UK moves to ban protest group Palestine Action
LONDON: The UK government announced Monday (Jun 23) it would ban campaign group Palestine Action under anti-terror laws following a "disgraceful attack" on Britain's largest air force base last week.
The group denounced the proposed ban, announced by interior minister Yvette Cooper, as an "unhinged reaction" and its supporters scuffled with police in central London as they protested the move.
On Friday, Palestine Action activists broke into the RAF Brize Norton base in southern England, raising questions about security at the site and embarrassing Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour government.
A video posted by the group showed two activists spraying a plane with red paint while roaming the base on scooters. Counter-terror police are investigating the incident.
Cooper said the vandalism at the base was "the latest in a long history of unacceptable criminal damage" committed by the group since it formed in 2020.
"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," Cooper said in a statement.
She announced she would lay a draft order before parliament next Monday that would ban the group under Britain's Terrorism Act of 2000.
Labour holds a massive majority in parliament, meaning the proposal should pass easily.
Palestine Action condemned the proposed ban as an attack on free speech.
"The real crime here is not red paint being sprayed on these war planes, but the war crimes that have been enabled with those planes because of the UK Government's complicity in Israel's genocide," it said in a statement.
Cooper listed other attacks by Palestine Action at Thales defence factory in Glasgow in 2022, and two last year against Instro Precision in Kent, southeast England, and Elbit Systems UK in Bristol, in the country's southwest.
"Such incidents do not represent legitimate or peaceful protest," Cooper said.
"The UK's defence enterprise is vital to the nation's national security and this government will not tolerate those that put that security at risk," she added.
The ban will make it a criminal offence to belong to or support the group, punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
Cooper stressed that her decision "is specific to Palestine Action and does not affect lawful protest groups and other organisations campaigning on issues around Palestine or the Middle East".
'Too far'
But Labour's former spokesperson on legal matters Shami Chakrabarti, speaking ahead of the government's announcement, said she shared concerns that a ban could be going "too far".
"From what I can tell, this is a militant protest group that engages in direct action and that includes criminality, no question, but to elevate that to terrorism... is a serious escalation I think," she told BBC radio.
Palestine Action says it uses "disruption tactics" to target "corporate enablers" and seeks to "make it impossible for these companies to profit from the oppression of Palestinians".
In recent months, it has sprayed the London offices of Allianz Insurance with red paint over its alleged links to Israeli defence company Elbit, and vandalised US President Donald Trump's Turnberry golf course in Scotland.
Last month, Palestine Action claimed responsibility for vandalising a US military aircraft in Ireland.
In London Monday, protesters surged towards police when officers tried to detain someone, while onlookers chanted "let them go".
"It's an attack on civil rights," 45-year-old demonstrator Joe Dawson, who works in advertising, said of the proposed ban.
"At most it's criminal damage, not terrorism," he told AFP.
Starmer's Labour government suspended around 30 out of 350 arms export licenses to Israel last September, citing a "risk" they could be used in violations of international law.
But the UK continues to supply components for F-35 fighter jets to a global pool that Israel is able to access.
Israel has repeatedly denied allegations it is committing genocide in Gaza during its 20-month-long military campaign following Hamas's attack on October 7, 2023.
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