Huda Ammori: ‘I‘m certain that legally we are correct that this ban is disproportionate to free speech and the right to protest.’ Photograph: Abdullah Bailey/Alamy
Speaking after appeal court ruled ban lawful, Huda Ammori says fight will be won in the courts or ‘on the streets’
The co-founder of Palestine Action has said the battle to overturn the terrorism ban on the direct action group will be won – in the courts or “on the streets”.
Huda Ammori, who as a founder of Palestine Action – the first direct action protest group to be banned under the Terrorism Act – brought the legal challenge, said she was disappointed but remained confident of victory.
“I‘m certain that legally we are correct that this ban is disproportionate to free speech and the right to protest. I think that’s really clear,” she said. “We just need to get to the right court that’s going to recognise that and we’ll take it all the way up to the European court of human rights, if needs be.”
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As an illustration of what she termed the politicisation of the case, Ammori highlighted the court of appeal judges’ assertion that “Palestine Action has little or nothing in common with the suffragettes”.
The suffragettes carried out a nationwide bombing campaign while Emily Davison, who is commemorated by two statues, attacked a clergyman with a horse whip after mistaking him for the then chancellor, David Lloyd George. Ammori said of the judges’ comparison: “It just is completely inaccurate and quite crazy that they even felt like they needed to make that comparison.”
Monday’s judgment was the second blow for Palestine Action after Friday’s sentencing of four activists involved in a 2024 raid on an Israeli manufacturer’s arms factory near Bristol.
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.Palestine Action dismantle Elbit equipment, 6 August 2024. (Photo: Handout)Palestine Action joke that appeared in the UK satirical magazine ‘Private Eye’.
THE Court of Appeal decision to uphold the government’s absurd ban on Palestine Action as a “terrorist” group shows the need for a political revolt against the decree.
The definition of terrorism is being stretched to include any criminal damage to property done with a political motive, as we saw with Friday’s sentencing of the Filton Four. There, Mr Justice Johnson cited defendants’ aim to “influence the government” as evidence in favour of treating their attack on an arms factory belonging to Israeli firm Elbit Systems as a terrorist act.
The Court of Appeal is similarly sweeping. “The whole premise of Palestine Action is to cause damage to property,” it charges, before adding: “At no stage has Palestine Action suggested that its terrorist activities were either a mistake or an aberration.” “Damage to property” has by sleight of hand become “terrorist activities.”
Judges’ reference to the Suffragettes, in order to contrast their direct action to Palestine Action’s so-called terrorism, is again misleading; they state that the latter has “caused injury as well as property damage” (so did some Suffragette activities) and that its use of “secret cells to avoid … detection and prosecution” adds to the case for it being terrorist.
Elbit’s production of weapons used in a genocide against the Palestinians is described as “lawful business” despite the cases against Israel and Israeli leaders at the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court. And speculation about future activities is given as much weight as anything that has actually been done (“The future threats and risks posed to third party individuals and property by Palestine Action are perhaps the most important factors … the home secretary is in the best position to assess those future threats and risks”).
All this simply shows that the courts are not a defence against authoritarian government.
Denying that the ban has had a chilling effect on freedom of protest, when police have arrested thousands of people for sitting down in public holding placards, is ludicrous; so is trusting ministers to tell the truth about groups they want to ban (the home secretary who pushed the ban through, Yvette Cooper, prepared the ground with baseless smears that Palestine Action might be funded by Iran).
Evidence-free froth about links to foreign states is doubly dangerous: it provides an excuse to suppress dissenting voices at home and raises international tensions when the risk of world war is again real, thanks in no small degree to the belligerence of our own government and its trigger-happy allies.
If the government cannot be turned from its repressive path judicially then this needs to happen politically. Even if Palestine Action can appeal to the Supreme Court, that won’t stop plans to give police powers to ban marches based on their “cumulative impact” or the prosecutions of peace movement leaders like Ben Jamal and Chris Nineham. We need a mass movement that forces ministers to back down.
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.Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
Judges’ references to the Suffragettes are ridiculous. Are they suggesting that the Suffragettes didn’t plot secretly to kidnap cabinet ministers and subject them to forced feeding? Is it suggested that they published all their plans and intentions publicly so that here was no element of surprise? Are they saying that Suffragette bombers and arsonists campaigning for suffrage were not terrorists while Palestine Action opposing genocide are?
I consider that a horse crop whip only stings very briefly by the way, there is the crack of a whip but hardly painful and extremely short-lived, doesn’t leave any marks.
