Campaigners outside the Royal Courts of Justice, central London, where Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori is taking legal action against the Home Office’s decision to proscribe the group under anti-terror laws, November 27, 2025
PALESTINE Action’s ban under terror laws shows Britain has the “most repressive and dangerous response” to civilian protests threatening Israeli arms sales, 18 international organisations said yesterday.
The groups, including Campaign Against Arms Trade, signed a solidarity statement on British state repression on the last day of the judicial review against the Home Office proscription of the direct action group.
But Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori faces a wait to discover whether her legal challenge has been successful.
After a three-day hearing at the High Court in London, which concluded yesterday, the judges hearing the challenge said they would give their decision at a later date.
More than 2,700 people have been arrested at sit-in protests against the banning of the direct action group in July.
Palestine Action joke that appeared in the UK satirical magazine ‘Private Eye’.Keir “I support Zionism without Qualification” Starmer supporting genocide.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
People take part in a demonstration at Trafalgar Square in London in support of Palestine Action, June 23, 2025
YVETTE COOPER’S determination to ban Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation for an entirely peaceful protest is a grotesque assault on civil liberties.
If it is not defeated it will have a chilling effect on free expression in Britain, and not just on direct actions of the kind Palestine Action specialise in.
Witness the absurd prosecution of Kneecap band member Liam Og O hAnnaidh for allegedly displaying the flag of proscribed Lebanese group Hezbollah: public expressions of support for Palestine Action would become illegal. As Metropolitan Police chief Sir Mark Rowley makes clear, that would include the kind of solidarity demonstration that took place in Trafalgar Square today.
Some say the government’s hysterical overreaction is due to deep embarrassment that two individuals could break into Britain’s biggest RAF base, ride up to military jets on scooters and pour paint into their engines in protest at the RAF’s role in providing intelligence to Israel’s armed forces committing war crimes in Gaza, before leaving undetected.
But the reality is that Cooper’s draconian extremism is entirely aligned with the government’s record — and that of its predecessor.
The cross-party consensus in favour of an ever more authoritarian state is as firm as their joint support for militarism, war and an Israeli state facing genocide charges in international courts.
Labour in opposition declined to overturn the successive restrictions on our freedoms by the last Conservative government — from the policing, public order and national security Acts gifting police sweeping powers to shut down protest and providing for 10-year prison sentences for being a “serious nuisance,” to new ministerial authority to declare organisations “extremist” with no court process or right of appeal, banning public authorities from then talking to them.
This legislation is aimed squarely at suppressing the mass movement for Palestine. So is the ban on Palestine Action. Both are attempts by an unpopular government to mask just how unpopular its active complicity in Israel’s war crimes are.
People take part in a demonstration at Trafalgar Square in London in support of Palestine Action, June 23, 2025
Home Secretary Cooper confirms plans to ban the group and claims it’s peaceful activists ‘meet the legal threshold under the Terrorism Act 2000’
PROTESTERS gathered in London’s Trafalgar Square shouting “we are all Palestine Action” yesterday as Home Secretary Yvette Cooper confirmed plans to ban the group under terrorism laws for its direct action campaigns.
Hundreds waved Palestine flags and chanted at the top of the square, parts of which were cordoned off for an event.
Some protesters spilled onto the road and staged a brief roadblock before being arrested by the Metropolitan Police under Section 14 of the Public Order Act.
Protesters clashed with police to resist the arrests, with one woman shouting “that’s too much force” and others chanting: “Let them go.”
The protest was originally set to take place outside Parliament, where there was more space, but the police imposed an exclusion zone.
Pro-Palestine protesters protest in Trafalgar Square, including supporters of Palestine Action. Photograph: Sean Smith/The Guardian
Proscribing organisation under anti-terrorism laws raises stakes amid already increased powers to stop protests
The crackdown on protest in England and Wales has been ringing alarm bells for years, but the decision to ban Palestine Action under anti-terrorism laws raises the stakes dramatically.
