Palestine Action activists blockade the entrance to Elbit Systems in Bristol, July 1, 2025‘Protests against genocide are not the problem in our society — it is the government’s complicity with genocide’ that is, campaigners say
UNITED NATIONS experts urged Britain not to misuse terrorism laws to proscribe Palestine Action, branding the plans the “unjustified labelling of a political protest movement as ‘terrorist’” ahead of an emergency protest outside Parliament tonight.
Hours after the non-violent activist group blockaded the entrance to an Israeli defence company’s British headquarters today, the UN-appointed human rights experts said: “According to international standards, acts of protest that damage property, but are not intended to kill or injure people, should not be treated as terrorism.
“These offences would criminalise legitimate activities by innocent members of the group that do not contribute in any way to property damage by other members, let alone ‘terrorism’ which, if properly defined, the group has not committed.”
It comes as pro-Palestine and democracy activists were urged to defend the right to protest outside Parliament at 6pm on Wednesday, as MPs debate the government legislation to ban the campaign group under anti-terror law.
Amnesty UK’s CEO Sacha Deshmukh said that the motion would be a “grave misuse of anti-terrorism powers” in a letter to MPs and peers today.
The laws “have long been criticised by international experts for containing problematic, overly broad and draconian restrictions on free speech in relation to proscribed groups,” which would mean that “simple expressions of personal moral opinions” will potentially become “serious crimes,” he warned.
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