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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
What is Palestine Action, the group linked to hundreds of arrests in
the UK?
By Kara Fox, CNN
Updated:
2:16 PM EDT, Sun September 7, 2025
Source: CNN
Over 890 people protesting the British government’s decision to ban
the activist group Palestine Action were arrested in London, police
said Sunday, marking the largest mass arrest in the British capital in
decades.
London’s Metropolitan Police estimated up to 1,400 people on Saturday
gathered in Parliament Square Saturday, holding signs that read: “I
oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action,”in a show of continuing
support since the group was designated as a in July.
Police said Sunday 857 people had been arrested at the protest under
terrorism laws for showing support for the group and 33 people were
arrested for other offenses, including assaults on police officers.
Police arrested protesters to chants of “shame on you” from other
demonstrators, with officers forcing their way through crowds to make
the arrests. Video footage verified by CNN shows the moment an officer
draws his baton amid a struggle with one demonstrator as other officers
tussle with protesters on the ground.
As public the ban grows, fueling a wider debate on civil liberties and
government overreach, here’s what to know about the group:
What is Palestine Action?
Palestine Action is a UK-based organization that aims to disrupt the
operations of weapons manufacturers connected to the Israeli
government.
It was founded by Huda Ammori and climate activist Richard Barnard in
2020, when the group took its first action to shut down the UK
operations of Elbit Systems – Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer
– and stated its commitment to “ending global participation in
Israel’s genocidal and apartheid regime.”
Elbit Systems UK – which is currently bidding for a £2 billion
($2.7bn) British defense ministry contract – did not respond to
CNN’s questions about Palestine Action, but said in a statement that
“national security is our priority and we are proud to partner with
the British armed forces.”
Since its founding, Palestine Action has also, among other actions,
occupied, blockaded, spray painted and disrupted the Israeli-French
drone company UAV Tactical Systems and the global arms giant Leonardo.
It has slashed and spray-painted a portrait of former British foreign
secretary Arthur Balfour – whose 1917 declaration expressed
London’s support for establishing a “national home for the Jewish
people” in British-mandate Palestine – at Trinity College,
Cambridge, and “abducted” two busts of Israel’s first president,
Chaim Weizmann, from the University of Manchester.
However, it was the group’s late June 2025 action – RAF Brize
Norton, and vandalized two Airbus Voyager refueling planes with paint
and crowbars – that spurred serious government action.
Days later, then-UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper – who became foreign
secretary on Friday in a – designated Palestine Action as a terror
group, placing it on equal footing with organizations such as Hamas, al
Qaeda and ISIS – sparking condemnation from United Nations experts,
human rights groups, and politicians.
Why did the British government ban the group?
The UK government, citing an assessment from the country’s Joint
Terrorism Assessment Centre, said that Palestine Action had crossed the
line from protest to sabotage. Cooper as necessary to safeguard
national security, stating that Palestine Action is “not a
non-violent organization” and has a history of “unacceptable
criminal damage.”
But British authorities have had their eyes on the group for some time.
In May 2024, an independent government review on political violence and
disruption compared Palestine Action and climate activists Just Stop
Oil to “terror groups” and recommended their actions be banned.
“Banning terror groups has made it harder for their activists to plan
crimes –- that approach should be extended to extreme protest groups
too,” said John Woodcock, the review’s author, who sits in the
United Kingdom’s upper legislative chamber as Lord Walney.
In an interview with CNN, Woodcock said that the designation was
“justified and proportionate.”
“I take real exception to that idea of this being a peaceful
protest,” he said. “The definition of terrorism absolutely
encompasses the kind of economic damage for a political cause which
Palestine Action have systematically carried out.”
Woodcock was a paid adviser to lobbying groups that represent arms
manufacturers and fossil fuel companies. Also the former chair of
Labour Friends of Israel, he has shrugged off any perceived conflict of
interest, telling CNN that “we ought to be able to say it’s not
okay to break the law and to terrorize working people.”
Palestine Action is believed to be the first direct-action group to be
designated a terrorist organization in the UK. The ban means that
showing support for the organization carries a maximum sentence of up
to 14 years in prison.
While the group has promoted “disruptive tactics,” it has said
their actions are targeted at properties, not people. The UK Home
Office has not provided evidence for its claims that Palestine Action
has used weapons and caused serious injury.
Who is criticizing the ban?
Civil liberties campaigners across Britain and beyond swiftly condemned
the designation, warning that applying terrorism laws to such a group
risks chilling free speech and assembly, while also setting a dangerous
precedent for protest rights.
Amnesty UK has slammed the move as “a disturbing legal overreach,”
arguing that existing criminal laws could address property damage
without invoking terrorism.
Amnesty also argues that the ban suppresses expression across the wider
pro-Palestinian movement, an assertion that the government rebukes.
In July, UN human rights chief Volker Turk called to lift the ban,
saying that it raises concerns that UK counter-terrorism laws “are
being applied to conduct that is not terrorist in nature and risks
hindering the legitimate exercise of fundamental freedoms.”
How have protests and arrests unfolded since the proscription?
Since the terror designation, more than 1,500 individuals have been
arrested at solidarity protests across the UK.
On August 9, more than 500 people were .
Nearly half of the 532 people arrested that day were 60 or older,
police said. Almost 100 people arrested were in their 70s, and 15 more
in their 80s.
While the majority of protesters arrested are unlikely to do jail time,
Justice Minister Alex Davies-Jones told the BBC last month that
“anyone showing support for that terrorist organization will feel the
full force of the law.”
Ahead of Saturday’s demonstration, counter-terrorism officers in
England and Scotland from the activist group Defend Our Juries –
which has been instrumental in organizing the protests – arresting
and charging them all with terrorism offenses. The move came before a
scheduled news conference about the protests.
Could the ban be overturned?
An , scheduled for November, could answer that question.
In granting the legal review, London High Court Judge Martin
Chamberlain said in July that it was “reasonably arguable,” that
the ban had disproportionately interfered with Palestine Action’s
right to freedom of expression, assembly and association under the
European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
Chamberlain added that Cooper, who brought forward the proscription
order, could have consulted the group prior to the move.
Meanwhile, many rights organizations warn the decision marks a pivotal
moment for the future of protest rights in the UK.
“If this unprecedented, authoritarian proscription is allowed to
stand, there is a clear danger that it will be used against other
groups the government of the day does not like – whether that be
racial or climate justice groups, disability rights groups or trade
unions,” a Defend Our Juries spokesperson said.
CNN’s Mick Krever, Isobel Yeung, Billy Stockwell and Jasmin Sykes
contributed reporting.
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