As the group itself has said, it is the first time the government has attempted to proscribe a direct action protest organisation under the Terrorism Act, placing it alongside the likes of Islamic State, al-Qaida and National Action.
The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said the proposed ban was evidence-based and had been assessed by a wide range of experts.
“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,” she said.
Proscribing the group, which uses direct action mainly to target Israeli weapons factories in the UK, would make it illegal not only to be a member of Palestine Action but to show support for it.
Given that neither its methods nor its targets are unprecedented, a ban is likely to make every group which has an aim of “progressing its political cause and influencing the government” through protest think twice.
Greenpeace UK’s co-executive director, Areeba Hamid, said a ban would “mark a dark turn for our democracy and a new low for a government already intent on stamping out the right to protest. The police already have laws to prosecute any individuals found guilty of a crime.”
Palestine Action activists are removed from an Elbit Systems factory in Oldham, Greater Manchester, January 2022. Photo: Palestine Action
If you can’t beat them, ban them.
“We’re a new breed of activism. We’re not your parents’ Humane Society. … We come with a new philosophy. We hold the radical line. We will not compromise. We will not apologise, and we will not relent.” This is how one activist described Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (Shac), the animal rights group active from the late 1980s to the early 2010s. Shac’s central demand was the closure of Europe’s largest animal testing facility, Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS). It didn’t ask nicely. Anticipating that the state would never act with the urgency commensurate with such a moral outrage as beating beagle puppies – how true that’s proven to be – Shac set about making the company’s life a misery, smashing up laboratories and picking off suppliers with boycott campaigns. All this nearly bankrupted HLS, until Labour’s science minister Lord Sainsbury personally interceded to keep the company afloat. Unable to tolerate this humiliation, the government sent hundreds of police to round up dozens of Shac members. Ring any bells?
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Many have correctly pointed out how harmless PA’s actions are in comparison with Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza. However, PA has distinguished itself within the Palestine movement, and amongst leftwing activist groups in general, by the severity of disruption it has caused. While successive UK governments have complained noisily about the “chaos” and “crisis” besetting Gaza (it was David Cameron, lest we forget, who in 2010 referred to the strip as an “open-air prison”), PA has done something about it. Much like its puppy-rescuing Shac forbears, PA has cost its primary target – Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems – vast sums of money, and used many of the same tactics. It has shut down two of Elbit’s factories and chased the company out of its London headquarters. It has isolated Elbit, forcing its metal manufacturer, couriers, property managers and even lobbyists to drop it. It has temporarily halted the manufacture of F-35 parts. It has rendered the company such an unreliable supplier that the Ministry of Defence axed hundreds of millions of pounds’ worth of its contracts, which fell 18% the month one contract was pulled. For five years now, PA has wreaked havoc for Elbit and, thanks to the consciences of jurors and the uselessness of police, mostly gotten away with it.
PA’s continued success represents a major embarrassment to the Labour government. Part of the RAF base was, it has since emerged, secured with little more than a wooden fence. The risk, however, is more than reputational. PA is a menace to both the UK and Israeli governments, which have, much like HLS and Lord Sainsbury, responded as a team. Earlier this month, Declassified reported that Northumbria police spent £210,000 protecting the Newcastle outpost of Pearson Engineering, owned by Israeli weapons company Rafael. This week it found that Elbit lobbied the Home Office to retry PA’s co-founders Huda Ammori and Richard Barnard after they were acquitted in December 2023. The Israeli embassy tried something similar with the attorney general’s office, which has been remarkably obliging. The UK and its ally have poured vast resources into beating back PA, a testament to just how seriously both understand the threat to their individual and joint military and business interests (not to be confused with their citizens’ interests).
Let’s be clear. Direct action is not terrorism and taking action against genocide profiteers is not terrorism.
We are writing this statement in unequivocal support with Palestine Action and the outrageous decision by this government to try to proscribe them.
