Palestine Action proscribed as terror group by Yvette Cooper amid angry clashes
Palestine Action has been proscribed as a terror organisation after activists damaged two RAF planes last week.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced the move as protesters clashed with police in Trafalgar Square. Ms Cooper said in a written statement that the group had "orchestrated a nationwide campaign of direct criminal action against businesses and institutions".
This included supplies to Ukraine, she said. Ms Cooper went on: "In several attacks, Palestine Action has committed acts of serious damage to property with the aim of progressing its political cause and influencing the Government. These include attacks at Thales in Glasgow in 2022; and last year at Instro Precision in Kent and Elbit Systems UK in Bristol.
"The seriousness of these attacks includes the extent and nature of damage caused, including to targets affecting UK national security, and the impact on innocent members of the public fleeing for safety and subjected to violence. The extent of damage across these three attacks alone, spreading the length and breadth of the UK, runs into the millions of pounds."
The group earlier said: "If they want to ban us, they ban us all". Met Police chief Sir Mark Rowley branded it an "organised extremist criminal group" and said he was "shocked and frustrated" ahead of the demonstration.
Baroness Shami Chakrabarti, a former Labour shadow attorney general, said: "They certainly committed acts of criminal trespass and criminal damage, painting planes at Brize Norton and so on, but I think that's not what most people would understand as terrorism, and to proscribe Palestine Action on the information that we have all seen, I think would be a new departure."
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The Guardian
9 minutes ago
- The Guardian
The Guardian view on Palestine Action: if red paint is terrorism, what isn't?
The UK government's intention to proscribe Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act 2000 marks a significant escalation in the treatment of civil disobedience. It elevates a group known for throwing red paint at buildings and military aircraft into the same legal category as al-Qaida and Islamic State. If there's a serious threat from these activists, we've yet to see it – just a ministerial statement discussing civil disobedience in the language of counterinsurgency. If this is all that Palestine Action can be accused of, then the government is wrong. Ministers are setting a dangerous precedent by using terror laws to outlaw protest – and penalising protesters not for violence but for making a nuisance and vandalism. The cost will be felt in press freedom, political accountability and the right to resist. The home secretary's statement says that Palestine Action's activities 'meet the threshold' for terrorism under the law, yet fails to specify how the group's actions – which consist primarily of damage to property, not threats to life – satisfy the statutory requirement of intending to influence the government or intimidate the public through serious violence or threats. If this passes, the threshold of terrorism will have been lowered from plotting to plant bombs or take hostages to daubing aircraft or chaining oneself to doors – activities once associated with anti-nuclear and anti-apartheid activists. Palestine Action has, since 2020, mounted a campaign of direct action targeting firms supplying weapons to Israel, most notably Elbit Systems. Their tactics include criminal damage, trespass and disruption. To go from these offences to terrorism is morally fraught. But that has not deterred Labour ministers. Contained in terror laws is a logic that George Orwell would have recognised: where danger lies not just in bombs or bullets, but in words, connections and ideas. Proscription criminalises not just action but association. It becomes an offence to support, affiliate with or even express 'moral support' for the group. If Palestine Action are deemed terrorists, then writers and journalists offering even mild approval could be prosecuted and imprisoned for up to 14 years. This is not the policing of public safety; it is the policing of dissent – and limiting belief and speech. If a government can define non-violent acts it disapproves of as terrorism, the boundary between civil disobedience and extremism becomes whatever a minister says it is. The law already has the tools to deal with Palestine Action – as the Home Office admits, some cases involving the group are still before the courts. So why jump to proscription? What does a terror label achieve that prosecution doesn't – beyond muzzling the group and chilling wider activism on Palestine and the arms trade? This is a government that seems all too eager to project control over protest at a time when its foreign policy is deeply unpopular. It may seem cynical to suggest that redefining visible dissent as a national security threat is a way to contain public anger, but the effect is the same. When it comes to Gaza, ministers struggle to locate in law the actions of the UK or Israel. Yet they have no such difficulty when it comes to those protesting against them. The Labour peer Shami Chakrabarti was right to ask: when did criminal damage become terrorism? If civil liberties mean anything, they must survive protest that offends. Democracy can't just tolerate disagreement, it must stomach defiance. Even when it's splashed on an arms factory wall.
