[News] Voices From the Terror List: Palestine Action Members Speak Out After UK Ban

[Anti-Imperialist News]

mintpressnews.com
<https://www.mintpressnews.com/palestine-action-uk-terror-ban-interviews/290287/>
Voices From the Terror List: Palestine Action Members Speak Out After UK Ban
Kit Klarenberg
July 26, 2025
------------------------------

On July 1 <https://www.gov.uk/government/news/three-groups-to-be-proscribed>,
British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced that Palestine Action (PA),
a crusading campaign effort, would be proscribed as a terrorist group.
Describing the movement as “dangerous,” she charged that its “orchestration
and enaction of aggressive and intimidatory attacks against businesses,
institutions and the public” had “crossed the thresholds established in the
Terrorism Act 2000.” As a result, PA is now the country’s first protest
group to be formally branded a terrorist entity, placing it in the same
league as al-Qaida and ISIS.

Based on Cooper’s characterization, a typical consumer of mainstream media
might conclude PA posed a grave threat to Britain’s public safety and
national security. However, other comments by Cooper appeared to undermine
her incendiary headline charges. In justifying PA’s proscription, the Home
Secretary cited recent actions conducted by the movement. These included
“attacks” on factories owned by defense contractors Thales in 2022 and Instro
Precision
<https://web.archive.org/web/20250519171304/https://palestineaction.org/case-dismissed-instro/>
in 2024, each causing more than £1 million in damages
<https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9wj144zd7po>.

As hundreds of lawyers and multiple U.N. experts argued
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/01/yvette-cooper-plan-ban-palestine-action-un-experts-lawyers>
in the week before the proscription took effect, the move set an extremely
dangerous precedent not only in Britain but for Palestine solidarity
efforts worldwide. The group did not engage in activities that could
plausibly be categorized as “terrorism”—a highly contentious
<https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1525/9780520967397-003/html?lang=en&srsltid=AfmBOorygZxQm0wGAdySynHJc-L7T0YndxHMYZMNzrIqLONz3vpIf5tI>concept,
popularized by Israel for political reasons
<https://www.mintpressnews.com/team-b-jerusalem-conference-israel-helped-craft-modern-terrorism/286295/>—in
other Western jurisdictions. Average citizens were not in Palestine
Action’s crosshairs, and not once
<https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2025/6/25/palestine-action-are-not-terrorists-israel-is>
did the group’s activism harm a human being.

Instead, PA engaged in multifaceted civil disobedience, targeting firms
closely tied to Israel’s slaughter of Palestinians, most prominently the
Israeli-owned defense giant Elbit Systems
<https://bdsmovement.net/news/elbit-systems-war-criminals-and-genocidaires-face-financial-woes>.
Entities providing services to those targets—such as companies leasing
commercial space to Elbit—were also in the group’s crosshairs. These
actions proved devastatingly effective, hitting Elbit’s bottom line at home
and abroad. PA’s disruption also brought unwelcome mainstream attention to
Elbit’s operations, spotlighting the firm in ways it clearly sought to
avoid.

In proscribing Palestine Action, the British government may have been
motivated, in part, by a desire to avoid awkward questions and inconvenient
disclosures. In one of the group’s final actions, on June 19, several
members broke into Royal Air Force base Brize Norton and defaced
<https://web.archive.org/web/20250620103112/https://palestineaction.org/brize-norton/>
two military planes parked there. The site is a key hub for refueling and
repairing British jets that have conducted hundreds of reconnaissance
flights
<https://www.declassifieduk.org/britain-sent-over-500-spy-flights-to-gaza/>
over Gaza since the genocide began in October 2023.

These routine surveillance flights are just one component of London’s
active involvement in the genocide, which authorities systematically seek
to conceal from public view. Another is the presence of the SAS conducting
“counterterrorism” operations in Gaza, which has been covered up
<https://www.kitklarenberg.com/p/britains-sas-abetting-gaza-genocide> via
direct state decree. However, the origins of Palestine Action’s
proscription stretch back much further. The story behind the ban is a
sordid and largely hidden one marked by long-running, opaque collusion
between British and Israeli authorities and the global arms industry.
The Legal and Political Fallout

As a result of PA’s proscription, it is now a criminal offense to be a
member of, or to express “support” for, the group, punishable by up to 14
years in prison. However, an Actionist who wishes to remain anonymous
predicts many will deliberately breach the proscription order, knowing
they’ll face legal consequences, to increase pressure on authorities.
Already, dozens of British citizens — including an 83-year-old priest —
have been arrested
<https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14899509/Police-arrest-protesters-supporting-banned-Palestine-Action-seizing-29-people-including-83-year-old-priest-week.html>
for peacefully displaying signs declaring, “I oppose genocide. I support
Palestine Action.”