The British government is currently aiding and abetting Israel’s genocide. There is one clear legal and moral path available to them – imposing a full two-way arms embargo. Instead they are labelling those taking action to stop genocide as terrorists.
Let’s be clear. Direct action is not terrorism and taking action against genocide profiteers is not terrorism.
There is a long and proud history in the peace movement of direct action at military bases and arms companies. Keir Starmer himself was part of the legal team defending the Fairford Five during the Iraq war. Using the protest at Brize Norton as an excuse for proscription is manufactured outrage. It’s an excuse to do what Israeli and arms trade lobbyists, such as Lord Walney, have always wanted. For generations, from Greenham, Aldermaston, Fairford and others, the peace movement has taken action against military bases – actions that regularly involve breaching security, getting inside and causing damage. This is not something new. This is legitimate opposition to illegal wars. This is not terrorism.
At CAAT, we are the proud custodians of one of the hammers used by the Seeds of Hope Ploughshares women to smash up a hawk aircraft bound for Indonesia in 1996. CAAT supported the women who were eventually acquitted by a jury.
Supporting those who dismantle the tools of war is at the heart of CAAT’s past and present. Successive governments have failed not only us as citizens, but more importantly, the Palestinian people. They have stood aside while Israel commits horrific war crimes. They have ignored international law. They have misled parliament, obfuscated and done everything in their power to protect arms dealers’ profits. Instead of imposing a full two-way arms embargo, this Labour government has instead increased the UK’s arms trade with Israel – licensing £127m of arms in the last three months of 2024 – more than 2020-2023 combined.
When our government fails to act, it is down to us, ordinary people with a conscience, to take action. We applaud those who feel their moral duty to disarm weapons factories outweighs the risks of imprisonment. We cannot sit back while UK companies profit from genocide, when Palestinian children are killed by 2000lb bombs dropped from F-35 combat aircraft that the UK is ensuring remain operational with its supply of spare parts.
Attempting to proscribe Palestine Action is designed to scare us, to intimidate our movements and to divide our solidarity.
It won’t work. When the state remanded the Filton 18 on the spurious basis the action has “terrorist connections”, it hoped that it would deter people. It didn’t. The actions have continued because people care, because they have a conscience, because taking action against genocide is more important than the personal consequences.
Now is the time to be courageous. We will defeat this ban through mass opposition. Met Commissioner Mark Rowley said he was “shocked” by the emergency demonstration held today in Westminster. He shouldn’t be shocked. Our movements are based on solidarity. And it is essential that this solidarity continues.
We are all Palestine Action!
Keir “I support Zionism without Qualification” Starmer supporting genocide.Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAUK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy announcing the partial suspension of arms exports to Israel in September 2024 (Parliamentary Recording Unit/AFP)
UK greenlit $169m in military goods to Israel in three months after a partial arms embargo
The UK government approved $169m worth of military equipment to Israel in the three months that followed the Labour government’s partial suspension of arms exports over concerns they could be used unlawfully in Gaza.
Export data released on Thursday shows that 20 different licences in categories such as military aircraft, radars, targeting equipment, and explosive devices, were approved between October and December 2024.
Arms campaigners say the three-month total is more than what was approved altogether under the Tory government between 2020 and 2023, and said the increase was “truly shocking”.
“This is the Labour government aiding and abetting Israel’s genocide in Gaza,” said Emily Apple, media coordinator for the UK-based Campaign Against Arms Trade.
“It is sickening that instead of imposing a full two-way arms embargo, Keir Starmer’s government has massively increased the amount of military equipment the UK is sending to Israel.”
Genocide denying UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspending 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government’s support for Israel’s Gaza genocide and the UK government and military’s active participation in genocide.
The UK Labour government hugely increased arms exports to Israel while giving the impression of restricting them. The UK government made the announcement of suspending 30 licences on 2nd September 2024.
