Palestine Action instructs lawyers to fight bid to proscribe group as ‘terrorist organisation’

Palestine Action has formally instructed a legal team to challenge the UK Home Secretary’s unprecedented move to proscribe the direct-action group as a terrorist organisation. The legal response is being spearheaded by human rights lawyer Gareth Peirce of Birnberg Peirce Solicitors, with support from Kellys Solicitors.

The Home Secretary’s plan, first leaked to the press earlier this month, would place Palestine Action alongside groups such as Daesh and National Action under the Terrorism Act 2000. If passed, the proscription would criminalise public support for or association with the group. Critics say it amounts to political repression aimed at shielding Israel’s largest arms firm, Elbit Systems.

Since its founding in 2020, Palestine Action has launched high-profile campaigns targeting UK-based Elbit Systems sites. Activists have occupied factories, blockaded entrances and disrupted operations in what they describe as non-violent resistance to British complicity in Israeli war crimes. Elbit Systems produces weapons used in Israel’s attacks on Gaza and is directly implicated in alleged offences under the International Criminal Court Act 2003.

The proscription effort follows lobbying from pro-Israel organisations. “For years, pro-Israel lobby groups, the Israeli government and Elbit Systems have been lobbying for repressive treatment of Palestine Action” said the group on its fundraising page. “Just days before government sources told the press of their intentions to ban the direct-action group, ‘We Believe in Israel’ released a report and ‘Campaign Against Antisemitism’ wrote to the Home Secretary asking for her to proscribe us.”

Read: UK court acquits Palestine Action activists as prosecution provides no evidence of alleged crimes

Palestine Action has launched a legal fundraiser to support its defence, and as of this week, has already raised over £91,000 of its £100,000 target.

In a detailed public statement addressed to the Home Secretary, Palestine Action condemned the move as an “unhinged reaction” aimed at silencing dissent. “The real crime here is not red paint being sprayed on these war planes,” the group said, “but the war crimes that have been enabled with those planes because of the UK Government’s complicity in Israel’s genocide.”

Rejecting the Home Office’s description of the group, Palestine Action insisted it is comprised of “teachers, nurses, students and parents” engaged in direct action to end UK complicity in Israeli crimes. “It is plainly preposterous to rank us with terrorist groups like ISIS, National Action and Boko Haram,” the statement said. The group noted that even former justice ministers, including Lord Falconer, have said proscribing it is not justified”.