UK Court of Appeals confirms Palestine Action proscription decision
By Lawrence Nowosenetz
The British group called Palestine Action (PA) was founded in 2020 and has been active in acts of violence and destruction of property at various sites in the UK. It has made well publicised threats and incitement. It’s stated goal being directed against what it regards as Israel’s “genocidal” and “apartheid regime“. This secretive and criminally minded group has now been confirmed to be unlawful in the UK.
Under the Terrorism Act of 2000, the UK Home Secretary has the power to proscribe (ban) any organisation believed to be engaged in terrorism. In June 2025, the Home Office designated Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation and this was announced to Parliament on 23 June 2025. After approval by positive resolutions of both Houses of Parliament, on 5 July 2025, the order implementing the proscription of Palestine Action came into effect.
The banning was challenged by Ms Ammori, a leader of PA, and the Divisional Court upheld this challenge setting aside the proscription ruling. This was based on two grounds: Firstly, that the Home Secretary did not correctly apply the proscription policy and secondly that the proscription disproportionately interfered with individual rights under the European Convention of Human Rights.
The Home Secretary appealed against this decision on both grounds and sought to restore her proscription ruling. The Court of Appeals fully upheld the Home Minister and restored her proscription decision in a judgment dated 15 June 2026.
The appeal has highlighted the disturbing nature of PA and its underlying ideology.
The court considered the shadowy structure and operations of PA. According to the official judiciary press summary:
“It held that the content of Palestine Action’s “Underground Manual” was revealing; evidence from or on behalf of Ms Ammori provided surprisingly little information about Palestine Action; the extent and nature of Palestine Action’s membership and organisation were largely unexplained; the lack of information was intentional and consistent with the image cultivated by Palestine Action in its “Underground Manual” of being a covert organisation; Palestine Action operated through cells of trusted people who were encouraged to avoid identification or detection and were advised on “smashing stuff” with a sledgehammer, and encouraged to be “creative” and to disrupt targets “without restraint.”
The Court rejected the notion of PA as a peaceful protest movement operating in the open but rather a covert organisation avoiding detection and prosecution with unidentifiable cells. It said in considered and restrained terms:
“Palestine Action could not properly be portrayed as a non-violent organisation; it was not accurate to describe it as an ordinary protest group engaged in activities falling within the well-established tradition of peaceful protest. It was engaged in causing serious damage to property. It presented a very real risk of injury not only to property but also to members of the public. Its campaign was intended to close down the operations of a company pursuing a lawful business by intimidation, not persuasion.”
The court noted that:
“…many individuals have been arrested and/or charged for offences under the 2000 Act in respect of Palestine Action; there are currently over 700 cases pending in the criminal courts of England and Wales, and many more at the pre-charge stage.” (Judgment paragraph 6)
The activities of PA have included dramatic acts of violence and destruction targeting companies both British and Israeli manufacturing defence equipment for the IDF:
Elbit Systems have been a primary target. In 2021 members of the group clad in red boiler suits unlawfully clambered onto the roof of an Elbit owned UAV (drone) factory and staged an occupation lasting 6 days. Charges were laid against 10 members for conspiracy to commit criminal damage and aggravated trespass.
In 2022, protesters chained themselves to a gate of an Elbit UAV subsidiary. On 6 August 2024, at Elbit’s Aztec West compound, six activists driving a van, breached the security fences and entered the facility causing substantial damage to property and equipment. This episode resulted in confrontations with security personnel and police, in which a police officer sustained a fracture to her lumbar spine.
These actions contributed to multi-day shutdowns and potentially contributed to the loss of a £2.1bn contract between Elbit UK and the Ministry of Defence.
On 16 March 2025, Elbit’s Aztec West site was targeted by four Palestine Action activists with a crane mounted vehicle and a hammer attached to a rope to smash second floor windows and daub red paint on the building. They were arrested on the site with all being charged with conspiracy to damage property and three being charged with one count of assault by beating.
In June 2025, members of PA gained access to a RAF facility and sprayed red paint into the engines of two RAF Airbus A330 refuelling planes. This caused serious damage and can be regarded as sabotage.
Cambridge University has also been targeted. In 2024, PA activists defaced a historic portrait of politician Arthur Balfour with spray paint at Trinity College, Cambridge in protest apparently of the 1917 Balfour Declaration. The historic Senate House and Old Schools building were also spraying red paint by PA in subsequent incidents.
BLUEN BABBLE
South African Jo Bluen of SA Jews for a Free Palestine, is an ardent supporter of PA. In her post on X dated 10 August 2025, she responded to the arrest by British police of a blind protester holding a sign supporting PA. In her inimitable Bluen babble:
“May these ziofascist and zioliberal met police in the imperial metropole know no peace as the colonial carceral guard of the western apparatus of genocidal complicity in the settler colonial ethnic cleansing, barbarism, holocausts, the ongoing Nakba in Palestine. Across the colonised world.
British, ‘brutish, nasty and in shorts’. British, brutish, from Balfour to Bibi.”
The British authorities are aware of Ms. Bluen’s activities and ideological alignment. She may face visa difficulties with the UK following a complaint to the Home Office.
The proscription of PA is a clear and unequivocal message to the world, that no amount of propaganda, lies and hatred towards Israel can mask the lawless, brutal, ugly, violent face of those who hide behind this mask to commit acts of incitement to hatred, destruction of property and injury to persons.
*Feature photo: Palestine Action activists take part in a protest after the government announced its plans to proscribe the group. (Photo: Neil Hall/EPA-EFE)
About the writer:
Born in Pretoria Lawrence Nowosenetz obtained his BA at University of the Witwatersrand and LLB at the University of South Africa. He has been admitted as an Attorney in South Africa and as an advocate in South Africa. He practiced at the Pretoria and Johannesburg Bar and worked as a human rights and labour lawyer at the Legal Resources Centre a public interest law firm. Lawrence was Awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and completed professional internship in the USA. He was a a labour arbitrator and mediator, part time Senior Commissioner at the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) as well as a panelist at Tokiso Dispute Settlement. He was a member of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies and Pretoria Chairman. He has also served as an Acting Judge of the High Court, South Africa. He now lives in Tel Aviv.
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