If the government loses the Palestine Action fight, it will prove it cannot keep us safe
If Friday's High Court decision is not overturned, it will be a signal not just to the country but to the world that the British state is a joke
In a judgment announced on Friday morning, High Court judges ruled that the Government’s proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation was unlawful. The organisation remains banned, pending further legal arguments – but the response from Islamists, the far-left, and a percentage of remarkably naïve centrists, has predictably been celebratory.
By contrast, the response from within the Jewish community has not been anger as much as it has been a sort of numb resignation. For many – not just British Jews, but wider society – the words “judicial review” have often come to mean “individuals attempting to use the courts to frustrate local, regional or central government”. And a series of such cases have seen a slump in general confidence in the British legal system.
No doubt this is where the many fine Jewish legal minds of my acquaintance will jump in to correct me. And they are right. I am not a legal expert, by any stretch of the imagination. But it is hard for me to look at this judgment without seeing various things which appear inexplicable to me – an ordinary citizen.
For one thing, there was the court’s admission, as the government said in its response to the verdict (which the Home Secretary has rightly said she will challenge) that Palestine Action “has carried out acts of terrorism, celebrated those who have taken part in those acts and promoted the use of violence”. As the government went on to say, the court “also concluded that Palestine Action is not an ordinary protest or civil disobedience group, and that its actions are not consistent with democratic values and the rule of law.”
To be clear, the judgement itself said the following: “A very small number of Palestine Action’s activities amounted to acts of terrorism within the definition of section 1 of the 2000 Act. For these, and for Palestine Action’s other criminal activities, the general criminal law remains available. The nature and scale of Palestine Action’s activities falling within the definition of terrorism had not yet reached the level, scale and persistence to warrant proscription.”
I submit that most laypeople will find this hard to understand. If health inspectors find that a restaurant has sewage pipes leaking in multiple places into food preparation areas, one would assume that the whole restaurant would be shut down rather than kitchen staff told they can only cook dishes in one corner of the kitchen.
How many acts of terror must a group carry out before it is to be considered a terrorist group, exactly? Ten? One hundred? One thousand?
If a healthcare facility for the elderly is found to have multiple staff who have treated their charges appallingly, one would again assume that the authorities would not simply shrug, talk about ‘a few bad apples’ who should be fired, and move on. Most people would assume that if such things are taking place, then the institution as a whole should be seen as acutely dangerous and treated accordingly – and even more so when we are talking about terrorism. Instead, the opposite appears to be true. How many acts of terror must a group carry out before it is to be considered a terrorist group, exactly? Ten? One hundred? One thousand?
Similarly, the judges’ contention that “the general criminal law remains available” will come as small comfort to those who have seen Palestine Action members let off after being charged with serious crimes.
What this decision means is that Palestine Action will soon resume its array of criminal activities – with an even stronger sense of the entitlement they have previously displayed. The police response will be even more sluggish and confused – the Met Police have released a statement today that since the High Court’s decision, they will no longer arrest people expressing support for the group, but will instead “gather evidence of those offences and the people involved to provide opportunities for enforcement at a later date”. This will inevitably lead to a significant increase in those expressing open support for the group – it’s a chance to demonstrate rebelliousness with a significantly reduced risk of consequences.
The government is determined to fight this decision, and it should. Because if it is allowed to stand, it is a signal not just to the country but to the world that the British state is a joke – unable to even proscribe a group which broke into the country’s largest air force base and damaged military transports.
But it will also be a signal to many British Jews. Palestine Action also targeted Jewish charities and businesses, due to what it described as their Israel links. Jewish communal groups urged the government to act, and while there is little suggestion that such representations were ultimately responsible for last year’s proscription decision, that action was a major step that the government could point to as evidence that they were listening and acting on Jewish community concerns.
If that disappears, then so does any remaining scrap of confidence that British Jews will have in this government. How can they protect us when they can’t even succeed in proscribing a group which the judges themselves admit has committed acts of terrorism?
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