Israel's war on Gaza: Who are Palestine Action?

Middle East Eye

6 hours ago

The British government is set to ban the direct action group Palestine Action under anti-terror legislation after activists broke into RAF Brize Norton earlier this month and spray-painted two planes.
The group said the airbase was targeted because flights leave there daily "for RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, a base used for military operations in Gaza and across the Middle East". The activists damaged Airbus Voyager aircraft, which carry military cargo and refuel fighter jets and military planes.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has said she will bring legislation to proscribe the group before Parliament on 30 June.
If passed, it will designate Palestine Action as a proscribed terrorist organisation, making it illegal not only to be a member of the group but also to show support for it.
It would mark the first time a direct action group has been proscribed in the UK, placing Palestine Action on a par with al-Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria under British law.
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Direct action involves tactics, including protests, boycotts, strikes and damage to property, rather than appealing to institutions and politicians. Examples include the Suffragettes, the American civil rights movement and ACTUP, a grass roots political group which fought to end the AIDS epidemic during the early 1980s.
MEE looks at the group and whether it meets the criteria for proscription.
Who are Palestine Action?
Palestine Action was founded in 2020 after activists broke into and spray painted the London headquarters of Israel's largest arms firm, UK-based Elbit Systems.
Its network of activists have subsequently used tactics, including direct action, to target what it says are the 'corporate enablers of the Israeli military-industrial complex', often breaking into offices and factories to spraypaint or damage equipment they say is used to commit war crimes in occupied Palestine.
Elbit Systems is the group's primary target, prompting multiple companies to sever ties with the defence contractor, and costing the company 'billions' in lost contracts and divestments, according to Palestine Action.
Barclays, which owned 16,000 shares in Elbit Systems, divested from the contractors in October, while the UK's Ministry of Defence cancelled £280m worth of contracts with the company.
Many of its activists have previously been acquitted by juries, on the grounds of "defence of necessity", namely that the damage to property was justified as it was intended to prevent deaths.
'Repressive': UK government confirms Palestine Action terror proscription as hundreds rally Read More »
But these defences have been systemically removed, using anti-protest legislation which has expanded police powers to crack down on peaceful protest, and impose increasingly severe sentences for those activists found guilty.
This culminated with the unprecedented use of terror charges against a group of Palestine Action activists known as the Filton 18.
In August last year, six activists drove a modified van into Elbit System's research and development hub in Filton, Bristol. The activists dismantled weapons, including quadcopter drone models deployed by Israel in its war on Gaza, causing £1m ($1.24m) in damage.
The six activists were arrested at the scene for violent disorder and assault. A further 12 activists were rounded up in connection with the action by counter-terrorism police in two waves of raids.
They were subsequently charged with non-terror related offences, including aggravated burglary and criminal damage.
But because they were arrested for terrorism offences, the 18 have been held on remand under counter-terror powers until their trial in November. By then they will have been detained for more than a year - far longer than the usual six-month (182 days) detention limit for those facing trial. The move has been denounced by UN experts.
The Crown Prosecution Service, which is prosecuting the case, has said that it intends to argue the offences they allege the Filton 18 committed have a 'terrorist connection', which could aggravate their sentence.
Activists have also been arrested under anti-organised crime laws intended to target individuals on the periphery of criminal gangs, and tried on charges of conspiracy to blackmail.
What is proscription?
Proscription bans membership of, or support for, an organisation under the Terrorism Act 2000. Proscription offences can carry sentences of up to 14 years in prison.
First, the government needs to consider whether a group has commited, encouraged or is 'otherwise concerned with terrorism'.
The legislation defines 'terrorism' in this context as the use or threat of action which
- involves serious violence against a person
- involves serious damage to property
- endangers a person's life
- creates a serious risk to the health or safety of the public or section of the public or is designed seriously to interfere with or seriously to disrupt an electronic system.
Then, the home secretary will consider whether to proscribe the organisation, based on a number of criteria, according to the Home Office
- the nature and scale of an organisation's activities
- the specific threat that it poses to the UK
- the specific threat that it poses to British nationals overseas
- the extent of the organisation's presence in the UK
- the need to support other members of the international community in the global fight against terrorism.
At time of writing, 81 organisations are proscribed under the Terrorism Act 2000; and a further 14 organisations in Northern Ireland were proscribed under earlier legislation.
Does Palestine Action meet the threshold for proscription?
In assessing whether Palestine Action is eligible for proscription, the UK government appears to be focusing on what Cooper has described as the 'serious damage to property' it caused at Brize Norton on 20 June.
In a written statement on 23 June, Cooper said the action was 'the latest in a long history of unacceptable criminal damage committed by Palestine Action' and that 'the UK's defence enterprise is vital to the nation's national security'.
She said police estimated that Palestine Action operations had incurred 'millions of pounds' worth of damage since its launch in 2020.
Kelly's Solicitors, which specialises in political and protest-related work, and represents Palestine Action, has argued in a letter to Cooper that a 'significant number' of the group's activities have employed 'entirely conventional campaigning methods such as marches, rallies and demos'.
Laura O'Brien, head of the protest team at Hodge Jones & Allen Solicitors, told MEE: 'Palestine Action isn't a membership organisation, really it's a campaign. And the people that become involved in what are generally expressive forms of protest have often never been in trouble before.
'Many of the actions carried out under the banner of Palestine Action don't include significant damage, some of them include damage which is low value, often as simple as throwing red paint which is washed away.
'When people are charged with criminal damage, and we go to court, a lot of those damages which are put forward aren't in fact criminal damage - they're consequential losses,' Simon Pook, a solicitor representing several of the Filton 18 activists, told MEE. 'The costs that are initially put forward when the case opens are subsequently substantially reduced."
Cooper stated that the assessment of damage by the group's actions over the last five years had been based on 'a robust evidence-based process, by a wide range of experts from across government, the police and the security services'.
But Charlie Falconer, who served as justice secretary under Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair, said that the Brize Norton action did not merit proscription 'so there must be something else that I don't know about'.
How does the action at RAF Brize Norton compare to similar cases?
Legal experts have highlighted that Palestine Action's methods are not unprecedented: protestors have targeted military facilities in the past and been acquitted.
In its letter to Cooper, Kelly's pointed to the discrepancy between the government's response to Palestine Action and that of the Fairford Five, a group of activists who, in 2003, broke into an RAF airbase and sabotaged US bombers before they flew to Iraq during the US-led invasion.
Josh Richards, one of three protesters, was defended by current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who was a barrister at the time. Starmer argued that the actions of his client, who allegedly intended to set fire to a military jet with a mixture of petroleum and washing-up liquid, were a justified attempt to prevent war crimes.
'If you look at the guidance that Keir Starmer set out in that case, it seems to be a massive contradiction,' said Pook. 'People may be outraged about spraying red paint on military jets. In my view, that is far less serious than having a can of petrol."
Can proscription be challenged or reversed?
Under the Terrorism Act, an application can be made to the home secretary, requesting that they de-proscribe an organisation. If refused, then there is a right of appeal to the Proscribed Organisation Appeal Commission.
According to the Home Office, the commission will permit the appeal "if it considers that the decision to refuse de-proscription was flawed, applying judicial review principles". The most recent was that of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, in November 2019.
O'Brien said that few organisations have challenged proscription. 'But that's perhaps not surprising, because often the organisations that are being proscribed are so often identified as militant organisations who promote violence in order to bring about regime or political change.
'This is a different type of case, because a direct action group is the subject of the proscription. There is much more likely to be a challenge this time."
Palestine Action have launched a fundraising campaign to challenge the ban.