LONDON: London&#39;s high court on Friday upheld a challenge to a government ban on activist group <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/palestine-action-launches-court-bid-to-overturn-uk-government-ban" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">Palestine Action</a>, saying the proscription had interfered with the right to freedom of speech. A three-judge panel at the court found the ban was &quot;<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/almost-900-people-arrested-at-london-palestine-action-protest,-police-say" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">disproportionate</a>&quot; and resulted in a &quot;very significant interference with the right to freedom of speech and free assembly&quot;. UK interior minister Shabana Mahmood said she was &quot;disappointed&quot; and would appeal against the ruling. Palestine Action remains banned to allow the government to contest the decision, judges said. Cheers erupted among dozens of protesters gathered outside the building when the ruling was announced. The government ban made being a member of Palestine Action or demonstrating support for it a serious criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison. It put Palestine Action on a blacklist that also includes Palestinian militants Hamas and the Lebanese Iran-backed group Hezbollah, and sparked a severe backlash. But Judge Victoria Sharp, reading out a summary of the judgement in court, said only &quot;a very small number&quot; of Palestine Action&#39;s activities &quot;amounted to acts of terrorism&quot;. The proscription led to nearly 3,000 arrests, primarily for people carrying placards defending the group, according to protest organisers Defend Our Juries. Hundreds have also been charged and face court hearings. &quot;We won,&quot; Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori, who launched the challenge, wrote on social media after the ruling. Outside the court, people waving Palestinian flags and wearing keffiyah scarves cheered and hugged each other. One protester with a megaphone said: &quot;Palestine action is BACK!&quot;. &#39;Over the moon&#39;Niall Pemberton, a 58-year-old retiree who has been arrested four times at pro-Palestine Action demonstrations, told AFP he was &quot;over the moon&quot;. &quot;I think it shows that we were right that direct action groups should not be proscribed as terrorist organisations,&quot; said Pemberton. Unlike previous protests where police have detained people carrying placards supporting Palestine Action, they did not arrest those at the demonstration on Friday, the Defend Our Juries campaign group noted. The government banned Palestine Action in July, days after activists protesting against Israel&#39;s military assault on Gaza broke into an air force base in southern England and caused millions of pounds worth of damage to two aircraft. United Nations rights chief Volker Turk previously called the move &quot;disproportionate and unnecessary&quot;. The UK government had insisted that some of the supporters of the group &quot;don&#39;t know the full nature of this organisation&quot;. &quot;The proscription of Palestine Action followed a rigorous and evidence-based decision-making process, endorsed by parliament,&quot; Mahmood said in a statement after the judgement. But the court concluded &quot;the claimant&#39;s claim is allowed. Subject to any further representations on relief, we propose to make an order quashing the Home Secretary&#39;s decision to proscribe Palestine Action.&quot; &#39;Right the wrongs&#39;In a recent interview with Britain&#39;s Channel 4, Ammori insisted it &quot;was about saving lives in Palestine&quot;. &quot;It&#39;s the very opposite of what a terrorist organisation is to most people,&quot; she added. &quot;Together we took action at great personal risk... We helped make this proscription unenforceable,&quot; Defend the Juries said in a statement after the ruling. It called for a meeting with Mahmood and Metropolitan Police chiefs &quot;to right the wrongs of the ban&quot;. Set up in 2020, Palestine Action&#39;s stated goal on its now-blocked website is to end &quot;global participation in Israel&#39;s genocidal and apartheid regime&quot;. It has mainly targeted weapons factories, especially those belonging to the Israeli defence group Elbit Systems.

United Kingdom

London’s High Court rules that the UK government’s ban on activist group Palestine Action was disproportionate and violated free speech rights.

