UK appeals court upholds 'terrorist' ban on Palestine Action, reversing lower-court ruling

LONDON (MNTV) — Britain’s Court of Appeal ruled Monday that the government acted lawfully in proscribing the activist group Palestine Action as a “terrorist” organization, overturning an earlier decision in the group’s favor.

The judgment followed a government appeal against a High Court ruling in February that had found the ban, imposed under the Terrorism Act 2000, unlawful and disproportionate.

Announcing the decision, Chief Justice Sue Carr said the court had concluded that the proscription struck a fair balance and was therefore allowing the home secretary’s appeal against the lower court’s ruling.

Huda Ammori, co-founder of Palestine Action, vowed to challenge the ban all the way to the Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights, describing it as one of the most extreme assaults on free speech and the right to protest in modern British history.

Since the ban took effect in July 2025, more than 3,000 arrests have been made in connection with support for the group. The ban made membership of or support for the direct-action group a criminal offense punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

In her ruling, Carr said Palestine Action’s conduct was not that of a non-violent, direct-action group.

Lawyers for Britain’s interior minister, Shabana Mahmood, had argued at an April hearing that claims the ban would sharply curtail freedom of expression were overstated and incorrect.

Carr acknowledged the ban was highly controversial and that the group had drawn support from many otherwise law-abiding citizens, but said it would be a fundamental mistake to overlook that Palestine Action had openly promoted unlawful violence amounting to terrorism.

The group’s activities, she said, had caused both injury and property damage, and at no point had it suggested those actions were a mistake or an aberration.

She described the group’s campaign as intended to shut down lawful businesses, calling the future threats and risks it posed to third parties and their property perhaps the most important factors in the court’s deliberations.

Amnesty International called the verdict deeply disappointing, saying in a post on X that banning Palestine Action as a terrorist organization was a grave misuse of counter-terrorism powers with serious consequences for human rights.