UK court says proscribing Palestine Action as ‘terrorist’ group was lawful

Britain’s Court of Appeal has ruled that the government’s proscription of the activist group Palestine Action as a “terrorist” organisation was lawful, overturning a decision by a lower court.

The ruling on Monday came after the government lodged an appeal challenging a High Court ruling in February that banning the group under the Terrorism Act 2000 was unlawful and disproportionate.

“We concluded that the proscription decision struck a fair balance,” Chief Justice Sue Carr said in her remarks announcing the decision. “We therefore allowed the home secretary’s appeal against the decision of the Divisional Court.”

Huda Ammori, co-founder of Palestine Action, said she would “fight proscription all the way” to the Supreme Court and European Court of Human Rights to overturn “one of the most extreme attacks on free speech and the right to protest in modern British history”.

More than 3,000 arrests linked to support for Palestine Action have been made since the ban was imposed in July 2025.

In her ruling, Carr said Palestine Action’s conduct was not that of a non-violent, direct-action group.

Lawyers representing Britain’s interior minister, Shabana Mahmood, argued during an April hearing that claims the ban would significantly curtail freedom of expression were “overstated and incorrect”.

Carr acknowledged that while the government’s ban was “highly controversial”, and that the group was “was supported by many otherwise law-abiding citizens”, it was a “fundamental mistake ‌to ‌overlook the fact that Palestine Action overtly promoted unlawful violence amounting to terrorism”.

“Palestine Action’s activities have caused injury as well as property damage, and at no stage has Palestine Action suggested that its terrorist activities were either a mistake or an aberration,” she said.

Carr said the campaign by Palestine Action was “intended to close down lawful businesses”, adding that “future threats and risks posed to third-party individuals and property by Palestine Action were perhaps the most important factors to weigh in the balance”.

A spokesperson for Defend Our Juries, which leads the Lift the Ban campaign, said they were surprised by the court’s verdict.

“It appears the courts have been instrumentalised to suppress opposition to genocide, when they should be doing the precise opposite,” they said in a statement.

“We will continue to protest against this Government’s embarrassing attempts to cover up its crimes with mafia state intimidation tactics.”