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Campaign group Palestinian actions are to be designated as a British terrorist group after losing to a high court challenge to temporarily block the home office from banning it.
Following Friday’s sentence, the ban comes into effect in the middle of the night and becomes a criminal offence punishable in prison for up to 14 years to join or support a Palestinian organisation.
The London court rejected the application by group co-founder Huda Ammori. HudaAmmori called for the ban to be stopped until a full legal action can be filed that it is illegal to ban Palestinians’ actions, which will have their next hearing held in the week that begins on July 21st.
Judge Martin Chamberlain said: “The harm that occurs when interim relief is denied is insufficient for subsequent claims to be successful and cannot outweigh the strong public interest in maintaining the order.”
Ben Watson KC, a lawyer representing the Department of Home Affairs, said the temporary block of the ban would be “a serious look of a statutory government.”
The British Parliament voted earlier this week to ban Palestinians from conduct following an incident in which members broke into Brise Norton, the country’s largest air force base, and damaged military aircraft with red spray paint and clover.
The incident involved two people who entered the Royal Air Force Base in Oxfordshire on electric scooters and left undetected, prompting the Department of Defense to begin a security review at a British military base.
The legal team representing Ammori argued that property damage alone did not meet the terrorism threshold, and that designation could have indiscriminate consequences for supporters of groups that were not involved in direct action.
Ammori’s lawyer, Raza Hussain KC, called the prohibition of “legal power abuse,” similar to the tactics of authoritarian governments trying to curb public dissent, “a denunciated, discriminatory power abuse.”
“The evidence shows that this is a ‘I’m Spartacus’ type of moment. This is a civil disobedience movement and they will continue,” he added.
“The Palestine actions call for an urgent appeal to prevent “dystopian nightmares” that criminalize thousands of people overnight.”
The crowd gathered outside the royal court on Friday to depart Flair, chatting with pro-Palestinian slogans, and some protesters have reported clashes with police officers on social media.
Despite the law being passed, there was a heated debate in the House of Representatives on Monday.
During discussions in the Senate on Thursday, Lord Peter Hein, a former minister under Tony Blair’s Labour Government, said, “If you start to label people deliberately as terrorists across the board, you’re down a very dangerous route.”
“There are many other crimes that such activities can attract, rather than treating young people as terrorists, because they are unhappy with the mass murder and bombing of Palestinians in Gaza,” he added.
Founded in 2020, Palestine Action targets Israeli-related defense companies operating in the UK. Four activists, ages 22 to 35, were charged Thursday by counter-terrorism police in connection with Brise Norton’s invasion.
