arrest me because I had written something on a piece of paper, so I can’t be angry with them.”

Mr Morrison said he’s prepared to go to prison. A police officer told him the worst sentence he faced was 14 years. “No one’s going to give someone 14 years for sitting behind a piece of paper. It’s ridiculous. Add the 857 people arrested to the 450 people arrested already, giving 1,200 people six months – just do the maths on how many years that is and how much clogging up of the prisons that would be.

“They might give it to me and if they do, I’ll go to prison for six months. I’m really privileged which means I could go to prison for six months and it’s not going to stop me living my life or being able to look at myself in the mirror every morning. There are many other people who share the same views as me who can’t because they’ve got jobs and they have to look after their families.”

Simon and Debbie Andrews, who run the popular Bar Silo venue on their family farm in Golant, near Fowey, walked 250 miles from the village to Westminster to take part in the protest, raising money as they went for medical aid for Palestinians. They have raised over £3,500 so far.

“It was frustration which made us take part,” said Mrs Andrews. “One of the things I said to people who chatted to us on the way was I can’t turn the TV news off. It’s not Hollywood, it’s not a film. It streams into our living room every night.

“A lot of people say ‘I can’t bear to watch the news any more, it’s too upsetting’. No, be upset. Be so upset that you go to London. The fact we can sit here with everything we have and we’re watching children being blown to smithereens….”

Mrs Andrews, who was arrested as a suspected terrorist, was told that 2,000 police officers were present at the protest. Her husband took part in a support role as the couple couldn’t afford for both of them to be arrested as someone has to run their farm.

She said each person arrested had to have a police officer watching them as they were processed “because we are a terrorist threat, even the 90-year-olds.”

“Ultimately, yes, I am prepared to go to prison over this but how are they going to imprison 900 of us? Hopefully, next time there will be over 1,000 of us. What they need to do is overturn the proscription.”

The protest’s organisers, the campaign group Defend Our Juries (DOJ), said the rally was peaceful and called on the new Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, to drop the “unenforceable” ban.

A spokesperson said: “Fifteen hundred people entirely peacefully defying the ban, holding cardboard signs in quiet dignity, sends a clear and powerful message to the new Home Secretary as she takes up her position: such an unjust law which the public will not accept will inevitably have to be abandoned. These mass acts of defiance will continue until the ban is lifted.”

There were also two actions outside Truro Cathedral on Saturday. Clay figures were placed on the building’s steps representing the thousands who have died in Gaza, while a project, led by the Cornish Quakers, named all of the Palestinian children killed up until January this year.