“Things are going to happen, without doubt. The group may be proscribed,
but you can’t proscribe ideas, whether that’s opposition to the Holocaust
in Gaza, sympathy with Israel’s innocent victims, or a desire to disrupt
the network of genocide in Britain to which Elbit and its subsidiaries and
suppliers are so central,” the Actionist tells MintPress News. “Still, the
chilling effect on Palestine solidarity is obvious, and no doubt
deliberate.”

The mass arrest of peaceful demonstrators for simply expressing sympathy
for Palestine Action highlights a deeply troubling aspect of British
“counterterror” legislation. The term “support” isn’t even clearly defined,
and according to legal precedents, can extend far beyond practical or
tangible assistance, to “intellectual” support, including “agreement with
and approval” or “speaking in favor” of a proscribed group. In December
2024, UN experts expressed immense disquiet
<https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/wp/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/AL-GBR-15-2024-Craig-Murray-et-al-UN-comm-to-UK-with-cover.pdf>
over this “vague and overbroad” interpretation, warning that it could
“unjustifiably criminalize legitimate expression.”

“The proscription of Palestine Action is unprecedented. It’s the first time
Britain has banned as ‘terrorist’ a protest group which has never used guns
or bombs,” Asa Winstanley of Electronic Intifada
<https://electronicintifada.net/> tells MintPress News. “It seems like a
massive overreach, and therefore it’s not surprising there’s been lots of
civil disobedience in response.”

Surprisingly, even The Times, typically a reliable megaphone for Britain’s
intelligence, military and security apparatus, published an editorial
<https://archive.is/kJX9W>on July 7 intensely critical of “the heavy-handed
branding of Palestine Action as terrorists,” dubbing the proscription
“absurd.” While describing the group as “a malign force” and “antisocial
menace,” the outlet argued that activists’ damage to commercial and private
property could be “prosecuted into submission” under existing criminal law
and the use of “lighter-touch measures” given the level of threat posed by
Palestine Action.

Notably absent from The Times editorial was any consideration of the fact
that criminal proceedings against Palestine Action frequently ended in
failure. In several cases, Actionists who caused mass disruption or damage
to Elbit sites walked free
<https://electronicintifada.net/content/palestine-action-activists-walk-free-after-another-case-bites-dust/36521>
even on relatively minor charges, because the company declined to provide
police or prosecutors with witnesses or other evidence.

Elbit is extremely wary of advertising the central role its arsenal plays
in the killing of Palestinians. The company’s marketing brochures
<https://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-promotes-iron-fist-weapons-london/37046>
typically omit mention of its Israeli ownership, instead emphasizing the
supposed economic and social benefits its operations deliver to British
communities. A January 2023
<https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/black-country/inside-midlands-factory-scared-workers-25795269>
puff piece on UAV Systems, an Elbit subsidiary repeatedly targeted by
Palestine Action, even referred to the company as a “little company making
repurposed Norton motorbike engines.”

In cases where Elbit did provide evidence, Actionists used the opportunity
to turn the tables and place the company and the Israeli state on trial. In
November 2022
<https://electronicintifada.net/content/palestine-action-puts-israels-war-industry-trial/36736>,
five of the group’s activists who vandalized Elbit’s London HQ were
acquitted. In defending their actions, several of the accused testified to
witnessing first-hand atrocities committed by Israeli occupation forces in
Gaza and the West Bank. While Elbit argued Palestine Action’s buckets of
red paint were “improvised weapons,” the jury was not persuaded.
Palestine Action members target Allianz offices in London, demanding it
stop insuring Israeli arms maker, Elbit Systems. Joao Daniel Pereira |
AP Judicial
Battles and Public Defiance

Fast forward to today, and the anonymous Actionist is under no illusions
that the British legal system alone will be enough to reverse Palestine
Action’s proscription. “It has to be fought amongst the public, on the
streets and in the courts,” they tell MintPress News. The group has applied
<https://x.com/HudaAmmori/status/1944359707138789400> for a judicial review
in an effort to overturn its ban. This follows an application
<https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/jul/04/ban-on-palestine-action-to-take-effect-after-legal-challenge-fails>
for interim relief to delay the proscription, which was denied after Yvette
Cooper’s announcement.

