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Despite criticism from UN experts, after invading British military bases last month, lawmakers voted to ban campaign groups from Palestinian actions as a terrorist organisation.
The House on Wednesday voted between 385 and 26 to ban pro-Palestinian activist groups and made it a crime to express affiliation or support of Palestinian actions.
Those who do so will face penalties in prisons for up to 14 years under the 2000 Terrorist Act. The ban is now expected to go to the House of Representatives and take effect in the coming days.
Interior Secretary Yvette Cooper called for the ban after two members of the Palestinian Action broke into the country’s largest royal airbase and sprayed red paint on aircraft to protest British military support for Israel.
Security Minister Dan Jarvis on Wednesday argued that Palestine’s actions “exceeded the threshold from direct criminal action to terrorism.”
“The (right to protest) is essential because this particular group does not provide blank checks to property and members of the public to seriously damage fear and violence,” he added.
Aerial views of the aircraft at Rough Brizzy Norton, Oxfordshire, were painted with red paint last month by Palestinian Action, ©ITV News Meridian
The order, along with two other groups, banned Palestinian actions. It is a nationalist Russian Imperial movement aimed at creating a new Russian Imperial state, with the aim of white supremacist maniac murder cults.
Palestinian actions have said they have organized increasingly destructive protests against the British government and businesses in recent years, allowing Israeli forces, including the sale of arms.
The activity has intensified in response to what is called Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza, accusations that the Israeli government has strongly rejected.
The group said it would attempt to challenge the court’s ban if passed as expected by Congress.
“Many lawmakers allowed to speak in the expressed debate are saying this fundamentally undemocratic abuse of power is straight from Trump’s executive overreach playbook,” Palestinian Action said in a statement. “I am confident that this illegal order will be overturned.”
Independent MP Zara Sultana criticized the Commons ban on Wednesday, calling it “a deliberate distortion of the law to challenge it.”
“To make a paint spray can equal a suicide bomb attack is not merely absurd, it’s grotesque,” the former Labour MP said.
On Tuesday, a group of UN Special Rapporteurs criticized the proposed ban, warning that it “has a calm effect on political protests and advocacy in general to defend Palestine’s human rights.”
“The mere damage to property without risking your life is not serious enough to qualify as a terrorist attack,” they said.
