Britain’s ban on pro-Palestinian campaign group Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation was ruled unlawful by London’s High Court , though the ban will temporarily remain in place and the government said it would appeal against the decision.
Palestine Action was proscribed in July, having increasingly taken “direct action” against Israel-linked defence companies in Britain, often blocking entrances or spraying red paint.
Britain argued the group’s actions amounted to terrorism, citing a 2024 raid on a factory of Israel’s largest defence firm Elbit Systems, in which prosecutors said activists caused around £1 million ($1.4 m) of damage and a police officer was hit with a sledgehammer.
Ban followed break-in at air base
Palestine Action was banned shortly after a June break-in at the Royal Air Force’s Brize Norton air base, in which activists damaged two planes, an action described by Prime Minister Keir Starmer as “disgraceful”.
Lawyers representing Huda Ammori, who co-founded Palestine Action in 2020, argued at a hearing last year that the move was an authoritarian restriction on the right to protest.
Judge Victoria Sharp said Palestine Action “promotes its political cause through criminality and the encouragement of criminality”.
The High Court nonetheless ruled the ban was a disproportionate interference with the right to freedom of expression, though the ban was not lifted ahead of a further hearing to decide whether it should remain pending an appeal.
Interior minister Shabana Mahmood said in a statement: “I intend to fight this judgment in the Court of Appeal.”