Despite submitting an extensive witness statement outlining the serious
implications that Actionists—and ordinary British citizens—could face if
the ban took immediate effect, a panel of three judges took less than 90
minutes to reject the request
<https://www.judiciary.uk/judgments/ammori-v-secretary-of-state-for-the-home-department/>.
The justices acknowledged that there would be “serious consequences” from
the government’s ban, including the risk that individuals could
“unwittingly commit” criminal offenses and that those associated with the
group might face “social stigma and other more serious consequences at
university or at work.”

Palestine Action had warned the ban would create confusion and chaos.
Police responses to pro-PA protests across Britain have varied wildly
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/uk-divided-police-response-palestine-action-protests-exposes-chaos-unleashed-proscription>.
Some resulted in no arrests, while in Wales, protesters were not only
arrested under terror legislation but also had their homes raided. Videos of
interactions between
<https://x.com/MintPressNews/status/1945185555559424342> Palestine
solidarity protesters and police suggest officers themselves are unsure
about what is now lawful. In Scotland, four people were arrested
<https://x.com/ScotNational/status/1947303443581841691> for wearing
T-shirts that didn’t even mention the group.

Speaking to MintPress News, the anonymous Actionist expressed frustration
over the court’s decision. “A UN Special Rapporteur supported us, warning
the proscription breached international standards, but apparently British
judges know better. It just shows how corrupt the entire system is. Every
part of it is rotten,” they lament. “The government, almost unanimously
<https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2025-07-02/division/E7940BC9-6BA6-462D-AF11-FE02A85AAA50/PreventionAndSuppressionOfTerrorism?outputType=Names>
supported by parliament, rammed through the conscription without warning or
any public debate whatsoever, after falsely briefing the media we might be
funded by Iran. Who will they target like this next?”

As Declassified UK has documented
<https://www.declassifieduk.org/how-government-used-media-to-claim-iran-link-to-palestine-action/>,
nearly every major British outlet ran with the Home Office’s Iran
narrative, without offering PA a rebuttal. In a particularly revealing
twist, the pro-Israel lobby group We Believe In Israel
<https://www.webelieveinisrael.org.uk/time_to_proscribe_palestine_action>—which
does not disclose its funding sources—openly took credit for the
government’s decision. In an X post
<https://x.com/WeBelieveIsrael/status/1937593831186161792>, the
organization called the proscription its “victory,” claiming it was the
direct result of months of “sustained research, strategic advocacy, and
evidence-based reporting” contained in a report
<https://assets.nationbuilder.com/webelieveinisrael/pages/1835/attachments/original/1731484961/Report_on_Palestine_Action__A_Case_for_Proscription_under_the_Terrorism_Act_2000.pdf?1731484961>
it had published earlier in the year.
[image: Palestine Action]
<https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/1Untitled-design.png>A
banner reading “PROTESTING THIS ISN’T TERRORISM” is taken down by London
police. Lab Mo | AP Images Collusion and Israeli Influence

Again, the anonymous Actionist is unsurprised that British policy—if not
legislation—is effectively being written by Israeli lobby groups. Yvette
Cooper, Foreign Secretary David Lammy, Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Prime
Minister Keir Starmer were all named
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/labour-friends-israel-hides-supporters-list-ahead-election>
as supporters of Labour Friends of Israel, before the list was scrubbed
from the internet ahead of the 2024 general election. LFI, which praised
the proscription <https://x.com/_LFI/status/1936119689698021633>, maintains
a close relationship with Tel Aviv’s London embassy, which is widely
believed to be infested with Mossad agents—a connection the group works to
obscure
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/labour-friends-israel-israeli-embassy-front>
.

In recent months, PA and independent journalists have uncovered compelling
evidence
<https://thegrayzone.com/2025/05/27/israeli-interference-uk-protests/> that
the Home Office has been in secret contact with Elbit representatives and
Israel’s London embassy almost since the group’s founding in 2020. The full
scope of this collusion is still unknown and may never come to light.
However, documents released under Freedom of Information laws raise serious
concerns about whether this concealed relationship influenced both the
prosecution of Actionists and the decision to proscribe the group.

For example, in March 2022, then-Home Secretary Priti Patel met privately
<https://thegrayzone.com/2025/05/27/israeli-interference-uk-protests/> with
Elbit UK CEO Martin Fausset to reassure the firm—and, by extension, its
Israeli handlers—that the British government was taking “criminal protest
acts against Elbit Systems UK” seriously. At the time, officials
acknowledged that Palestine Action’s activities did “not meet the threshold
for proscription” under British law. Before that meeting, no PA members had
been successfully prosecuted. In the months that followed, legal actions
against the group escalated dramatically.

