Palestine Action seeks court showdown over ban using anti-terror laws

Campaign group Palestine Action is set for a court showdown with the Government over the decision to ban it using anti-terror laws.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is set to make membership and support for the group illegal, punishable by up to 14 years in prison. But lawyers for co-founder Huda Ammori are seeking an interim order blocking Ms Cooper from proscribing the group.

An urgent hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice was told a decision is expected next month on whether Palestine Action can mount a full legal challenge.

Ms Cooper is expected to publish a written statement to lay the order to make membership and support for the direct action group illegal. Last week she announced Palestine Action would be proscribed as a terror organisation after activists damaged two RAF planes.

She said the group 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".

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."

A decision on whether Palestine Action can bring a full legal appeal is expected during the week of July 21. Human rights groups Amnesty International, Liberty and European Legal Support Centre have all submitted supporting statements over concerns of unlawful misuse of anti-terror measures to criminalise dissent, it is understood.

Actions taken by the pro-Palestinian network, which has targeted arms companies in the UK, included disrupting supplies to Ukraine, Ms Cooper said. 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."

Five people have been arrested on suspicion of a terror offence in relation to the incident at RAF Brize Norton.

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