UK appeals court upholds ban on Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation

JTA – A British appeals court ruled on Monday that the government acted lawfully in banning a prominent pro-Palestinian group as a terrorist organisation. 

Jewish groups welcomed the decision to maintain the ban on Palestine Action, which has staged multiple destructive attacks on military installations and weapons manufacturers in Britain. 

The government banned Palestine Action in July 2025 after some of its members broke into an air force base and damaged two military aircraft as part of a protest against the United Kingdom’s (UK’s) relationship to Israel during the war in Gaza. The ruling meant that anyone displaying support for the group has been subject to arrest and imprisonment. 

The British High Court declared the ban unlawful in February, concluding that it interfered with Palestine Action members’ rights to speech and assembly. Now, a five-judge UK Court of Appeal panel has ruled that the group’s activities met the legal standards for terrorism and the government’s decision to ban the group was justified and proportionate. 

Sue Carr, England’s chief justice, said in a statement broadcast from the court that while many Palestine Action activities and affiliates were non-violent, the group’s materials and impact showed that violence was integral to its activities. 

“It is not, as it claims, a direct action civil disobedience protest group like the suffragettes operating transparently in the open,” Carr said. “It is a covert organisation operating with secret cells to avoid the detection and prosecution of those using violence to destroy the property of third parties.” 

British Jewish groups applauded the decision. “The court’s decision confirms the seriousness of Palestine Action’s activities,” Board of Deputies of British Jews acting president Adrian Cohen said in an email to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 

Cohen noted that Palestine Action’s targets have included Jewish communal institutions and Jewish-owned businesses. He added, “At a time of record levels of antisemitism, division, and communal tensions, all those in public life should be clear: no cause justifies criminality, violence, or the glorification of those who carry it out.” 

The ruling comes days after four Palestine Action-affiliated activists were sentenced to lengthy prison terms in connection with an August 2024 break-in at the headquarters of Elbit Systems UK, the British outpost of an Israeli weapons company. The activists had previously been acquitted on some charges but were prosecuted again on others and convicted, including one on charges of striking a police officer with a sledgehammer. 

More than 100 people were arrested on Friday after Palestine Action’s supporters rallied outside the court where sentencing took place. They joined more than 3 000 people who British media report have been arrested for showing support for Palestine Action since its ban. Other supporters include the writer Sally Rooney, who last year pledged proceeds from the BBC productions of her books to the group despite potential legal penalties. 

The group is vowing to appeal its ban yet again. “We will not stop fighting for the ban to be lifted, the end of the use of terror legislation against us, and crucially, for a free Palestine,” co-founder Huda Ammori posted on X on Monday. “I will appeal to the Supreme Court and take it up to the European Court of Human Rights, if needs be.” 

The ruling comes as Prime Minister Keir Starmer seeks new powers to ban state-backed groups, such as the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as terrorist organisations. British law currently reserves such bans for non-state actors. The Campaign Against Antisemitism, a British advocacy group, said the ruling about Palestine Action “underscores the Home Secretary’s power to proscribe terrorist networks” and called for the IRGC and other groups to be banned.