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UK decision to ban Palestine Action as ‘terror group’ unlawful
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/2/13/uk-decision-to-ban-palestine-action-as-terror-group-unlawful-court-says
The High Court in the UK has ruled that the government’s ban on the pro-Palestinian campaign group Palestine Action as a “terror group” was unlawful.
In a statement responding to the landmark ruling on Friday, Palestine Action’s co-founder Huda Ammori, who had challenged the government’s ban, said the ruling was a huge win for the group.
“This is a monumental victory both for our fundamental freedoms here in Britain and in the struggle for freedom for the Palestinian people, striking down a decision that will forever be remembered as one of the most extreme attacks on free speech in recent British history,” she said, labelling the ban “a Trumpian abuse of power”.
The British government said it intended to appeal the court’s ruling.
“I am disappointed by the court’s decision and disagree with the notion that banning this terrorist organisation is disproportionate,” Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said in a statement. “I intend to fight this judgment in the Court of Appeal.”
The court said the ban would remain in place pending another hearing, while the government prepares its appeal. But while it remains a criminal offence to be a member of, or to support Palestine Action, London’s Metropolitan Police indicated officers were unlikely to arrest people simply for showing support for Palestine Action until the legal situation was clarified.
Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands, reporting from outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, said the process would begin swiftly, with a hearing set for February 20 in which the court would decide whether there were grounds for the government to appeal.
But the appeal process could drag on for months, if not years, he said.
Ammori said in a statement that any move by the government to challenge the court’s ruling would be “profoundly unjust”, while the futures of thousands of protesters who had been arrested for their support of Palestine Action – “many of whom are elderly or disabled and facing up to 14 years’ imprisonment” – hung in the balance.
“Any such attempt by the government would prolong that injustice,” she said.
‘Unusual circumstances’
London’s Metropolitan Police issued a statement outlining how it would respond to expressions of support for Palestine Action in light of the court’s ruling that the ban was unlawful, yet while the proscription remained in place.
“We recognise these are unusual circumstances,” it said.
The statement said officers would “continue to identify offences where support for Palestine Action is being expressed”, but would “focus on gathering evidence of those offences and the people involved to provide opportunities for enforcement at a later date, rather than making arrests at the time”.
It described the strategy as “the most proportionate approach”, while legal proceedings around the ban remained unresolved. The deferred enforcement approach applied only to expressions of support for Palestine Action, it said, noting that officers would continue to make arrests in cases where the line was crossed from lawful protest “to intimidate, to damage property, to use violence, to stir up racial hatred or to commit other offences”.
Challands noted there had been scenes of jubilation as news of the judgement reached Palestine Action’s supporters gathered outside.
He said judge Victoria Sharp, in delivering the court’s decision, had said that although Palestine Action was a group engaging in and encouraging criminality, it did not mean the government was right in proscribing them as a “terrorist” organisation, and that it had acted unlawfully in doing so.
The court found that the government had acted disproportionately, saying that there were other means by which it could prosecute criminal acts without a blanket ban.In proscribing the group, the court considered that the government had interfered with the right to freedom of speech and the right to freedom of assembly, he said.
Thousands arrested for silent protest
Among those arrested for supporting the group were some 2,787 people arrested for “terrorism offences” for peacefully holding signs saying “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action” in silent vigils across the UK, a statement by the campaign group Defend Our Juries said.
A spokesperson for the group said that “thousands of people of conscience” had seen that “branding protest as terrorism was a move straight out of the dictator’s playbook.” “Together, we took action at great personal risk – inspired by each other’s courage. We helped make this proscription unenforceable by saying ‘we do not comply’.”
The spokesperson added that most people in the UK had been “disgusted by both the government’s complicity in what most experts agree is an ongoing genocide in Gaza by Israel”.
And will the government and police face any consequences for illegally arresting all these people?!
