Government fails in legal bid to block Palestine Action appeal
Court of appeal rules that the terrorist organisation can officially challenge its designation via a judicial review this November
The terrorist group Palestine Action will be allowed to challenge its designation as a proscribed organisation, after the UK government lost a court of appeals case in which it had sought to prevent a judicial review of its decision.
The government had sought to argue that there was a specific mechanism, separate from judicial review, which allowed for appeals against proscription. This argument was rejected, meaning that Palestine Action will be able to officially challenge its designated status as part of a judicial review process to be held in November.
Founded in 2020, Palestine Action’s sought to attack institutions identified as being ‘complicit’ in the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinians. The group’s most prominent targets included a range of defence sites around the country – but also included Jewish charities with links to Israel, and a site in the heart of Stamford Hill’s Jewish community, which the group said had contained a company which had let a property to an Israeli arms firm. Despite claims by some supporters of the group endorsing non-violence, police officers responding to a break-in by the group at a site near Bristol earlier this year had to seek hospital treatment after being attacked by members of the group.
Jewish communal organisations had long sought a ban on the group, but action was taken after Palestine Action posted a video on its social media channels of members of the group infiltrating Britain’s largest RAF base and causing damage to two military transport planes.
Proscription of a group as a terrorist organisation means that being a member of the group or expressing support for it becomes a criminal offence. Since the group’s ban in July, another organisation called “Defend Our Juries” has organised a series of events where hundreds simultaneously break the law by expressing public support for Palestine Action, leading to their arrest by the police. More than 2,000 arrests have been made in the last four months; the explicit aim of such protests is to seek to overwhelm the ability of the police to properly enforce the law.
Representatives associated with Palestine Action hailed the court of appeals decision as a “landmark victory”.
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