Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has announced plans to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation, despite warnings from the group's lawyers that the move is 'unlawful, dangerous and ill thought out'. In a statement to Parliament on Monday, Cooper said a draft proscription order would be laid on 30 June, making it a criminal offence to be a member of or invite support for the group.
The decision follows an incident on 20 June when activists broke into RAF Brize Norton, which Cooper described as 'the latest in a long history of unacceptable criminal damage'. She argued that the group's actions threaten national security, stating: '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.'
Palestine Action, founded in 2020, aims to target property linked to alleged war crimes in Palestine. In response, the group called the proposed ban 'unhinged' and accused Prime Minister Keir Starmer of hypocrisy for previously defending protesters who broke into RAF Fairford in 2003. The group's lawyers, Kellys Solicitors, noted that no direct action protest group has been proscribed before under the Terrorism Act 2000, warning it sets a 'terrifying precedent'.
Amnesty International and Liberty jointly expressed concerns in a letter to Cooper. Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn labelled the decision 'as absurd as it is authoritarian', while Labour peer John Hendy KC called it an 'abuse of anti-terrorist legislation'. Former justice secretary Charlie Falconer said the Brize Norton protest alone would not justify proscription.
Palestine Action maintains that its members are 'teachers, nurses, students and parents' and accused the government of repeating 'categorically false claims' from pro-Israel groups. The group said its lawyers are pursuing all avenues for legal challenge against the proposed ban.
