Support for Palestine Action to Become Criminal Offense After Failed Legal Challenge
From Saturday, membership in or backing for Palestine Action will be considered a criminal offense after a final legal attempt to halt the group’s ban under counter-terrorism laws was unsuccessful.
A prohibition on Palestine Action, a group that employs direct tactics primarily against Israeli arms factories in the UK and their suppliers, was approved by lawmakers this week. However, lawyers representing co-founder Huda Ammori tried to block its implementation.
Following a high court hearing on Friday, Mr. Justice Chamberlain dismissed the request for temporary relief. Ammori stated she would pursue an urgent appeal to "prevent a dystopian scenario created by the government."
She said, “The home secretary is enforcing this ban at midnight tonight, despite our ongoing legal challenge and lack of clarity from officials about its enforcement. The public remains unaware of what free speech rights they will retain once the ban takes effect.”
Chamberlain ruled, “The potential harm if relief is denied now but the claim later succeeds does not outweigh the strong public interest in keeping the order active.”
Barring a last-minute appeal court intervention, Palestine Action will become the first direct-action protest group outlawed under the Terrorism Act, placing it alongside groups like Islamic State, al-Qaeda, and the far-right National Action.
Raza Husain KC, Ammori’s lawyer, called the ban “a hasty, biased, and authoritarian misuse of legal authority.” He argued it was “illogical” to classify a nonviolent protest movement as a terrorist organization.
“The focus has been halting Elbit Systems, which presents itself as integral to the IDF,” Husain said. “My client states, ‘Terrorism seeks to harm people—our goal is the opposite.’”
He noted that before finalizing the ban, officials consulted the Israeli government, Elbit Systems, and pro-Israel advocates but excluded Palestine Action and pro-Palestinian organizations.
Another of Ammori’s lawyers, Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh KC, described Gaza’s situation as “genocidal destruction” and said the group aimed to “interrupt UK involvement.”
Representing the home secretary, Ben Watson KC centered his argument on the ban’s legal process: “Such evidence is meant for ministerial review. Only afterward can the case advance to the Proscribed Organisations Appeal Commission.”
He added that only following that step could the matter proceed to higher courts.
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