The High Court has ruled that the ban of Palestine Action under terrorism legislation is unlawful, in a huge blow to the Home Office.
Three senior judges said that the group’s activities had not crossed the very high bar required for it to be deemed a terrorist organisation.
Despite the ruling, the judges decided that the ban on the group should remain in place until another hearing scheduled for February 20.
This means expressing support for Palestine Action or taking part in its activities remains a serious criminal offence.
Palestine Action’s co-founder Huda Ammori said the ruling was a “monumental victory for both our fundamental freedoms in Britain and in the struggle for freedom for the Palestinian people”.
She said the government’s decision to proscribe Palestine Action will be remembered as “one of the most extreme attacks on free speech in recent British history”.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has already confirmed the government will appeal against the High Court’s decision.
She said she was “disappointed” and that she “disagrees with the notion that banning this terrorist organisation is disproportionate.”
Mahmood said the government’s proscription of the group came after “a rigorous and evidence-based decision-making process, endorsed by Parliament.”
Last July, MPs voted to proscribe Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act 2000.
This came after the group’s high-profile action at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, which involved two activists spraying paint into the engines of two Voyager aircraft.
It was an incredibly controversial move from the government though, and led to hu by hundreds of arrests at subsequent demonstrations as people expressed their support for Palestine Action.
This included elderly and disabled people being arrested by police.
In September, former Labour leader Neil Kinnock voiced his criticism of the decision, saying that it was “misguided.”