UK appeals court upholds ban on Palestine Action

The United Kingdom’s Court of Appeal has upheld the government’s decision to ban Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation, according to Al Jazeera. The ruling means the group remains proscribed under UK law, a status that also criminalises support for it.

Police arrested more demonstrators outside the Court of Appeal in London on Monday as supporters gathered after the decision, Al Jazeera reported. Since the ban took effect, about 3,000 people have been arrested, according to the report.

The Metropolitan Police welcomed the judgment and said it would keep arresting people who demonstrate in support of Palestine Action, Al Jazeera reported.

What the court decided

A five-judge panel, including the two most senior judges in England and Wales, found that the government acted lawfully when it proscribed Palestine Action last year. The judgment said the ban was controversial but that it was wrong to ignore what the court described as the group’s promotion of unlawful violence amounting to terrorism.

The court also found that Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood had the authority and democratic accountability to make the decision. According to Al Jazeera, the judgment said the proscription was consistent with government policy and proportionate.

Palestine Action was formally banned in July 2025. The group, founded six years ago, describes itself as a movement committed to ending global participation in what it calls Israel’s genocidal and apartheid regime, according to Al Jazeera.

The group says it uses disruptive tactics against companies it identifies as corporate enablers and firms involved in weapons production for Israel. Al Jazeera named targets including Elbit Systems, Leonardo, Thales and Teledyne, as well as British sites linked to those companies.

How the case reached appeal

The legal challenge was brought by Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori after the government imposed the ban. In February, the High Court ruled that the proscription was unlawful and disproportionate, according to Al Jazeera.

The government appealed that ruling. Mahmood said at the time that she disagreed with the finding that banning what she called a terrorist organisation was disproportionate.

The government moved to proscribe the group after activists broke into the Royal Air Force base at Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on June 20, 2025, and sprayed red paint on two military aircraft, Al Jazeera reported. Members of Parliament later voted to classify Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation, placing it in the same legal category as armed groups including al-Qaeda and ISIL.

British police say the group’s actions have caused millions of pounds in criminal damage, according to Al Jazeera. In a separate London court ruling on June 12, four Palestine Action members convicted over damage at an Elbit Systems facility near Bristol were to be sentenced on the basis that their actions had a “terrorist connection,” Al Jazeera reported.

Reaction and next steps

Ammori said after the ruling that Palestine Action would seek permission to appeal to the UK Supreme Court and, if necessary, go to the European Court of Human Rights. She called the ban an extreme attack on free speech and the right to protest, according to Al Jazeera.

Rights groups criticised the decision. Anas Mustapha of CAGE International said the ruling showed that such powers were being used to crush dissent, while Human Rights Watch’s acting UK director Thomas Bell said criminal damage should be handled under ordinary criminal law rather than terrorism powers, according to Al Jazeera.

Critics of the ban argue that Palestine Action members have damaged property but have not carried out violence that should be treated as terrorism. Al Jazeera reported that more than 130 public figures have spoken against the proscription.

This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.