UK High Court rules Palestine Action ban unlawful, citing free speech concerns. Government to appeal as group remains temporarily proscribed
LONDON: London’s high court on Friday upheld a challenge to a government ban on activist group Palestine Action, saying the proscription had interfered with the right to freedom of speech.
A three-judge panel at the court found the ban was “disproportionate” and resulted in a “very significant interference with the right to freedom of speech and free assembly”.
UK interior minister Shabana Mahmood said she was “disappointed” and would appeal against the ruling.
Palestine Action remains banned to allow the government to contest the decision, judges said.
Cheers erupted among dozens of protesters gathered outside the building when the ruling was announced.
The government ban made being a member of Palestine Action or demonstrating support for it a serious criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
It put Palestine Action on a blacklist that also includes Palestinian militants Hamas and the Lebanese Iran-backed group Hezbollah, and sparked a severe backlash.
But Judge Victoria Sharp, reading out a summary of the judgement in court, said only “a very small number” of Palestine Action’s activities “amounted to acts of terrorism”.
The proscription led to nearly 3,000 arrests, primarily for people carrying placards defending the group, according to protest organisers Defend Our Juries.
Hundreds have also been charged and face court hearings.
“We won,” Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori, who launched the challenge, wrote on social media after the ruling.
Outside the court, people waving Palestinian flags and wearing keffiyah scarves cheered and hugged each other.
One protester with a megaphone said: “Palestine action is BACK!”.
‘Over the moon’
Niall Pemberton, a 58-year-old retiree who has been arrested four times at pro-Palestine Action demonstrations, told AFP he was “over the moon”.
“I think it shows that we were right that direct action groups should not be proscribed as terrorist organisations,” said Pemberton.
Unlike previous protests where police have detained people carrying placards supporting Palestine Action, they did not arrest those at the demonstration on Friday, the Defend Our Juries campaign group noted.
The government banned Palestine Action in July, days after activists protesting against Israel’s military assault on Gaza broke into an air force base in southern England and caused millions of pounds worth of damage to two aircraft.
United Nations rights chief Volker Turk previously called the move “disproportionate and unnecessary”.
The UK government had insisted that some of the supporters of the group “don’t know the full nature of this organisation”.
“The proscription of Palestine Action followed a rigorous and evidence-based decision-making process, endorsed by parliament,” Mahmood said in a statement after the judgement.
But the court concluded “the claimant’s claim is allowed. Subject to any further representations on relief, we propose to make an order quashing the Home Secretary’s decision to proscribe Palestine Action.”
‘Right the wrongs’
In a recent interview with Britain’s Channel 4, Ammori insisted it “was about saving lives in Palestine”.
“It’s the very opposite of what a terrorist organisation is to most people,” she added.
“Together we took action at great personal risk… We helped make this proscription unenforceable,” Defend the Juries said in a statement after the ruling.
It called for a meeting with Mahmood and Metropolitan Police chiefs “to right the wrongs of the ban”.
Set up in 2020, Palestine Action’s stated goal on its now-blocked website is to end “global participation in Israel’s genocidal and apartheid regime”.
It has mainly targeted weapons factories, especially those belonging to the Israeli defence group Elbit Systems.
