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The United Kingdom’s Court of Appeal is expected to rule on Monday whether the British government was right to ban the Palestine Action group as a “terrorist” organization.
Palestine Action was officially banned by the UK last July. A court in London ruled earlier this month that four activists convicted of crimes at a British house owned by the Israeli army will be sentenced because their actions were “terrorist-related”.
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The banning of Palestine Action as a “terrorist” organization has been challenged in the Supreme Court, which ruled in February that the ban was illegal. The government then he appealed that decision.
What is Palestine Action and why was it banned?
The Palestinian cause is a British protest group that was founded six years ago and describes itself as a group “committed to ending international participation in Israel’s genocidal and apartheid regime”.
It says it uses “disruptive tactics” to target “corporate sponsors” and companies that manufacture Israeli weapons, such as the Israeli group Elbit Systems, the Italian aerospace company Leonardo, the French multinational Thales and Teledyne from the United States. The team has looked at the British sites that are connected to these companies.
Overall, British police have said that the group’s actions have led to an increase in crime rates.
Palestine Action shows include:
- In 2021, members protested for six days on the roof of the company Elbit Systems, UAV Tactical Systems in Leicester, until some were arrested by the police.
- In 2022, the group broke into the Thales equipment factory in Glasgow, destroying equipment worth more than a million pounds ($1.3m).
- In 2024, 10 months into Israel’s war on Gaza, Palestinian Action activists broke into Elbit Systems UK near Bristol in southwest England. costing another million pounds.
- On June 20, 2025, Palestinian Action activists joined the Royal Air Force base at Brize Norton in Oxfordshire and spraying two warplanes with red paint.
A few days after the attack on Brize Norton, members of parliament voted in favor about banning the group. This classified Palestine Action as a “terrorist” group, and brought it into line with the same armed group as al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS).
The opposition contested the vote saying that although members of the group have destroyed property, they have not committed acts of violence that amount to terrorism.
More than 130 famous people have spoken out against the ban.
At least 1,600 arrests linked to support for Palestine Action occurred in the three months following the ban.
What is the decision of the Court of Appeal?
Last August, co-founder of Palestine Action, Huda Ammori, challenged the government’s ban in the Supreme Court. In November, the Supreme Court heard a three-day review.
In February, the Supreme Court ruled that the state’s “gang” ban was unconstitutional and unconstitutional.
The government immediately said it would appeal. “I am disappointed by the decision of the court and I do not agree with the idea that stopping this terrorist group is unlimited,” said Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood.
“I want to fight this decision in the Court of Appeal.”
Although the Supreme Court ruled the ban illegal, the law remains in effect, pending the outcome of the government’s appeal to the Court of Appeal on Monday.
What is the main issue?
Four activists from The Palestinian cause group was to be judged as “criminals” Friday, although most of them were only found guilty by the judges in May.
Dozens of protesters were arrested outside Woolwich Crown Court in London before the sentencing of four members of the group – Charlotte Head, 30, Samuel Corner, 23, Leona Kamio, 30, and Fatema Zainab Rajwani, 21 – for vandalizing the Elbit Systems site in Filton, near Bristol in the west of England.
Corner was also found guilty of assaulting a police officer with a hammer and was found guilty of grievous bodily harm.
Although the charges are felony charges, the court was free to decide whether their actions were related to “terrorism”, which carry harsher penalties.
Judge Jeremy Johnson imposed sentences of five to eight years on the four defendants after declaring their attack on Elbit Systems in Bristol in August 2024 “terrorist”.
Having charges related to “terror” means that the activists have to spend all their time in prison, unless they have already served two-thirds of their sentences and the parole board thinks they can be released.
Samuel was jailed for seven years and eight months, Charlotte was sentenced to five years, along with Leona, while Fatema was ordered to spend four years and eight months in prison.
They will be labeled as “criminals” for life, will have to register new phone numbers, email addresses and bank accounts with the police for life, and will be sent back to prison if they violate their licenses or reoffend.
Amnesty International said the sentence was “unconscionable”.
The UK’s chief executive, Kerry Moscogiuri, said: “Today’s sentencing could lead to a new low in anti-protest incidents in the UK. Criminal damage has never before been treated as terrorism in the UK justice system, and it is unprecedented to do so because the offense took place during a protest.”
“Using terroristic laws to suppress protesters sets a dangerous precedent for our freedoms in this country and it must stop.”
On Wednesday, ahead of the verdict, a group of more than 50 lawyers and law professors published an open letter criticizing plans to prosecute four members of Palestine Action as terrorists.
The letter shows that property damage has been a recurring theme of protest campaigns from the Suffragettes who fought for women’s right to vote a century ago, to the current environmentalist group Extinction Rebellion.
The letter also said: “It has never been said that people who are doing this should be considered as criminals.
The letter has been signed by law professors from universities in the UK, the Netherlands, Norway and Canada and by many barristers and lawyers.
