Newspaper accused of ‘grotesque’ whitewash of Palestine Action in fawning front-page interview

The Observer newspaper has been condemned by Jewish communal voices after publishing a sympathetic front-page interview with the co-founder of Palestine Action, with one group describing the editorial decision as “grotesque”.

Days after a Supreme Court hearing as to whether the government’s proscription of the group was legally valid, the Sunday national paper featured Huda Ammori, who brought the legal challenge, on its front page, along with the quote “It was beyond our comprehension that Palestine Action could become a terrorist organisation”, going on to say that “everything we were doing was to save lives in Palestine”.

The Jewish Leadership Council and Community Security Trust were permitted to intervene in the appeal, with their submission being published last week. It argued, among other things, that “the evidence before this Court is that in the period leading up to its proscription, PA’s crosshairs moved from Elbit [an Israeli weapons firm], to Elbit’s landlords, insurers and bankers, to ‘tertiary’ targets chosen for ‘propaganda value’, including a focus on figures or institutions deemed by PA to be ‘Zionist’, which in practice incorporates important parts of the Jewish community.

“Because most British Jews and Jewish institutions have a connection with Israel, a campaign against institutions PA’s activists consider to be ‘complicit’ with Israel is, in practice, a campaign that threatens the mainstream Jewish community.”

Writing on X in response to the Observer’s front page, David Toube, the JLC’s general counsel, made his personal thoughts very clear: “Just in case you were in any doubt as to where the husk of The Observer stands on the whole ‘smashing up our defence industry, crippling a Policewoman, and terrorising Jews’ issue”, he said.

Just in case you were in any doubt as to where the husk of The Observer stands on the whole "smashing up our defence industry, crippling a Policewoman, and terrorising Jews" issue pic.twitter.com/sSv0Mu9Tqb

— David Toube (@davidtoube) November 8, 2026

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “For The Observer to print a fawning interview with the founder of a proscribed terrorist organisation on its front page is grotesque. Presumably if Palestine Action targeted minorities other than Jews, the newspaper would be condemning it without restraint, but perhaps because it is the Jewish community that has felt the brunt of Palestine Action’s intimidatory and violent criminality, The Observer is unmoved – or perhaps even delighted. This was a shameful editorial decision.”

The CAA spokesperson went on to say that the organisation had been “watching the recent Supreme Court proceedings very closely and hope the justices will deliver the right judgment.”

No date has yet been given for the final judgement to be rendered by the Supreme Court on the proscription of Palestine Action.

The Observer has been contacted for comment.