Police arrested more than 100 of the group’s supporters in London on Thursday
The co-founder of Palestine Action has been granted permission to challenge the group’s prohibition at the British Supreme Court, as police arrested hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists in London.
The court ruled on Thursday that Huda Ammori, who co-founded Palestine Action in 2020, could appeal the proscription later this year. Palestine Action was listed as a terrorist organization last July, and although Britain’s High Court ruled the ban unlawful earlier this year, an appeals court later reinstated it, citing the group’s “support for violence.”
“We will continue to fight this proscription all the way to the Supreme Court and, if necessary, to the European Court of Human Rights to overturn what has become one of the most extreme attacks on free speech and the right to protest in modern British history,” Ammori said in a statement.
The ban placed Palestine Action in the same legal category as Al Qaeda and the IRA, and criminalized public displays of support for the organization. More than 3,500 Palestine Action sympathizers have since been arrested for displaying t-shirts, flags, and placards supporting the group at protests.
As the first trials for these Palestine Action supporters were scheduled to begin at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London on Thursday, police arrested another 115 people outside the courthouse for expressions of support for the group.
Palestine Action was proscribed by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, who served under former Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Starmer led a nationwide crackdown on pro-Palestine activism, following the ban with calls for the “policing of language” and banning of anti-Israel protests.
Starmer’s replacement, Andy Burnham, has said that the Labour Party “didn’t get it right” on the war on Gaza and “needs to do better.” However, Burnham’s home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has left the prohibition in place.
Last month, four Palestine Action members were sentenced as terrorists for vandalizing an Israeli arms plant near Bristol in 2024. After ramming their way into the Elbit Systems factory with a decommissioned prison van, they destroyed computers, drones, and other equipment inside, causing around £1.2 million ($1.6 million) in damage.
