Palestine Action co-founder WINS bid to challenge group's ban as terror group
The organisation was outlawed by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper last month, with membership and support punishable by up to 14 years in prison. More than 170 people have been arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000 since the ban was introduced.
Lawyers for co-founder Huda Ammori are seeking an interim order blocking Ms Cooper from proscribing the group. Palestine Action was proscribed alongisde neo-Nazi militias Maniacs Murder Cult and the Russian Imperial Movement. It came after the group claimed credit for a break-in at RAF Brize Norton which saw two fighter jets sprayed with red paint.
Ms Cooper said it had "orchestrated a nationwide campaign of direct criminal action against businesses and institutions". And the Home Secretary said the June 20 vandalism at the RAF base was the latest in a "long history of unacceptable criminal damage committed by Palestine Action".
United Nations' human rights chief Volker Turk last week criticised the move, saying it was "disproportionate and unnecessary". He said: "It limits the rights of many people involved with and supportive of Palestine Action who have not themselves engaged in any underlying criminal activity but rather exercised their rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association."
Announcing the decision to seek an injunction, Ms Ammori said: "I have been left with no choice but to request this urgent hearing and to seek either an injunction or other form of interim relief because of the Home Secretary's decision to try to steamroll this through Parliament immediately, without proper opportunity for MPs and Peers to debate and scrutinise the proposal, or for legal and human rights experts and civil society organisations to make representations, or for those of us who would be denied fundamental rights as a result and criminalised as 'terrorists' overnight, including the many thousands of people who support Palestine Action."
Actions taken by the pro-Palestinian network, which has targeted arms companies in the UK, included disrupting supplies to Ukraine, Ms Cooper said last month. She said three attacks - including the vandalism of two warplanes at Brize Norton in Oxfordshire - had caused damage worth millions of pounds.
The Home Secretary 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."
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