Why was Palestine Action banned as a terror group?
Activist group Palestine Movement has been allowed to challenge the Home Office’s ban as a terrorist organization in court after the Court of Appeal rejected the Home Office’s appeal.
The direct action group was banned by the government after several of its members were accused of breaking into an Oxfordshire RAF base to spray paint military aircraft.
The Palestine Movement, founded in 2020, has staged a series of direct action protests over the past five years against arms manufacturers operating largely in the UK and selling weapons to Israel.
Former home secretary Yvette Cooper, who announced her intention to ban the group after the incident on 23 June, said it was “the latest in a long history of unacceptable criminal harm committed by Palestine Action”.
The ban branded the group as a terrorist organization and made it illegal to become a member of or solicit support for the Palestine Movement.
The group’s co-founder, Huda Ammori, attempted to appeal the government’s decision, with her lawyers arguing that the ban violated her right to free expression and silenced legitimate protests.
Since its ban, nearly 2,000 people have been arrested on suspicion of publicly supporting Palestine Action.
Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said prosecuting all protesters placed a “huge burden” on counter-terrorism officers.
At the last demonstration in Trafalgar Square earlier this month, around 500 people were taken away by police officers for carrying banners reading “I am against genocide, I support Palestine Action”.
In her summary of the Court of Appeal’s decision dismissing the Home Office’s appeal, Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr said: “An application for disbarment with a right of appeal to the POAC (Prohibited Organizations Appeal Commission) was not intended to be a means of appealing the initial decision.”
He added: “Judicial review would be a quicker way to challenge the decision banning Palestine Action than applying to lift the ban.”
What else has Palestine Action done in the past?
Palestine Action was formed on 30 July 2020 after a group of activists broke into Elbit Systems’ UK headquarters in London and spray-painted it.
The defense contractor has remained the main target of the Palestine Movement’s protests since its founding. Elbit Systems, headquartered in Israel, is the country’s largest arms manufacturer. It provides most of the unmanned aerial vehicles and ground-based equipment used by the Israeli army.
In the United Kingdom, Elbit has several UK subsidiaries operating in 16 sites across the country with 680 employees. Its latest facility is a manufacturing and development facility in Bristol opening in 2023.
On May 19, 2021, four overall-clad members of Palestine Action climbed onto the roof of an Elbit-owned drone factory in Leicester.
The action was in response to a period of unrest in May of the same year, in which 256 Palestinians and 17 Israelis were killed.
Similar occupations were carried out at Elbit’s facilities in Bristol, Oldham and Tamworth.
In April 2024, the group moved to Somerset Council’s II. He targeted Somerset County Hall, a grade-listed building, by splashing it with red paint. This was in response to the local authority leasing a building near Bristol to Elbit.
This site was targeted for the 17th time by Palestine Action in March 2025; Four of the group members damaged the building using a cherry picker. While one of them broke the windows with a sledgehammer tied to a rope, others spray-painted the building.
In June 2025, four activists allegedly part of the group are accused of damaging two aircraft at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire by using repurposed fire extinguishers to spray red paint onto turbine engines and cause further damage with crowbars.
Counter Terrorism Police South East (CTPSE) said the four were charged with conspiracy to knowingly enter a restricted place for a purpose prejudicial to the security or interests of the United Kingdom and conspiracy to cause criminal damage. The Palestine Movement claimed responsibility for the incident, saying it was a protest against British support for Israel’s war in Gaza.