Still, many Actionists continued to walk free. In December 2023
<https://www.thecanary.co/uk/2023/12/23/palestine-action-acquitted-elbit/>,
six members—including co-founders Huda Ammori and Richard Barnard—were
acquitted of nine charges by a jury. The following month, internal
correspondence
<https://www.declassifieduk.org/israeli-arms-firm-lobbied-home-office-on-palestine-action-court-case/>
revealed Elbit UK’s security director wrote to British officials expressing
concern that “a re-trial is not a certainty” and suggesting it was “very
much in the public interest” for the trial to be reheard.

Mere days later, a retrial was announced—for 2027
<https://www.lbc.co.uk/crime/palestine-action-aircraft-damage/>. That would
mark six years since the alleged offenses took place. One Actionist called
<https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/palestine-action-protest-trial-elbit-six-retrial-court-snaresbrook-retrial/>
the drawn-out process a “form of psychological warfare on defendants,”
saying it prevents them from making long-term plans or securing employment.
Meanwhile, other PA members are imprisoned awaiting trial, some already
incarcerated for extended periods. There are disturbing signs that their
detention and prosecution are being coordinated with Israeli authorities.

Among the most alarming revelations are heavily redacted emails
<https://thegrayzone.com/2025/05/27/israeli-interference-uk-protests/>
showing that, in September 2024, the British Attorney General’s Office
shared contact details for the Crown Prosecution Service and
counterterrorism units with the Israeli embassy. The timing raises
suspicions of Israeli interference in the prosecution of PA members who,
earlier that month, broke into Elbit’s Filton factory and destroyed
quadcopters—weapons
<https://english.almayadeen.net/articles/analysis/israeli-quadcopters--ongoing-crimes-against-humanity>
routinely used to maim and kill Palestinians in Gaza.
<https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/9-9-24-AGO-Israel.webp>Source
| Kit Klarenberg | The Grayzone
<https://thegrayzone.com/2025/05/27/israeli-interference-uk-protests/>

In all, 18 Actionists involved are currently remanded
<https://tmj.news/filton-10/> in prison, their pre-trial detention period
running to 182 days, well in excess
<https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/759/part/14/crossheading/3/made#:~:text=(c)in%20the%20Crown%20Court,custody%20in%20the%20magistrates'%20court.&text=(b)that%20the%20prosecution%20has,all%20due%20diligence%20and%20expedition.%5D>
of standard limits for non-terror-related cases. Their contact with the
outside world has also been severely restricted, in violation of
international legal norms. On July 15
<https://www.cage.ngo/articles/five-more-filton-arrests-timed-to-disrupt-palestine-action-s-judicial-review>,
another five PA members were arrested and charged in connection with Filton.

If the Israeli government played any role in these prosecutions, it would
represent a flagrant breach of Crown Prosecution Service guidelines
<https://www.cps.gov.uk/publication/code-crown-prosecutors>, which prohibit
“undue pressure or influence from any source.”

In May, British prosecutors announced
<https://www.cage.ngo/articles/prosecutors-use-terror-powers-against-palestine-action-activists-amidst-zionist-interference>
they would consider “terrorism connections” in the case of 10 Actionists who
targeted Instro Precision
<https://x.com/Lowkey0nline/status/1802587000802877554?t=FGtZNATVuCB_VIuoW1JeBw&s=19>,
an Elbit supplier, in June 2024. While the charges—aggravated burglary,
criminal damage and violent disorder—do not qualify as terrorism under
British law, prosecutors say those connections may factor into sentencing.
If upheld, that designation could lead to significantly harsher penalties
than standard criminal charges would normally carry.
Legal Challenges Mount

On July 21, London’s High Court heard arguments
<https://x.com/declassifiedUK/status/1947231174922842372> from lawyers
representing Huda Ammori, seeking permission to challenge Palestine
Action’s proscription. In addition to citing devastating figures
<https://x.com/declassifiedUK/status/1947237912505950595> related to the
genocide in Gaza and Elbit’s direct involvement
<https://x.com/declassifiedUK/status/1947240143250772386>, the legal team
also emphasized the legal uncertainty
<https://x.com/declassifiedUK/status/1947242068297892245> now faced by
activists and journalists
<https://x.com/declassifiedUK/status/1947242903606038866> as a result of
the ban.

In response, government lawyers argued that the Proscribed Organisations
Appeal Commission—not a judicial review—was the appropriate forum to
challenge the designation. At the hearing’s conclusion
<https://x.com/declassifiedUK/status/1947319592696545314>, the judge stated
a full ruling would be issued on July 30.

