Supreme Court Hears Case Challenging Palestine Action Terrorist Ban

The UK’s highest court heard on Wednesday that Palestine Action was designated a terrorist group based on methods similar to those used by suffragettes and other historical protest movements.

Huda Ammori, a co-founder of the direct action organization, is appealing last year’s decision to proscribe the group. The ban places Palestine Action in the same legal category as al-Qaida and Boko Haram. Ammori’s legal team argues the proscription disproportionately interferes with freedom of speech and protest.

Raza Husain KC, representing Ammori, told the five judges that the group never advocated violence against people. He noted that the Home Secretary had not argued otherwise. Husain pointed to uncontroverted evidence showing that suffragettes, anti-war groups, and animal rights protesters used tactics similar to or more extreme than those of Palestine Action. He stated that the suffragettes engaged in arson and bombing attacks but are now venerated as being on the right side of history.

Husain argued that the Court of Appeal erred when it found the group’s tactics had little in common with those historical movements. He added that the ban has affected the entire Palestinian solidarity movement, chilling the expression of journalists, academics, and artists regardless of their direct connection to the group.

Sir James Eadie KC, representing the Home Secretary, submitted that the Court of Appeal’s decision was lawful and proportionate. He cited the convictions of four individuals, including one for grievous bodily harm, related to a raid on a factory owned by the Israeli arms company Elbit Systems in Filton, near Bristol. A court also found a terrorist connection in that case. Eadie noted that US sanctions had been imposed on Palestine Action as a global terrorist group.

Eadie stated that the proscription does not prevent public support for the Palestinian cause or opposition to Israel and the Israel Defense Forces. He said demonstrations targeted at Elbit remain permissible under the law.

At least 25 protesters were arrested outside the court on Wednesday. Sir Jonathan Porritt, a former director of Friends of the Earth and adviser to King Charles, was among those detained. The protesters held placards emulating a tweet by Sarah Helm, wife of the prime minister’s national security adviser, which police deemed not to meet the criminal threshold for supporting a terrorist organization. The court case is due to conclude on Thursday, with judgment expected at a later date.