LONDON: Pro-Palestinian campaign group Palestine Action’s co-founder on Friday (Jul 4) lost a bid to pause the British government’s decision to ban the group under anti-terrorism laws, though the group is launching an urgent appeal.
Huda Ammori, who helped found Palestine Action in 2020, asked London’s High Court to stop the proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation, before a full hearing of her case that banning the group is unlawful later this month.
British lawmakers this week decided to ban Palestine Action after its activists broke into a Royal Air Force base and damaged two planes in protest against what the group says is Britain’s support for Israel.
Proscription would make it a crime to be a member of Palestine Action that carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
Palestine Action has increasingly targeted Israel-linked companies in Britain, often spraying red paint, blocking entrances or damaging equipment. The group accuses the British government of complicity in what it says are Israeli war crimes in its ongoing bombardment of Gaza.
Israel has repeatedly denied committing abuses in its war in Gaza, which began after Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel on Oct 7, 2023.
Ammori’s lawyer Raza Husain said the proscription marked the first time Britain had sought to ban a group carrying out such direct action, describing it as “an ill-considered, discriminatory, authoritarian abuse of statutory power”.
Critics of the government’s decision, including some United Nations experts and civil liberties groups, have also argued that damaging property does not amount to terrorism.