South Wales Argus
24 minutes ago
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Arrests after protesters clash with police as Palestine Action proscribed
Six people were arrested on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker and two on suspicion of obstructing a constable in the execution of their duty, the Metropolitan Police said. One person was arrested on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offence after they were allegedly heard to shout racial abuse towards the protest. When crowds remained in the area beyond Scotland Yard's ordered 3pm end time, four people were arrested on suspicion of breaching Public Order Act conditions. 'While the protest initially began in a peaceful manner, officers faced violence when they went into the crowd to speak to three individuals whose behaviour was arousing suspicion,' a Met Police spokesperson said. 'This sequence of events repeated itself on multiple occasions, with officers being surrounded on each occasion they tried to deal with an incident.' Police officers and protesters during a demonstration at Trafalgar Square (Jeff Moore/PA) The road at one corner of the square was completely blocked by the march, with a line of police ready to stop the participants from leaving the area. The protest had initially been planned to take place outside the Houses of Parliament, but the location was changed early on Monday morning after the Metropolitan Police imposed an exclusion zone. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said in a statement on Monday afternoon that she has decided to proscribe Palestine Action and will lay an order before Parliament next week which, if passed, will make membership and support for the protest group illegal. On Sunday, Cabinet minister Jonathan Reynolds said he could not rule out the possibility of a foreign power being behind Palestine Action. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said he could not rule out the possibility of a foreign power being behind Palestine Action (PA) But speaking at the protest, Palestine Action spokesperson Max Geller said there had never been any evidence of such claims. 'I can't overstate how absurd and disappointing that accusation is,' he told the PA news agency. 'I want to make very clear that there has never been any evidence offered to support such a claim, and if we were allowed to be a legally recognised group, that man would be being sued right now for libel.' Asked about Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley's comments, he said: 'It's really troubling that the head of the Met would pre-empt the Government and ban us from protesting (at the Houses of Parliament). 'It's a frustrating turn for democracy in this country.' Ms Cooper will provide MPs with more details on the move to proscribe the group, making it a criminal offence to belong to or support it, in a written ministerial statement. Belonging to or expressing support for a proscribed organisation, along with a number of other actions, are criminal offences carrying a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison. The decision comes after the group posted footage online showing two people inside the base at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire. The act of vandalism committed at RAF Brize Norton is disgraceful. Our Armed Forces represent the very best of Britain and put their lives on the line for us every day. It is our responsibility to support those who defend us. — Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) June 20, 2025 The clip shows one person riding an electric scooter up to an Airbus Voyager air-to-air refuelling tanker and appearing to spray paint into its jet engine. Speaking on Sunday, Sir Mark said he was 'shocked and frustrated' at the protest, but that until the group is proscribed the force had 'no power in law' to prevent it taking place. 'The right to protest is essential and we will always defend it, but actions in support of such a group go beyond what most would see as legitimate protest,' he added. 'Thousands of people attend protests of a different character every week without clashing with the law or with the police. The criminal charges faced by Palestine Action members, in contrast, represent a form of extremism that I believe the overwhelming majority of the public rejects.' Police officers and protesters during the demonstration at Trafalgar Square (Jeff Moore/PA) Proscription will require Ms Cooper to lay an order in Parliament, which must then be debated and approved by both MPs and peers. Some 81 organisations have been proscribed under the 2000 Act, including Islamist terrorist groups such as Hamas and al Qaida, far-right groups such as National Action, and Russian private military company the Wagner Group. Palestine Action has staged a series of demonstrations in recent months, including spraying the London offices of Allianz Insurance with red paint over its alleged links to Israeli defence company Elbit, and vandalising US President Donald Trump's Turnberry golf course in South Ayrshire.
Powys County Times
24 minutes ago
- Powys County Times
Arrests after protesters clash with police as Palestine Action proscribed
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