An Israeli F-35 fighter jet taking off. The suspension covers components for certain military aircraft. Photograph: Abir Sultan/EPA
Foreign Office says review found ‘clear risk’ UK arms may be used in violation of humanitarian law
The UK has broken with the Biden administration on a significant part of their tightly coordinated policy towards Israel by announcing it is suspending some arms export licences to Israel because of a “clear risk” they may be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law.
The Foreign Office said a two-month internal review had raised concerns about the way Israel had conducted itself in the conflict in Gaza and that the decision specifically related to concerns around the treatment of Palestinian detainees and the supply of aid to Gaza.
No definitive conclusion has been reached about whether UK arms export licences have contributed to the destruction in the territory. But the scale of the devastation and the number of civilian deaths caused great concern, the Foreign Office said.
The suspension, which is likely to cause tensions with the US government, covers components for military aircraft, helicopters, drones and targeting equipment.
Mr Lammy also said the decision would not affect the F-35 programme that supplies aircraft to more than 20 countries (except where components go directly to Israel, which are included in the action). Mr Lammy said the global F-35 supply chain is “vital for the security of the UK, our allies and NATO”.
UK Foreign Minister David Lammy confirms that UK government and military are active participants in Israel’s genocides and that the F-35 parts that they suspended from supplying to Israel are instead simply diverted via the United States. He says see https://youtu.be/QILgUHrdWREUK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
RAF Marham is home to Britain’s F-35 fleet. (Photo: Premislao / Alamy)
Declassified UK Exclusive: Parts for Israel’s most advanced fighter jet have been secretly shipped from a British military base during the assault on Gaza.
Reported in partnership with Irish news site The Ditch
F-35 fighter jet parts have been secretly transported to Israel from a British air force base in Norfolk, it can be revealed.
At least seven arms shipments have been sent from RAF Marham to Israel’s F-35 airbase at Nevatim since the Gaza bombing began.
Two of the deliveries took place this summer shortly after Keir Starmer became UK prime minister.
The information is contained within cargo documents reviewed by The Ditch and Declassified.
The documents show that the UK government has not only been approving F-35 export licences to Israel, but actively facilitating their transportation through British military sites.
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Campaign Against Arms Trade’s Sam Perlo-Freeman told Declassified: “The F-35 plays a major part in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza and brutal bombardment and invasion of Lebanon”.
He added that “the UK is not only licensing the supply of spare parts, but actively using UK military assets to facilitate their delivery. This makes UK ministers and potentially even military personnel complicit in war crimes”.
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspeding 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government’s support for Israel’s Gaza genocide and the UK government and military’s active participation in genocide.Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that his active support and that of UK’s air force has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpA
Boeing, Palantir and Babcock listed as sponsors for fringe events run by New Statesman Media Group
Boeing FA-18F Super Hornet Fighter Aircraft | Getty Images / Boeing.
Weapons manufacturers, fossil fuel companies and a spy-tech firm are among those sponsoring events at this year’s Labour Party conference.
Boeing and Babcock, manufacturers of missiles or missile compartments, and Palantir, a controversial spy-tech firm funded by the CIA, will sponsor fringe events hosted by centre-left media company the New Statesman Media Group.
Fossil fuel companies, private health firms, major banks and the International Airlines Group, which owns British Airways, are also among those paying to have a presence at the party’s annual conference in Liverpool, which will host politicians and policy makers – and is Labour’s third in person since Keir Starmer took over as leader.
The party has been slammed for playing host to these industries by environmental groups and anti-weapon groups, who call the sponsorships “disgusting and disappointing.” Its own MP Clive Lewis has also questioned why Labour is “cosying up” to some of the organisations involved.
The events, announced today, boast “Labour Party’s biggest names and most exciting talents,” and cover subjects such as the move to net zero, the housing crisis and healthcare. Speakers include shadow health secretary Wes Streeting, as well as Labour’s chair of the levelling up committee Clive Betts and deputy London mayor Tom Copley.