Activist group Palestine Action wins legal challenge against UK ban

LONDON:&nbsp;The co-founder of activist group Palestine Action will on Wednesday challenge a UK government ban under anti-terror laws that has led to mass arrests, sparking free speech and civil liberties concerns. United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk has said the ban &ldquo;appears disproportionate and unnecessary,&rdquo; while Europe&rsquo;s human rights watchdog, the Council of Europe, criticised &ldquo;excessive limits&rdquo; on the right to protest. The UK government proscribed the pro-Palestinian group in July, days after activists protesting the war in Gaza broke into an air force base in southern England. Prosecutors have said they caused an estimated &pound;7 million ($9.3 million) of damage to two aircraft at the base. The legal action brought by the group&rsquo;s co-founder, Huda Ammori, at London&rsquo;s High Court is expected to last from Wednesday to Thursday, with a third day to be set at a later stage. The ban &mdash; which makes being a member of the group or inviting support for it a serious criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison &mdash; has resulted in at least 2,300 arrests, according to protest organizers Defend Our Juries. Those arrested include students, teachers, pensioners, and even an 83-year-old retired vicar, with many carried away from the protests by police. According to London&rsquo;s Met Police, so far 254 people have been charged with a lesser offence that carries a sentence of up to six months. The proscription under the Terrorism Act 2000 means the group has been added to a list that also includes al-Qaida and Hezbollah. The interior ministry, or Home Office, has accused Palestine Action of conducting an &ldquo;escalating campaign&rdquo; involving &ldquo;sustained criminal damage,&rdquo; including to Britain&rsquo;s national security infrastructure. It also accuses the group of &ldquo;intimidation, alleged violence, and serious injuries.&rdquo; &#39;Not non-violent&#39;At a court hearing on Thursday, prosecutors alleged a Palestine Action activist struck a police officer with a sledgehammer at an Israel-based defence firm&rsquo;s UK site after breaking into the factory in western Bristol in August. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, defending the ban in August, said some supporters of the group &ldquo;don&rsquo;t know the full nature of this organisation because of court restrictions on reporting while serious prosecutions are underway.&rdquo; &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s really important that no one is in any doubt that this is not a non-violent organisation,&rdquo; she said, adding the government had received &ldquo;clear security assessments and advice&rdquo; before opting for a ban. Set up in 2020, the group&rsquo;s stated goal on its now-blocked website is to end &ldquo;global participation in Israel&rsquo;s genocidal and apartheid regime.&rdquo; It has mainly targeted weapons factories, especially those belonging to the Israeli defence group Elbit. Since the ban came into force on July 5, protesters have held a string of rallies at which they have held up signs saying: &ldquo;I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.&rdquo; Award-winning British film director Ken Loach has called the ban on Palestine Action &ldquo;absurd&rdquo; and accused the government of being complicit in Israel&rsquo;s &ldquo;incredible crimes&rdquo; in Gaza. &ldquo;This level of political repression is not what we expect in a democracy &mdash; it&rsquo;s the kind of tactic typically associated with authoritarian regimes around the world,&rdquo; a spokesperson for Defend Our Juries said. Areeba Hamid, co-executive director of Greenpeace UK, said the government had broken past pledges that the Terrorism Act would not be used to prosecute people taking direct action. &ldquo;Classifying a protest group as a &lsquo;terrorist organisation&rsquo; should send a chill down your spine,&rdquo; Hamid said. &ldquo;Progressive change is rarely made by any government without pressure from the public, and removing our right to protest is an erosion of democracy,&rdquo; she said.

A protester is escorted away by police officers for taking part in a demonstration in support of "Defend Our Juries" and their campaign against the ban on Palestine Action, outside Britain's Ministry of Justice in London on November 20, 2025. (Photo by Ch

The co-founder of activist group Palestine Action will on Wednesday challenge a UK government ban under anti-terror laws that has led to mass arrests, sparking free speech and civil liberties concerns.

Articles tagged with "Palestine Action"

Activist group Palestine Action wins legal challenge against UK ban

Palestine Action launches court bid to overturn UK government ban