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.
Over 250 people took action today (Saturday 29 November) against our government’s complicity in genocide and against the ban on Palestine Action in ten towns and cities across the UK. They were all peacefully holding signs saying “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action”.
Yet police only arrested 164 of them as police forces in Edinburgh and Exeter decided not to make arrests of the 55 and 35 sitters there respectively.
Today’s action brings the total of arrests to 636 in the ‘most widespread wave of civil disobedience in modern UK history’ with many more people sitting with signs that police failed to arrest. This brings the total number of Lift The Ban sign-holding arrests since the proscription to 2717.
The day of action come in the middle of the Judicial Review – which is now due to end on Tuesday 2 December – and which has been plagued by allegations of a last minute ‘stitch up’. It also comes as a second hunger striker is hospitalised and as the genocide continues in Gaza with Isreal killing at least 345 Palestinians and wounding 889 since the “ceasefire”.
The Lift The Ban actions started at 1pm and the number of sitters and arrests in each town were as follows according to on the ground observers:
“Yet again the ban has proven unenforceable, with police forces in Belfast, Derry, Edinburgh, Totnes and now Exeter choosing not to arrest peaceful sign-holders under ‘terror’ laws, while other forces have given up making arrests half way through.
“This historic wave of action has seen people of courage and conscience taking action to resist the government’s clampdown on our fundamental rights to protest and free speech.
“In the face of our government’s steadfast support for Israel as it carried out crimes against humanity, collective punishment and genocide, Palestine Action were the one group who made a material impact by hitting the profits of companies supplying hardware to Israel’s killing machine.
“In court this week the government has had to try and defend the proportionality of the ban. Yet it hasn’t been able to offer any argument that proscription was in the public interest. Repeated statements by government barristers make it clear that it was simply to protect the profits of arms companies.
“The ban was never in the public interest as Palestine Action never posed any threat to the public. Conflating property damage with terrorism, as the Terrorism Act 2000 does, is an insult to everyone who has lost loved ones through acts of genuine terror.
“The proscription of Palestine Action was an act of authoritarian overreach whose only purpose was to protect Israel, the arms companies supplying its genocide, and the government ministers who have been so shamefully complicit in that genocide.”
On the opening day of the Judicial Review, Raza Husain KC, representing Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori, noted that the group was the “first direct-action civil disobedience organisation that does not advocate for violence ever to be proscribed as terrorist.” He said the ban was an “ill-considered, discriminatory, due process-lacking, authoritarian abuse of statutory power … that is alien to the basic tradition of common law and the European Convention on Human Rights.” Defend Our Juries’ Lift The Ban campaign was cited as evidence of mass civil society disagreement with the proscription.
Intervening in the Judicial Review, United Nations Special Rapporteur Ben Saul warned the ban makes the UK “out of step with comparable liberal democracies” and “sets a precedent” for further crackdown on other protest movements in the UK such as climate protesters. Amnesty International UK said it represented a substantial departure from established responses to protest movements which use direct action tactics and that it breached our fundamental rights to protest and free speech. Liberty argued the ban was disproportionate because counter-terror powers have historically been directed at groups whose modus operandi includes intentional violence against people
Best-selling author Sally Rooney told the hearing how she might no longer be able to sell or publish her books in the UK due to her support for Palestine Action. The court also heard how Keir Starmer discussed Palestine Action with Donald Trump in two phone calls before the ban after Palestine Action painted “Gaza is not for sale” on his golf course in Scotland.
The Judicial Review concludes on Tuesday 2 December when the government will present part of its defence using the secret court system known as Closed Material Procedure which has come under criticism for allowing evidence to be presented without challenge and has been described as being a system “in meltdown”. A judgement will be given at a later date. Skeleton arguments for the applicant are available on request.
SECOND HUNGER STRIKER HOSPITALISED
28 prisoners are currently being held in UK prisons without trial for allegedly taking part in actions claimed by Palestine Action known as the Filton 24 and the Brize Norton 5. Most will be held for two years without trial – exceeding the six month pre-trial custody limit – because the Crown Prosecution Service is claiming there is a “terrorist connection” on the basis of criminal damage. However no charges have been brought under the Terrorism Act against these prisoners and the actions took place before Palestine Action was proscribed by the government.
Six prisoners are now on a rolling hunger strike, some will today enter their fifth week. The hunger strike started on Saturday 2nd November – Balfour Day – with two people after the Home Secretary failed to respond to their demands including immediate bail, access to documents necessary for the right to a fair trial and the de-proscription of Palestine Action. The strike is “rolling” because more people continue to join the strike as their demands remain unmet. The conditions of their detention have been criticised by UN experts in a letter to the UK government.
It was revealed yesterday that Teuta ‘T’ Hoxha is now the second prisoner on hunger strike to be hospitalised. She was moved to the healthcare wing on Thursday, due to her rapidly deteriorating health after 20 days on hunger strike. Kamran Ahmed was hospitalised on Tuesday after collapsing on Friday 21 November.
The November wave of action has seen 636 people in ten towns and cities arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000 for peacefully holding cardboard signs.
Across the UK the ban has been shown unnecessary and unenforceable as police forces in Derry, Belfast, Edinburgh and Exetert chose not to make arrests, while several local police forces in England and Wales were overwhelmed and gave up on arresting everyone.
On Wednesday 26 November, police confirmed 143 arrests outside the Royal Courts of Justice on the first day of the Judicial Review.
