Disgraceful, read and weep. The decision to ban Palestine Action as a terror group was lawful, the Court of Appeal has ruled. The court of appeal today overturned the high court’s February decision that found the ban to be unlawful on the grounds that it disproportionately interfered with free speech and assembly, and that former home secretary Yvette Cooper had breached her own process during proscription.
The court of appeal’s decision means supporting the direct action group – which targets businesses complicit in Israel’s genocide in Gaza – will remain a crimnal offence for members of the group or people who support them and now face up to 14 years in prison – even for holding up a sign.
Palestine Action was proscribed under section 13 of the Terrorism Act 2000 in July 2025, making it the first direct action group to be banned under UK terror legislation and categorised with the likes of Isis and Al Qaeda.
The ruling follows a massive wave of state repression, during which British police have arrested more than 3,000 citizens more than during the entire ‘war on terror’ for defying the ban since it came into force –and protesting the criminalization of dissent.
Last week,the state’s campaign to shield the arms trade went a step further on Friday, when a London court ruled that four Palestine Action activists Lottie Head, 29, Samuel Corner, 23, Ellie Kamio, 30, and Fatema Rajwani, 21 who were convicted of property damage a a facility owned by Elbit Systems, Israel’s biggest weapons manufacturer, were sentenced as terrorists despite not being found guilty of a terrorism offence.
This move was kept secret from the jury until after they delivered their verdict, and is the first time direct actionists have been sentenced as terrorists for non-violent criminal offences. an Israeli-owned military facility would be sentenced on the basis of having a "terrorist connection."
A statement from The Filton 25 Defence Committee said: “The four protesters sentenced today destroyed over 40 Israeli weapons, including killer drones, which are used in almost every massacre of Palestinians in Gaza. By taking direct action, they saved lives. That is not terrorism, it is a duty. Today’s ruling will be appealed to correct this serious miscarriage of justice.”
I think it is shameful that a UK court found there was a "terrorist connection" in imposing disproportionate sentences on members of Palestine Action that explicitly targets British factories manufacturing weapons for Israel's genocide in Gaza. which is not consistent with international human rights law .
The judges allowed policy reasons to override strictly legal arguments, and they showed deference to ‘national security’ questions. They also said that proscription is a ‘proportionate’ interference with free speech rights. In other words, they allowed the government to ride roughshod over the law.
Another shameful stitch-up by the British state, done at the behest of the Zionists.An utter fucking travesty, the U.K. gas become a satellite state of Israel.It is outrageous that the British gov has banned non violent direct action group Palestine Action whilst it still sells weapons to the state that is carrying out a genocide.
Palestine Action represent every individual who opposes the Israeli war machine. They represent every person that believes Palestinians are worth more than the tools used to kill them. They represent every person who stands for Palestinian liberation.
It's absurd to brand them a "terrorist" group for daring to spray paint on an aircraft that is helping the terrorist entity known as Israel to kill women and children. Palestine Action hasn’t murdered any people queuing for food aid, hasn’t bombed any hospitals or incinerated patients in tents, hasn’t stolen land or fired at a desperately frightened 6 year-old with a tank.
Palestine Action are doing what the UK government have failed to do under domestic and IHL, and this is to stop arming, aiding and abetting a holocaust!
The suffragettes movement, particularly the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), would be considered a "terrorist organisation" By UK law today. Taking action against companies complicit in genocide is not terrorism. The point is to make fewer people die. It's the opposite of terrorism. and supporting the liberation for Palestinian people is not terrorism.
Drone-striking refugees in tents is terrorism. Bombing displaced people in a designated “safe zone” is terrorism. Sniping children is terrorism. Shooting starving people as they queue for food is terrorism. And by criminalising Palestine Action our government is complicit in this , the very reason ordinary citizens are forced to take direct action to protest to stop them..
Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori reacted to the court ruling, saying: "We will fight this all the way. We will seek permission to appeal to the Supreme Court". She called the terrorism ban on the group one of the "most extreme attacks on free speech"
Today's decision is part of a broader assault on our right to protest in an attempt to silence all those standing in solidarity with the Palestinian people and opposing Israel's genocide. We know that the real terrorists and criminals are those who facilitate Israel’s atrocities against the Palestinian people, and we must not be silenced as we continue to oppose British complicity in these crimes. The proscription of Palestine Action is a ferocious attack on our freedom of expression.
Palestine Action was so effective in disrupting the Israeli weapons industry, that the state threw all its might against them . By doing so, they've exposed how they prioritise the Zionist regime over its own citizens.
With this judicial reversal, the UK state has solidified its legal assault on the Palestine solidarity movement.The aggressive legal manouver, which elevates non-violent direct action to the level of armed militancy, effectively lumps peaceful anti-war activists into the same legal category as global terror syndicates.
This decision must be strongly condemned by all those who believe in protecting our civil liberties ns in the strongest possible terms.
Classifying protest through direct action as terrorism brings Parliament and our judicial system into disrepute. The government must stop its crackdown on protest and defend our right to speak up. We must not stop speaking out against genocide. We must not stop fighting for the ban to be lifted, the end of the use of terror legislation against us, and crucially, for a free Palestine.
No matter what this judge said, history will look back on Palestine Action and those who’ve protested against the ban as the suffragettes of our age.
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