UK court upholds pro-Palestinian group’s ‘terror’ label

United Kingdom (AFP) — London’s Appeals Court on Monday upheld a UK government ban on activist group Palestine Action that has seen thousands of people — from students to an 83-year-old retired vicar — arrested and carried away from protests by police.

The ban, which came into force on 5 July 2025, was imposed under the country’s Terrorism Act.

It made membership of or support for the pro-Palestinian group a criminal offense punishable by up to 14 years in prison under the counter-terrorism legislation.

Palestine Action’s co-founder Huda Ammori had challenged the ban, but the Court of Appeal ruled “the proscription decision was not unlawful,” saying it was “justified and proportionate.”

Palestine Action “is not, as it claims, a direct action civil disobedience protest group like the suffragettes operating transparently in the open,” said judge Sue Carr, one of a panel of five judges, reading their decision.

Describing the group as “a covert organization operating with secret cells,” she added it was “a fundamental mistake to overlook the fact that Palestine Action overtly promotes unlawful violence amounting to terrorism.”

The ban, which has led to more than 3,000 arrests, puts the group on a government blacklist that also includes Palestinian militants Hamas and the Lebanese Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah.

Ammori vowed on X to appeal to the Supreme Court and “take it up to the European Court of Human Rights, if needs be.”

In a statement read outside the court, Palestine Action vowed: “We will not stop fighting to overturn one of the most extreme attacks on free speech and the right to protest in modern British history.”

Amnesty International UK’s legal program director Tom Southerden said the ruling “represents another step in the ongoing crackdown on the right to protest in this country.”