On Monday 24 November, around 50 people were arrested outside the Home Office where Yvette Cooper made her ill-fated decision to proscribe Palestine Action. Met Police have not publicly released a number of arrests for the action.
On Saturday 22 November, Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) made no arrests of 21 people in Derry and 20 in Belfast who held the same signs as people in a London Peace Garden where the Met Police made “at least 90” arrests for terrorism offences, making a mockery of the proscription.
On Thursday 20 November, police confirmed 47 arrests outside the Ministry of Justice, where the Attorney General resides, who has approved the charges of hundreds of peaceful protestors for terrorist offences despite there being no public interest in doing so.
On Tuesday 18 November, local police forces arrested just 142 of the 237 people who took action in ten cities across the UK. After several hours forces in Aberystwyth, Truro and Oxford confirmed they would not be returning to arrest the remaining sign-holders. Police Scotland made no arrests of the 49 people who took action in Edinburgh. The police therefore failed to arrest 95 sign-holders – a full 40% – showing once again the ban is both unnecessary and unenforceable.
Palestine Action joke that appeared in the UK satirical magazine ‘Private Eye’.Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.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.
Permission for Huda Ammori’s judicial review was upheld. Photograph: Abdullah Bailey/Alamy
Judges reject Home Office attempt to block judicial review of group’s proscription under Terrorism Act
A legal challenge to the ban on Palestine Action can go ahead next month after the court of appeal rejected the Home Office’s attempt to block the case.
On Friday, three judges, led by the lady chief justice, Sue Carr, upheld Mr Justice Chamberlain’s decision to grant the Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori a judicial review of the group’s proscription under the Terrorism Act.
The ban, the first on a direct action group, came into effect on 5 July, categorising it alongside the likes of Islamic State and National Action. Since then, more than 2,000 people have been arrested under the Terrorism Act for allegedly supporting Palestine Action, most for holding signs reading: “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.”
As well as dismissing the Home Office’s appeal, Carr said that the court of appeal was granting two further grounds on which to challenge the legality of the ban, in addition of the two already granted by Chamberlain.
dizzy: I’ve committed to participate in the November protests.
Palestine Action joke that appeared in the UK satirical magazine ‘Private Eye’.Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.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.
On Wednesday we were crammed into the unsalubrious court 73 at the Royal Courts of Justice to hear the judgment from Judge Chamberlain on whether Huda Ammori, co-founder of Palestine Action would be granted a judicial review of the proscription of the organisation.
Judge Chamberlain breezed in and went immediately into a summary of his judgment, beginning with an account of the process so far. This was covered in my last report; the only new information was that the Special Advocate who had been present during the closed session was Tim Buley KC.
In this extraordinary abuse of process, the security services are allowed to bring alleged “intelligence” material into proceedings, which Huda Ammori and Palestine Action are not permitted to see. Nor are their lawyers allowed to have any idea what allegations have been made.
Instead a court-appointed “Special Advocate” is supposed to represent their interests, without being allowed to tell them what the accusations are. Nor can they tell the special advocate what points to make, as in “we absolutely have no foreign funding and have never had any contact with any foreign intelligence agencies”.
Nobody is ever allowed to know what a “Special Advocate” actually does or says in the closed session, nor what the government lawyers or those giving evidence on behalf of the security services do or say.
If I were a Special Advocate, I would do nothing except hand the judge a copy of the Dossier on Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction, and say: “This shows the quality of security service intelligence. Now go and wipe your arse with it.”
Having told us there had been a closed evidence process, Judge Chamberlain then gave us what he said would be a brief summary of his judgment. The link is to the full judgment.
… [A detailed account of events and arguments by Craig Murray.]
So while the granting of a judicial review represents some kind of victory, it is meaningless for now, as both the proscription and the repression continue – as does the Genocide.
I do not have any hope for success from the judicial review – all this is part of the smoke and mirrors of process and legality behind which the British Establishment seek to mask their complicity in the crimes of Zionism.
96 arrested around England ahead of legal challenge to group’s proscription, no arrests in Edinburgh and Derry
~ Tim Simon ~
Nearly 100 more people across England have been arrested today (19 July) under the Terrorism Act 2000 for holding signs saying “I oppose genocide—I support Palestine Action”. Protest group Defend Our Juries reported that 55 people were arrested in Parliament Square in London, 17 in Bristol, 16 in Manchester, and 8 in Truro. In contrast, protests in Edinburgh and Derry were left undisturbed.
In Truro, police were slow to respond to the display at first, handing out leaflets outlining the legislation surrounding support for proscribed groups. They later began to slowly arrest those holding the signs—among them 81 year-old Deborah Hinton, a former magistrate.
Edinburgh. Photo: Defend Our Juries
In a statement made during their arrest, one activist stated: “We want Yvette Cooper to remove the proscription of Palestine Action. We want the government to take action on genocide and to stop complying with Israel in killing and slaughtering babies, women, children, and men. If this was in 1930s Germany, it would be the same as helping the Nazis with their concentration camps”.
The ban on the group was announced by Cooper after supporters of Palestine Action entered the RAF base at Brize Norton and spray-painted two military planes. The High Court is to hear a legal challenge to the ban on Monday, when Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori will seek permission for a full judicial review of the group’s proscription.
Vote Labour for Genocide.UK 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.Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone obect to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities,mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
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
