The United Kingdom said on June 23 that it would prohibit a pro-Palestinian campaign group called Palestine Action under anti-terrorist laws. This would put the organization equally with armed groups like Al-Qaeda and Eiil (ISIS) in the United Kingdom, which makes it a criminal offense to be part of the action in Palestine.
The government’s announcement has aroused criticism from human rights organizations and has sparked demonstrations. On Tuesday, 13 people were arrested and seven were charged after demonstrators in London clashed with metropolitan police. The accusations included emergency assault and racial aggravated offense.
What is the action of Palestine?
Palestine Action describes itself as a movement “determined to end world participation in the genocidal regime and apartheid of Israel”. The group was launched in July 2020.
The group claims that it seeks to use “disruptive tactics” to target “business catalysts” and companies involved in the manufacture of weapons for Israel, such as Elbit Systems, based in Israel, the Italian aerospace company Leonardo, the French multinational and the American company Teledyne. The group has targeted the British facilities linked to these companies.
“Palestine Action is a direct action group that has focused on arms factories that operate on British soil and which are accomplices of the current genocide in Gaza, but also in the type of longer-term oppression of the Palestinian people”, told Tel Aviv Tribune Manaal Siddiqui, spokesperson for Palestine Action, in Tel Aviv Tribune.
In 2022, the group broke into a Thales equipment factory in Glasgow, causing damage to arms more than a million pounds (1.4 million dollars).
In 2021, members of Palestine Action protested UAV Tactical Systems of Elbit Systems in Leicester for six days, until a certain number of them were arrested by the police.
Why does the United Kingdom prohibit action in Palestine?
Interior secretary, Yvette Cooper, said in a statement on Monday that she had decided to proscribe the group under the 2000 law on terrorism.
Cooper’s statement occurred a few days after June 20, when some activists in the Palestine action burst into Raf Brize Norton, the largest station in the Royal Air Force in the Oxfordshire, and sprayed two military planes with red paint.
Until now, in the most publicized movement made by the group, activists have sprayed red paint in the turbine engines of two Airbus Voyager planes, used for air supply and have damaged them with crochets.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the incident in a post on the same day. “The act of vandalism committed to Raf Brize Norton is shameful,” he wrote.
Police said the action of Palestine action activists have led to millions of pounds of criminal damage.
“The shameful attack on Brize Norton in the early hours of the morning on Friday, June 20 is the last of a long history of unacceptable criminal damage committed by action in Palestine,” said Cooper in his declaration on Monday.
Siddiqui, however, said that Brize Norton Stocke Stores has planes “that will be used worldwide, but in particular in Gaza”. She added that they were also used in Syria and Yemen.
The War of Israel in Gaza, which began on October 7, 2023, killed more than 56,000 Palestinians.
“These planes can be used to refuel and have been used to fill up on Israeli hunting jets,” said Siddiqui, adding that British Norton planes go to the British Air Force in Cyprus, from where they are “sent to spy missions and that intelligence is shared with the Israeli government and Israeli air forces and the air forces Israeli ”.
Last year, the British Air Force said it had participated in large -scale aidrops in Gaza. The Air Force said on April 9, 2024, it was involved in hundreds of help to turn off.
“The quantity of abandoned aid is an absolute decrease in the ocean,” said Siddiqui, adding that the UN says that around 2,300 tonnes of aid are necessary to meet the daily needs of Gaza.
The act of vandalism committed to Raf Brize Norton is shameful.
Our armed forces represent the best of Great Britain and bring their lives into play every day.
It is our responsibility to support those who defend us.
– Keir Starmer (@keir_starmer) June 20, 2025
How did Palestine Action react to the threat of ban?
In a press release published on its profile X Tuesday, Palestine Action said: “The real crime here is not a red painting being sprayed on these war aircraft, but war crimes that have been compatible with these planes due to the complicity of the British government in the genocide of Israel.”
The declaration also accuses Starmer of “hypocrisy” since the Prime Minister in 2003 argued the demonstrators who broke into a RAF base to prevent American bombers from heading to Iraq. At the time, Starmer was a lawyer.
“I think it is a very instinctive reaction of an embarrassed government, and it is an exaggerated reaction,” said Siddiqui.
Siddiqui said it was unprecedented for Palestine Action to deal with the ban. “The majority of the proscribed groups are international. The majority of them take measures in a very, very different way. Action in Palestine would be a complete aberrant value. It is a draconian approach for the government to stifle the protests that they simply do not like. It is really terrifying for anyone cares about civil freedoms in the United Kingdom. ”
In all, 81 groups are prohibited in the United Kingdom under the 2,000-terrorism law. They include political movements with armed wings, such as Hamas and Hezbollah, as well as armed groups such as the Islamic State (Isil), Al-Qaeda and Tehreek-E Taliban Pakistan.
What are the other reactions to the possible ban?
On Monday, Sacha Deshmukh, Director General of Amnesty International UK, said in a press release: “The United Kingdom has a too wide definition of terrorism and to proscribe a direct action protest group such as action in Palestine risks illegal interference with the fundamental rights of freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly.”
He declared that regular criminal law and appropriate human rights protections were sufficient to respond to direct action demonstrators such as those affiliated with action in Palestine.
Deshmukh added that the decision to prohibit action in Palestine risks “the rights to the freedom of expression of many other activists who are deeply concerned about the fate of the Palestinians in the context of the continuous genocide of Israel in Gaza”.
The London -based advocacy organization, Cage International, also reacted to the announcement. In a press release published on her website, Naila Ahmed, campaign manager at Cage International, said: “We are absolutely solidarity with the action of Palestine in their campaign to dismantle the Zionist war machine and put an end to the genocide in Gaza. Terrorism and the laws on proscription are now frightening.
The Irish author Sally Rooney, known for books, including his normal PEOPLE 2018 novel, wrote an opinion article published by The Guardian on Sunday entitled “Israel kills innocent Palestinians. Activists sprayed an airplane. Guess that the British government calls terrorism. “
Rooney wrote that the activists who vandalized Brize Norton knew that what they did was illegal. “From suffrages to the movement of homosexuals to the fight anti-apartheid, real political resistance has always involved intentional break-ins.
“But to proscribe an entire organization under the law on terrorism is not the same as to pursue special individuals for specific transgressions … Even support the group purely in words – as I do now – could also constitute a serious legal offense, liable to a sentence that can go up to 14 years in prison.”
What is the next step?
Cooper said that a project for a proscription order against an action in Palestine would be presented in the British Parliament on June 30.
If it is adopted, the prohibition would become the law, which makes it illegal to become a member of the group or to invite its support.
According to the law on terrorism, sanctions include up to 14 years in prison and a fine.
Siddiqui said the group would legally challenge the proposed order. Palestine Action declared in an X post that the group had “informed lawyers who will fight against the attempt by the interior secretary to prohibit our movement”. The group has created an online fundraising for legal action, accepting donations from supporters. On Wednesday at 8:00 am, the group received more than 79,000 pounds ($ 107,000) on its 100,000 pound target ($ 140,000).
“At this stage, action in Palestine is not yet a forbidden organization and we will continue to be an action in Palestine. I think it is extremely crucial for all people who care about civil freedoms to fight against such acts,” said Siddiqui.