Earlier, on June 24
<https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/opinion-palestine-action-non-violent-dont-make-us-laugh/>,
Jewish News revealed that British authorities had hesitated to proscribe PA
out of concern that a judicial review “could overturn” the decision. That
concern reportedly contributed to initial “reticence” from the Home Office.
Even if the review is authorized, it could take months for a ruling to be
reached.

In the meantime, journalist and legal scholar Leila Hatoum offered a stark
assessment of the situation. She told MintPress News that the British
state’s targeting of the group “for standing against genocide and
oppression” was “nothing short of tyranny.” She added that the ban not only
threatens basic rights—particularly freedom of speech and freedom of the
press—but also violates international law.

The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,
which was adopted by the UN in 1948, notes it is the duty of all nations
and peoples to act to stop a genocide. By legally pursuing those who are
seeking to prevent Israel’s ongoing apartheid, occupation and genocide
against the Palestinians in Gaza, especially members and supporters of
Palestine Action, the UK has positioned itself against the international
law, and alongside the forces of darkness. The country has failed humanity.”

A Legacy of Resistance

Despite this bleak outlook—and the possibility that the group could remain
proscribed regardless of any court challenge—Palestine Action’s example
remains an inspiration to people across Britain and beyond. A volunteer
group of ordinary citizens, spanning every age, ethnicity, faith and
gender, without financial or institutional backing, posed such a threat to
entrenched power that the British government, for the first time in
history, resorted to a legal “nuclear option” to neutralize them.

Civil disobedience aimed at disrupting military operations has a long and
established history. Since the early 1980s, the Christian pacifist
Plowshares movement
<https://web.archive.org/web/20120807153857/http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2010/07/nuclear_swords_to_faithful_plowshares.html>
has carried out sabotage against U.S. military bases and nuclear
installations. In 2003, five activists were prosecuted for damaging
American bombers at a British base to prevent their use in the Iraq War.
One of the defendants was represented by none other than Keir Starmer, who
argued successfully
<https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/06/20/starmer-defended-protester-who-sabotaged-military-aircraft/>
that although their actions were technically illegal, they were justified
as an effort to prevent war crimes.

Palestine Action represents the first group to maintain this legacy during
an active, ongoing genocide, but ever since its launch, it has achieved
major victories. In January 2022, Elbit sold off one of its component
factories, and a British government prosecutor acknowledged
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/uk-admits-activists-forced-elbit-sell-factory>
that PA’s sustained actions against the site “forced the closure.” Two
additional
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/uk-admits-activists-forced-elbit-sell-factory>
Elbit sites targeted by the group have since been shut down. Governments
around the world, including Brazil
<https://thedefensepost.com/2024/10/10/brazil-contract-suspension-israel/>
and even Britain
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/britain-ditches-israeli-drones>,
have canceled lucrative contracts with the company.

Had the British state not acted so forcefully, it is likely that Palestine
Action’s momentum would have continued building, possibly forcing Elbit out
of the UK entirely. Yet despite the risk of arrest or prison, solidarity
with Palestine and overt support for Palestine Action show no sign of
fading. As Israel’s favorability plummets to historic lows
<https://yougov.co.uk/international/articles/52279-net-favourability-towards-israel-reaches-new-lows-in-key-western-european-countries>
across the West, there are countless individuals around the world ready to
follow PA’s example, risking their liberty to stop the ongoing genocide.

After all, it is not just a moral duty. It is a legal one
<https://www.mintpressnews.com/top-us-law-schools-present-israel-gaza-genocide-report/287642/>
.
Truth Has Enemies. We Have You.

For over a decade, MintPress News has been at the forefront of exposing
Israeli apartheid, occupation, and war crimes—when few dared to. We’ve been
censored, smeared, and blacklisted for telling the truth. But we haven’t
stopped.

Independent journalism like this isn’t just important, it’s under attack.
If you believe in reporting that defends the voiceless and challenges the
powerful, we need your support.

Feature photo | A protestor holds a placard during the demonstration.
Hundreds of Palestine Action protestors congregated at HMP Brixton Prison
to lobby for the release of all Political Prisoners on their annual New
Year’s Eve “Noise Demo”. Lab Ky Mo |Sipa | AP Images

*Kit Klarenberg is an investigative journalist and MintPress News
contributor exploring the role of intelligence services in shaping politics
and perceptions. His work has previously appeared in The Cradle,
Declassified UK, and Grayzone. Follow him on Twitter @KitKlarenberg
<https://twitter.com/KitKlarenberg/>.*

* Republish our stories! * MintPress News is licensed under a Creative
Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 International License.
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