Palestine Action are not terrorists. Israel is
The generation that marched in record numbers against the Iraq war learned one thing clearly: respectable protest alone does not work. On the issue of Palestine, too, the power elite has repeatedly ignored the popular will. The media pays little attention to hundreds of thousands marching, and the government remains unmoved despite public polls showing a majority support for an arms embargo on Israel.
This democratic deficit in Britain makes direct action seem the only powerful way to oppose Western war‑mongering in the Middle East. And Britain's ongoing military support for Israel's genocide in Gaza is why I support Palestine Action – the group the Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, is planning to proscribe as a terrorist organisation after its activists vandalised a Ministry of Defence aircraft.
I, too, have felt morally compelled to take direct action. In summer 2014, when Israel bombed Gaza for 51 days – killing more than 2,200 Palestinians – I was a member of the original London Palestine Action group. We occupied the roof of a drone‑engine factory owned by Elbit Systems, halting production for two days. It remains one of my proudest moments.
But our group burned out and became dormant until relaunching under a different name in 2023. By contrast, the nationwide Palestine Action, founded in 2020, has mounted a sustained campaign against Elbit Systems, taking far greater personal risks.
Inspired by Smash EDO, the Raytheon Nine, and the 1996 action that decommissioned Hawk jets to stop Suharto's bombing of East Timor, Palestine Action has destroyed millions of pounds' worth of military equipment. They have become a serious thorn in the side of the military–industrial complex. Many – often young women, queer people and people of colour – have been imprisoned, sacrificing their freedom as political prisoners.
Crucially, Palestine Action has never harmed a human being. Their actions – non‑violent yet disruptive – have saved lives. By contrast, Israel's genocide in Gaza has killed or maimed at least 200,000 people, including tens of thousands of children. This constitutes state terror by any standard. These brave activists are acting to prevent it because their government refuses to.
If the British government had never armed Israel, or had stopped doing so at any time in the past decade, Palestine Action would have had no target and might not have existed. Perhaps then, as I write, Israel would not be committing genocide in Gaza either. But Britain's attitude towards Palestinians has been rooted in colonial arrogance for over a century, originating with the Balfour Declaration.
Palestine Action's direct intervention has exposed the contradictions in Britain's position on Israel. The Home Secretary's plan to proscribe the group as a terrorist organisation reveals the authoritarian nature of the current Labour government and the racialised social control underpinning the 'war on terror'.
By branding non‑violent resisters as 'terrorists', the UK has taken a leaf directly from Israel's playbook. Just this month, Israel did the same to the Palestinian rights group Addameer. This tactic is increasingly used by authoritarian states around the world. It is the road to fascism – and it threatens to further erode the democratic freedoms we still have in Britain.
But this tactic will not work. You can ban a group, but not a movement or an idea. Palestine Action has engaged acclaimed lawyer Gareth Pierce to challenge the proscription in court. And even if the ban stays in place, direct action will persist as long as Britain supports Israel's genocide.
Yet direct action alone cannot end this atrocity. It will take all of us, from within and beyond institutional politics, pressuring Britain from every angle. It won't happen overnight, but it can happen.
And when Palestine is free, history will remember clearly: Keir Starmer and his government as enablers of genocide, and Palestine Action as heroic peace activists who laid down their liberty – and their bodies – to oppose state terror.
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.
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