Palestine Action mounts legal challenge to block government ban

Home Office plan to proscribe group could be delayed after co-founder granted urgent High Court hearing

Palestine Action founders Richard Barnard and Huda Ammori. Getty Images

The UK government's faces a potential hold-up to its plan to proscribe Palestine Action after the group began court action to seek a legal challenge.

One of its founders, Huda Ammori, was on Monday granted an urgent hearing in the High Court after she applied for a judicial review of the proposed proscription.

A second hearing on Friday, the day the government hoped to pass the legislation, will determine whether or not the proscription can be suspended until July 21, the date when the court is expected to decide whether or not a legal challenge will be accepted.

Supporting statements have been submitted by Amnesty International, Liberty and European Legal Support Centre over concerns of unlawful misuse of anti-terror measures to criminalise dissent, a spokesperson for Palestine Action said.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper published a written statement on Monday to lay the order that would make membership and support for the group illegal. If the ban on Palestine Action is approved, it would become a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

Ms Ammori said the hearing sought to delay the proscription process to give “MPs and peers a proper opportunity to debate and scrutinise the proposal”. She warned that the “many thousands” of people who support Palestine Action faced being “criminalised overnight” as the Home Secretary was trying to “steamroll” a ban through parliament.

She said she was acting on behalf of “those of us who would be denied fundamental rights as a result and criminalised as ‘terrorists’ overnight”.

The government’s move to proscribe Palestine Action comes after two planes were vandalised at RAF Brize Norton on June 20. Five people have since been arrested by counter-terror police in relation to the incident.

Revealing the intention to ban the group following the incident, Ms Cooper said it was the latest in a “long history of unacceptable criminal damage committed by Palestine Action”.

A protest in support of Palestine Action's Filton 18 outside Woolwich Crown Court. Lemma Shehadi / The National

Dozens of protesters gathered outside Woolwich Crown Court in London on Monday, at a pre-trial hearing for 18 defendants who belong to Palestine Action and are accused of occupying an Elbit Systems weapons factory in Filton, Bristol, last August.

Known as the Filton 18, they were each denied bail and face 21 months in prison before the case goes to trial. The group were charged with criminal damage, violent disorder and aggravated burglary, but the Crown Prosecution Service deemed the alleged actions to have connections to terrorism.

The pre-trial hearing will determine what defences the Filton 18 can use during their trial, including whether they will be allowed to explain to the jury their motivation, which Palestine Actions says is to end the continuing Israeli military action in Gaza.

Separately, the UK government gained a win on Monday when the High Court ruled that its decision to continue allowing the export of F-35 fighter jet components to Israel was lawful, ending a months-long battle brought by Global Legal Action Network and the Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq.