Government to ban Palestine Action, home secretary confirms

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper says she has decided to proscribe Palestine Action under anti-terror law.

This effectively brands the group a terrorist organisation and, if passed in Parliament, would make membership of and support of the group illegal.

Activists from the group broke into RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire last week and spray-painted military planes red.

The announcement came as Palestine Action held a protest in central London, with hundreds in attendance and at least three arrests made as scuffles broke out.

Cooper described the vandalism at the RAF base as a “disgraceful attack” and that the group had a “long history of unacceptable criminal damage”.

“The UK’s defence enterprise is vital to the nation’s national security and this Government will not tolerate those that put that security at risk,” she added.

Following the attack on the base last week, Palestine Action said: “Despite publicly condemning the Israeli government, Britain continues to send military cargo, fly spy planes over Gaza and refuel US and Israeli fighter jets.”

Reacting to news that the government would move to ban it on Friday, it added: “When our government fails to uphold their moral and legal obligations, it is the responsibility of ordinary citizens to take direct action.”

Cooper will lay the draft order before Parliament next week.

If passed, the ban would make it a criminal offence to belong to or support the group, punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

Cooper said in a written statement: “This decision is specific to Palestine Action and does not affect lawful protest groups and other organisations campaigning on issues around Palestine or the Middle East.”

She added that the group had committed several acts of serious damage since it was created in 2020, costing more than £1m in damage.

In 2022, the group broke into Thales defence factory in Glasgow, setting off pyrotechnics and throwing a smoke bomb into an area where staff were being evacuated.

The damage at the site was estimated at £1,130,783.

Cooper also referenced two incidents last year, when seven Palestine Action members were arrested for aggravated burglary at the Instro Precision factory in Kent, while several others broke into the Bristol HQ of Elbit Systems UK.

“I have considered carefully the nature and scale of Palestine Action’s activity. Proscription represents a legitimate response to the threat posed by Palestine Action,” Cooper added.

Hundreds of people met at Trafalgar Square after police banned them from protesting outside of Parliament.

Organisers made the last-minute venue change after Scotland Yard enforced an exclusion zone across much of Westminster.

Metropolitan Police chief Sir Mark Rowley said while the force had no legal power to stop the protest, they would impose the conditions “robustly”.

Charing Cross, next to Trafalgar Square, was blocked for a time as the protesters gathered.

Some supporters of the group waved Palestinian flags and carried placards, with other protesters chanting: “We will not be silenced.”

The Met said two people had been arrested for obstruction, with a third arrest earlier for a racially aggravated public order offence.

Labour peer and activist Baroness and Shami Chakrabarti said ahead of Cooper’s statement that while she did not advocate criminal activity in protest, she felt proscription was a “step too far.”

Nadia Whittome, Labour MP for Nottingham East, said that the move is a misuse of terrorism-related powers.

“We should all be concerned about plans to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist group. It sets a dangerous precedent, which governments in future could further use against their critics,” she wrote on X.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves condemned Palestine Action’s behaviour as “totally unacceptable”.

“To cause damage to military assets, but also to cause such damage to privately owned assets, it is unacceptable whatever your views are on what’s happening in the Middle East,” she said ahead of Cooper’s statement.