Handful of MPs condemn Palestine Action ban as vast majority back proscription
British MPs have overwhelmingly voted to proscribe the direct action group Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation, though several MPs condemned the move as “grotesque” and said they were pressured into voting for the measure.
MPs voted 385 to 26 in favour of the ban, which will make it a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison to be a member of or show support for Palestine Action.
The House of Lords is set to vote on the motion on Thursday. If passed, it will come into force at midnight on 9 July, pending a legal challenge by the group requesting “interim relief” to stay the order.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s order proposed two other organisations for proscription along with Palestine Action, neo-Nazi groups the Maniacs Murder Cult (MMC) and the Russian Imperial Movement (RIM).
MPs had to vote to proscribe all three, or none at all, a move which several MPs suggested was intended to pressure parliamentarians to back the measure and that Palestine Action dubbed a “Trumpian tactic”.
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“We don’t know - and we will never know - if MPs approve the home secretary’s authoritarian ban on Palestine Action because she refused MPs’ request to allow them to vote specifically on this,” the group said in a statement.
During the debate, independent MP Zarah Sultana said the move “lumps a non-violent network of students, nurses, teachers, firefighters and peace campaigners - ordinary people, my constituents and yours - with neo-Nazi militias and mass-casualty cults”.
'To equate a spray can of paint with a suicide bomb isn't just absurd, it is grotesque'
- MP Zarah Sultana
“To equate a spray can of paint with a suicide bomb isn't just absurd, it is grotesque,” she added.
“This will go down as a dark day in our country’s history. People will ask which side were you on and I stand with the millions of people who oppose genocide… I say this loudly and proudly… we are all Palestine Action”.
Green Party leader Carla Denyer said she was “absolutely furious” about “the cynical lumping together of these three organisations into a single vote”.
“Us MPs who wanted to proscribe the MMC and RIM were prevented from doing so because we could not vote to erode democracy and the freedom of speech,” Denyer said in a video shared on X.
Labour MP Nadia Whittome highlighted the irony of the fact that the vote coincided with the 97th anniversary of women gaining the right to vote - which was won due to direct action tactics deployed by the suffragette movement.
“The suffragettes carried out direct action far more extreme than anything those in Palestine Action have done. Yet today, their role in changing history for the better is commemorated”.
‘The last opportunity’
The ban flies in the face of mounting concerns raised by NGOs, lawyers and UN experts.
Despite Home Office minister Dan Jarvis arguing that Palestine Action’s proscription “will not impinge on people’s right to protest”, several UN special rapporteurs warned the decision could have a “chilling effect” on protest and advocacy in relation to Palestine.
Simon Pook, a lawyer representing several Palestine Action activists, described the ban as “a serious and significant erosion of our civil rights to undertake peaceful direct action”.
'Lowering the bar of terrorism to direct action protest groups may have the effect of bringing Britain ever closer to an authoritarian police state'
- Simon Pook, lawyer
“It appears that lowering the bar of terrorism to direct action protest groups may have the effect of bringing Britain ever closer to an authoritarian police state,” Pook told Middle East Eye.
Laura O’Brien, head of the protest team at Hodge Jones & Allen Solicitors, told MEE that the proscription “marks a dark chapter for fundamental rights in the UK”.
“Where damage or violence is used, the existing criminal law provides all the powers the Government needs to investigate, prosecute and punish. Proscription is political overreach designed to intimidate those who support direct action,” she said.
Hundreds gathered outside Westminster to protest the ban on Wednesday evening, with four people arrested, including “a man who blocked the gates of Downing Street with his mobility scooter”, according to the Metropolitan Police.
Palestine Action said that protesters were instructed to assemble further away from Whitehall due to Public Order Act restrictions imposed by the police.
In a post on X, Palestine Action called for a protest outside the Royal Courts of Justice on Friday, where an urgent hearing is set to be held to decide whether the order can be suspended, pending further proceedings to decide whether a legal challenge can be brought.
The group described this as “the last opportunity to stop the proscription”.
Meanwhile, four Palestine Action activists have been charged after breaking into an RAF base and spray painting two planes last month.
In a statement, the police said the activists had been charged with conspiracy to enter a prohibited place for a purpose “prejudicial to the safety or interests of the United Kingdom”, and conspiracy to commit criminal damage.
According to the statement, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) will argue in court that the offences have a “terrorist connection”.
The CPS stated they would do the same for the Filton 18, activists who were arrested on terrorism charges following an action in August 2024.
A direct action group with the name “Yvette Cooper,” which has the same branding as Palestine Action, emerged amid the impending ban.
The newly formed group posted footage purportedly of activists spray painting trucks belonging to Time Logistics, a company which it said transports weapons for “Israel’s biggest weapons firm”.
“If you want to ban Palestine Action, you'll have to proscribe Yvette Cooper too,” the post read.
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