UK-based Babcock, which has arms deals with the government and has recently signed a deal with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), will sponsor a talk entitled “Sovereign capability: How can we make, buy and sell British?”. Speaking on the panel will be Babcock’s chief corporate affairs officer, John Howie, alongside Labour’s shadow minister for defence procurement Chris Evans and the party’s shadow international trade minister Nia Griffith.
Spy-tech firm Palantir, whose owner has donated to Donald Trump’s political campaign, will sponsor a talk on Ukraine called “How can we hold aggressors accountable for war crimes and deter future conflict?” Its executive vice president for the UK and Europe will appear on the panel.
Palantir, which has built software to support drone strikes and immigration raids, is tipped to win a £480m deal this year to build a single database that will eventually hold all the data in the NHS.
Energy company SSE, which has been accused of misleading the public over “green investments,” is sponsoring a “Delivering net zero” talk. Its own managing director of corporate affairs, regulation and strategy, will speak on the panel.
Cadent Gas will sponsor an event entitled “How can the energy sector support customers on the journey to net zero?”. Its chief strategy and regulation officer will speak on the panel.
Other events at next month’s conference will be sponsored by companies such as Offshore Energies UK (formerly known as Oil and Gas UK), National Gas, Ovo Energy and housing developer Taylor Wimpey.
Clive Lewis MP told openDemocracy that “people want change under a Labour government” and hosting some of these firms signals that “the same palms are going to be greased”.
“I do not think that organisations like Palantir and others are necessarily the kind of organisations that Labour in the year before a general election should be cosying up to,” said Lewis. “I think they should be saying: ‘Look, we’ll deal with you but frankly, some of you are part of the problem’.
“I think it’s entirely possible to be on the side of entrepreneurs…without necessarily having to get into bed with big oil companies, big corporations or the likes of Palantir – and the Labour Party should be really clear about that.”
He added: “I think there are questions there for the New Statesman and why they’re accepting sponsorship and funding from some of these ethically and morally questionable corporations.”
Campaigners against the arms industry have condemned the decision to allow weapons manufacturers to have a presence at the conference.
“It is disgusting and disappointing to hear that arms companies will be sponsoring talks at the Labour Party conference,” Emily Apple, media coordinator at Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), told openDemocracy. “These companies should not be given this legitimacy or the opportunity to lobby policy makers in order to continue making profits for their shareholders from a deadly trade that causes destruction and misery around the world.”
She added: “Accepting sponsorship from these companies sends a bleak message to anyone thinking a future Labour government will adopt any kind of ethical stance towards the arms trade.”
Environmental groups have also spoken out, warning Labour against forming relationships with oil and gas companies.
“The fossil fuel lobby is no stranger to cosying up with policymakers – they’ve had a lot of success and made a lot of cash from doing so in the past,” Greenpeace UK’s policy director, Doug Parr, told openDemocracy. “But Labour must not make the same costly mistakes as the Conservatives by giving these self-serving climate-wreckers the opportunity to launder their political reputation.
“The next government must have bold policies and a strong commitment to tackling the climate crisis, not another one that ends up in the back pocket of polluters and dodgy operators.”
The New Statesman’s events arm advertises a partnership with the media company as an opportunity to “showcase your brand, generate leads, nurture relationships,” with “policy makers and politicians.”
It also hosts private round table events that are not publicly advertised, which openDemocracy understands can cost a sponsor over £15,000.
openDemocracy has approached the Labour Party and New Statesman Media Group for comment.
Update, 24 August 2023:This article has been amended to reflect that Babcock does not make missiles but missile components and launch systems.
Campaigners outside the Royal Courts of Justice, central London, where Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori is taking legal action against the Home Office’s decision to proscribe the group under anti-terror laws, November 27, 2025
People take part in a demonstration at Trafalgar Square in London in support of Palestine Action, June 23, 2025
