A court in Britain declares Palestine Action a terrorist organization and bans its activities

Palestine Action is a British pro-Palestinian direct action (direct action) semi-clandestine network founded on 30 July 2020.
Founders: Huda Ammori and Richard Barnard.

The main goal is to stop British arms exports to Israel, primarily by targeting the Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems and related companies.

The group’s activities include:

• breaking into facilities,
• open vandalism (spraying paint, smashing windows, damaging equipment),
• creating disorder, setting up barricades, and in some cases violence against security guards/police.

To the public they present themselves as fighters against the “genocide in Gaza”, but in practice this is systematic damage to the British defence industry, military infrastructure, military bases and related enterprises.By 2025 — hundreds of incidents and millions of pounds in losses.On 5 July 2025, the UK government banned the organisation as a terrorist organisation under the Terrorism Act 2000. From that moment, any participation, support, financing or even wearing of symbols became a criminal offence (up to 14 years in prison).Court timeline:

• 5 July 2025 (after the RAF Brize Norton incident) — the ban came into force.
• High Court (first instance) — 13 February 2026 ruled the ban unlawful and disproportionate, as a violation of freedom of expression and freedom of political belief.
• Court of Appeal — 15 June 2026 upheld the government’s decision, overturned the High Court ruling. From this moment, Palestine Action is recognised exclusively as a terrorist organisation with all the resulting consequences.

Court of Appeal (panel of 5 judges, presided by Chief Justice Sue Carr) ruled:

• The government’s decision to ban Palestine Action is lawful and proportionate.
• The group’s activities cannot be considered forms of peaceful protest — their organisational structure includes secret cells, coordinated violence, serious damage to property, threats to national security (NATO, Ukraine, UK defence supplies) and to citizens.
• The court rejected the comparison with the suffragettes (women’s suffrage movement), because Palestine Action conceals its operations and does not renounce violence.
• The ban is a justified and proportionate interference with individual rights (“justified and proportionate interference with individual rights”).
• The judge emphasised that this semi-clandestine organisation “overtly promoted unlawful violence amounting to terrorism”.

Thus, the ban remains in force.

Supporters plan to appeal to the Supreme Court and the ECtHR.
Loud criticism came from many far-left neo-Marxist organisations such as Amnesty International, Liberty and others, accusing the authorities of restricting freedom of speech.

Sources: official court statements, Wikipedia, Al Jazeera, Reuters, UK legislation.