Protesters display outdoors The Outdated Bailey court docket in London, the place 4 Palestine Motion activists are to seem in court docket charged over a break-in at RAF Brize Norton on June 20 wherein plane have been broken with spraypaint, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026.
Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP
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Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP
LONDON — Britain’s Excessive Court docket dominated Friday that the federal government’s determination to outlaw the protest group Palestine Motion as a terrorist group was illegal, but it surely saved the ban in place pending an attraction.
Judges Victoria Sharp, Jonathan Swift and Karen Steyn mentioned “the nature and scale of Palestine Action’s activities” didn’t meet the “level, scale and persistence” that may justify proscription.
The judges mentioned they have been “satisfied that the decision to proscribe Palestine Action was disproportionate.”
Palestine Motion co-founder Huda Ammori mentioned the choice “is a monumental victory both for our fundamental freedoms here in Britain and in the struggle for freedom for the Palestinian people, striking down a decision that will forever be remembered as one of the most extreme attacks on free speech in recent British history.”
House Secretary Shabana Mahmood mentioned she was “disappointed by the court’s decision and disagree with the notion that banning this terrorist organization is disproportionate.
“I intend to fight this judgment in the Court of Appeal,” she mentioned.
Final yr the U.Ok. authorities declared the pro-Palestinian group a terrorist group alongside the likes of al-Qaida and Hamas, making membership in or assist for Palestine Motion against the law punishable by as much as 14 years in jail. Since then, greater than 2,000 folks have been arrested for holding indicators saying “I support Palestine Action.”
Supporters of Palestine Motion and civil liberties teams say the arrests for peaceable protest trip roughshod over free speech and the fitting to protest.
The federal government banned Palestine Motion after activists broke right into a Royal Air Drive base in June to protest British navy assist for Israel’s warfare towards Hamas in Gaza. The activists sprayed purple paint into the engines of two tanker planes and triggered additional injury with crowbars.
Palestine Motion has carried out direct motion protests at navy and industrial websites within the U.Ok. because it shaped in 2020, together with breaking into services owned by Israeli weapons producer Elbit Programs UK. Officers say the group’s actions have triggered tens of millions of kilos in injury that have an effect on nationwide safety.
Of their ruling, the judges mentioned that whereas “a very small number of its actions have amounted to terrorist action … regardless of proscription, the criminal law is available to prosecute those concerned.”
