UK ban on Palestine Action unlawful, high court judges rule

[purpletablet]

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/feb/13/uk-ban-palestine-action-unlawful-high-court-judges-rule

Does this mean people will no longer be arrested for holding up a sign saying “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action”?

I'm appalled by that too. But this thread is about Palestine Action hence people talking about Palestine Action on it.

Again, what political expression has been prevented? Other than the idea that violent crime is a valid form of protest?

And 'cognitive dissonance' shown by many of the violent butchering, rapes, torture and kidnapping of women, children and babies by Hamas and Palestinians on 7 October 2023.

Can we please stop this farcical dance as to who committed the worse crimes as we acknowledge atrocities have been committed by both sides during the war.

Agree
even more so as findings of atrocities against Palestinian women and children have come to light …

( and now Israel are selling the West Bank….silence from the pro Israelis on that I see also… apologies OP now I’m derailing and I do hate that )

The free speech angle is only relevant because the court didn’t consider that Palestine Action had met the legal threshold to be a terrorist group.

and incorrectly labelling them a terrorist group threatened the free speech of all their supporters. Hence people being arrested for holding up a sign.

The bar is high on labelling groups terrorists because it does restrict rights that would normally be protected like peaceful protest.

I’d be very surprised if they win on appeal.

Apologies posted twice

@Dagda
And i will be unsurprised if they win on appeal. Because no one can state what free expression has been curtailed.

With any luck PA will lay low until a potential appeal so as not to make a mockery of the idea they have not met the threshold for proscription. And if that drags on long enough, their support may have lost interest.

No so they aren’t saying that violent crime is a valid form of protest at all. The ruling is not saying that Palestine Action is “good” or that everything they did was legal. It just says that it doesn’t meet the threshold to be labelled a terrorist group.

Any unlawful acts by members of Palestinian action can and should be dealt with by criminal law. However peaceful supporters of PA would not be criminalised if they aren’t considered a terrorist group.

It’s not about what free expression has been curtailed.

It is really clear from the ruling whose free speech has been curtailed. I think you think that the high court are saying that damaging property, for example, is “free expression” but that’s not the point they made. They are talking about peaceful members or supporters of the group who were criminalised.

Anyone still supporting the State of Israel has no right to shame anyone. While tens of thousands of Palestinian men, women and children are being killed or displaced by Israel, criticising groups like Palestine Action is hypocritical at best and morally empty at worst.

What a disgraceful comment. The state of Israel is not its government. I proudly support the world's only Jewish state, now more than ever. Threads like this one show why it exists and why it has to exist. Anyone supporting the terrorists of Hamas who brutalise their own people as well as Israelis is a disgrace

You seem to be suggesting that Palestine Action should be immune from criticism even if they do stuff like bludgeon a woman with a sledgehammer because Palestine?

I’m not supporting Hamas, and it’s unfair to frame criticism of Israel’s actions as support for Hamas. A state and its government may be distinct in theory, but governments act in the name of the state, using its military, laws, and institutions. Those actions are open to scrutiny.

Supporting Palestinian rights or criticising the conduct of Israel is not the same as endorsing Hamas. It’s possible to oppose Hamas and still be deeply concerned about the scale of civilian suffering.

No one is arguing for immunity from criticism. Violence against civilians is wrong regardless of who commits it. But focusing on isolated incidents while downplaying the scale of civilian suffering in Gaza is exactly the imbalance I’m talking about.

Sundays headlines
This person has it just right after the ruling 🥳

If you can’t see the rather light text it says
‘ up yours Cooper ‘ 👏👏

👏👏

You started a thread about Palestine Action and are now complaining that people are talking about what they did?

No you misunderstand my meaning.
proscribing makes it illegal to support or belong to a group , because that support makes it easier for the group to achieve its terror related aims (by fundraising, recruiting new members, publicity, PR, etc). I don't think anyone thinks the grannies getting arrested are about to smash up a military plane, but they form the base of the pyramid that enables these actions.

If a pensioner was marching under an ISIS flag, its not illegal because we assume they are about to commit some atrocity, it's illegal because their support helps that group - whose aims are to commit such atrocities.

And those supporters of PA or ISIS can still completely legally use their speech to criticise/boycott Israel, or call for a Islamic caliphate etc. They just can't support the groups whose explicit purposes are to bring about those things through violence.

No one is surprised people are talking about Palestine Action. The problem is the refusal to acknowledge the wider context that drives these movements. Selective outrage doesn’t make for an honest discussion.

This is a thread about Palestine Action. The attack was an attack committed by Palestine Action. Calling it an 'isolated incident' and calling discussion of it 'selective outrage' is gaslighting. The whole point of proscribing them was to ensure that such an event was an isolated incident and not an escalating pattern. Whatever is happening in Gaza is NOT an excuse for violence in the UK.

It's amazing that people can't get their heads around this. Actually I think they can but it suits their purposes to get people to wail about poor old grannies. It's also rather condescending to old people.

One injured police officer is treated as a moral emergency by certain posters, while tens of thousands of Palestinians killed by the state of Israel are ignored. The reason PA exists is because the state of Israel is killing an obscene amount of Palestinian men, women and children. At a certain point, it becomes difficult to ignore that some posters’ primary concern is defending Israel at all costs rather than applying consistent standards.

This is an interesting article about the governments leaked claim to the press that Palestine Action may be funded by Iran, something that the governments own terrorism advisor Jonathan Hall KC has made clear there is zero evidence for.

The anonymous Home Office briefing about Iran came two days after the pro-Israel lobby group We Believe in Israel (WBII) tweeted: “Behind Palestine Action’s theatre of resistance stands a darker puppeteer: the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps … Palestine Action is the mask. The IRGC is the face.” WBII took credit for Yvette Cooper’s unlawful proscription of Palestine Action that the judges ruled did not follow their own guidelines on proscription. It tweeted on 24 June: “This outcome is the direct result of months of sustained research, strategic advocacy, and evidence-based reporting led by WBII and our partners”.

www.declassifieduk.org/how-government-used-media-to-claim-iran-link-to-palestine-action/