UK campaign group Palestine Action to challenge government ban

Pro-Palestinian campaign organisation Palestine Action said on Monday it had initiated legal proceedings to challenge the British government's intention to ban the group under anti-terrorism laws.

The proscription - expected to be laid before parliament on Monday - would make it a criminal offence to belong to the group, and was announced days after its activists damaged two British military planes in protest at London's support for Israel.

Palestine Action previously condemned the government's move, calling it "an unhinged reaction", and said that London's High Court had granted the group an urgent hearing on Friday to consider permission for a legal challenge to the proscription.

The group is seeking a court order to prevent the government from proscribing the group pending its case being heard, Palestine Action said.

It includes written statements from human rights experts at Amnesty International and others that have expressed concerns "about the unlawful misuse of anti-terror measures to criminalise dissent".

"The court's decision to grant an urgent hearing this week is indicative of the vital importance of what is at stake in this case, including the far-reaching implications any proscription of Palestine Action would have on fundamental freedoms of speech, expression and assembly in Britain," co-founder of Palestine Action, Huda Ammori, said.

"Spraying red paint on war planes is not terrorism. Causing disruption to the UK-based arms factories used by Israel's largest weapons firm, Elbit Systems, is not terrorism. The terrorism and war crimes are being committed in Palestine by Israel, which is being armed by Britain, and benefitting from British military support. Direct action has a long history in Britain - Suffragettes, Anti-Apartheid activists, Greenham Common and anti-Iraq War campaigners, including those who defended by the Prime Minister Keir Starmer himself for using the same direct action methods he is now seeking to proscribe as 'terrorism", she added.

Under British law, the Home Secretary can proscribe a group if it is believed it commits, encourages or "is otherwise concerned in terrorism". The ban would put Palestine Action on a par with Hamas, Al-Qaeda or ISIS under British law.

The Home Office declined to comment on Palestine Action's legal challenge.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper previously said the group had a "long history of unacceptable criminal damage" and that the government would not tolerate those who put national security at risk.

Palestine Action has regularly targeted British sites connected to Israeli defence firm Elbit Systems as well as other companies in Britain linked to Israel since the start of the conflict in Gaza in 2023.