A man is arrested during a protest in support of Palestine Action. Photograph: Guy Smallman/Getty Images
Judges overturn decision of high court that government proscription of group under Terrorism Act was wrong
The high court was wrong to rule that the ban on Palestine Action under anti-terrorism laws was unlawful, the court of appeal has concluded.
A five-strong panel, including the two most senior judges in England and Wales, overturned February’s decision of the lower court that the proscription of the direct action group, the first to be banned under the Terrorism Act, was wrong.
The court of appeal’s decision will come as a relief to the government whose ban attracted widespread condemnation as well as a civil disobedience campaign defying proscription, during which more than 3,000 people have been arrested.
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.
Over 1,000 people showed their support for the jailed Palestine activists (Photo: Guy Smallman)
The Palestine movement mobilised outside a south London court against a state-orchestrated attack on all our democratic rights.
Four members of the Filton 24 group of Palestine activists—Samuel Corner, Charlotte Head, Ellie Kamio and Fatema Zainab Rajwani—were sentenced as “terrorists” even though they were not tried or convicted under terror laws.
The four were sentenced with a “terrorism connection” by Justice Johnson, after a jury convicted them of criminal damage.
Justice Johnson said there was a “terrorism connection” as there was “serious property damage” to Israeli weapons and claimed the defendants did the action to influence the British government and intimidate Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer.
Samuel Corner, who was convicted of criminal damage and Grievous Bodily Harm, was sentenced to eight years and eight months. Charlotte Head, who was convicted of criminal damage, was sentenced to six years. Leona Kamio, who was convicted of criminal damage, was sentenced to six years. Fatema Zainab Rajwani, who was convicted of criminal damage, was sentenced to five years and eight months in prison.
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The jury was not informed that they could be sentenced as terrorists if they were found guilty of the charge of criminal damages.
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At around 1pm a long line of activists, some 200 people, held up cardboard signs which read, “Saving lives is not terrorism, I support Palestine Action.” It was as part of a peaceful protest organised by Defend Our Juries.
The police arrested pensioners, disabled people and activists for taking action against the weaponisation of anti-terrorism laws to shutdown Palestine solidarity.
One sign-holder told Socialist Worker before they were dragged away, “Everything’s been rigged to make sure they’re getting sentenced as terrorists.
“The jury didn’t know there was a terrorism connection. I’m here today because I am extremely concerned about where this is heading.
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.Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/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.
Daniel Tatlow-Devally, Crow Tricks, Leandra Rollo, Zo Hailu and Vi Kovarbasic appear in court, May 2026. Photo: Ignacio Rosaslanda
Germany is prosecuting five activists alleged to be part of Palestine Action Germany in what their lawyers have described as a “show trial” intended to stigmatise protesters “as [if they were] terrorists” and which legal experts argue shows a “deeply concerning development” in how the state is targeting political protest.
The so-called Ulm 5, who are from the UK, Germany, Spain and Ireland, are currently on trial at a high-security court at Stammheim prison in Stuttgart following a break-in at offices of the Israeli arms firm Elbit Systems in Ulm, southwestern Germany, in September 2025.
The defendants face charges of trespassing, property damage and using the symbols of a proscribed organisation.
They have also been charged with belonging to a criminal organisation under Section 129 of the German Criminal Code – a controversial piece of legislation human rights lawyers say is being used to “blur the line between organised crime and the legitimate exercise of people’s freedom of assembly and expression” such that the case will “have a chilling effect on others who are considering engaging in political protest”.
Framed as terrorists.
On 8 September 2025, Zo Hailu, Vi Kovarbasic, Leandra Rollo, Daniel Tatlow-Devally and Crow Tricks are alleged to have broken into the Ulm offices of Elbit Systems wearing signs reading “Palestine Action”.
The indictment, seen by Novara Media, alleges that they caused over €1m worth of property damage to the site, painted slogans including “Child murderer” and “Baby killer” (which the prosecution characterises as “antisemitic” messaging) and chanted pro-Palestinian slogans, including the phrase “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” (which some German courts have ruled constitutes a symbol of Hamas). All were arrested without resistance.
The activists are not being tried under terror legislation. Nor are they alleged to have been violent or harmed people. In fact, their lawyers argue this is precisely what they were trying to stop: by damaging the property of Elbit Systems, a company whose centrality to Israel’s genocide in Gaza is well-documented, their aim was to save the lives of Palestinians.
Yet despite this, their lawyers say both the courts and the prosecution are trying to create the impression that the defendants are terrorists.
