Palestine Action website with more than 200 British targets still accessible in the UK

An investigation into Palestine Action has revealed that a website linked to the organisation, which identifies more than 200 UK based targets, is still accessible in Britain, despite the group having been proscribed as terrorists more than a year ago.

As reported by The Times, an investigation by the Henry Jackson Society revealed that the “Palestine Action Global” website can be reached by users in the UK. As well as an interactive global map – which includes hundreds of UK-based locations for potential attack – it also enables visitors to use bank cards to make a contribution to the group, with a cryptocurrency option also available.

Launched in 2020 in the UK, Palestine Action carried out a series of attacks on locations which it deemed to be linked to Israel, with the frequency of such attacks increasing after the start of the latest war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. The group was banned in the UK in July last year, after the organisation published footage of its activists infiltrating the UK’s largest air force base and damaging military aircraft. Since then, the government has faced a number of legal challenges against its decision to proscribe the organisation, with the UK Supreme Court understood to be hearing the case later this year.

The Henry Jackson Society said that the branding on the “global” website, which appears to be based in the EU, was the same as the branding which the UK organisation had employed prior to being banned. It also said that the website had received more than 31,000 visitors over the last six months.

Alan Mendoza, executive director of the Henry Jackson Society, told the Times: “Proscribed terrorist organisations must not be allowed to operate in Britain, let alone raise funds through mainstream payment systems.”

The website currently offers visitors the ability to provide funds via Stripe, an Irish-American payment process company, with dual headquarters in Dublin and San Francisco. Last week, the US Treasury officially designated Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation, which among other things made it illegal for US citizens or companies to provide goods and services to the group.

Yesterday UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) wrote to Stripe, warning them that continuing to process payments for Palestine Action could breach US sanctions. Since then, the ability to process funds via Stripe appears to have been removed from the Palestine Action Global website.

A UKLFI spokesperson said: “If Stripe has acted to terminate Palestine Action’s access to its payment services, that would be an important and appropriate consequence of the US designation.

“We hope Stripe will now confirm what action it has taken and what has happened to any Palestine Action funds that may have been in its possession or control.”

Palestine Action told The Times that, while the organisation had started in England, it had since “expanded across the world, with several groups forming across continents…“Palestine Action is only proscribed in the United Kingdom. Therefore, Palestine Action Global does not include any groups in that region. This means people in Britain and the North of Ireland are legally able to share and support this platform.”

Under UK law, any organisations deemed to be “for all practical purposes” the same as a proscribed group can be subject to action from the authorities.

UKLFI also wrote to Barclays Bank, which holds funds on behalf of Stripe in the UK, alerting them to the US Sanctions which could affect them, if they are holding funds for Palestine Action on behalf of Stripe. Barclays Bank has itself been a key target of Palestine Action in recent years.