In a further blow to Palestine solidarity in Britain following the draconian Filton sentences handed down the previous Friday, on Monday 15 June the Court of Appeal declared that the British state’s proscription of direct action group Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act was lawful, overturning a previous ruling of the High Court in February. This is yet another assault on the democratic rights of the working class in Britain, as the state moves to silence the masses of people opposed to British complicity in Zionist genocide.
Reading out the judgement at the Royal Courts of Justice, Lady Chief Justice Sue Carr declared that it was not a ‘sustainable proposition’ to view Palestine Action as a non-violent protest group, claiming instead that it operates with ‘covert cells’ to destroy corporate property. She asserted that the Home Secretary must be afforded a wide ‘margin of appreciation’ because the state is ‘in the best position to assess future threats’.
Let us be completely clear about what the British state and courts mean by ‘threats’ and ‘national security’. When they talk about security, they mean the security of Elbit Systems and other merchants of death who design, build, and export the components used to massacre tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza. When they protect property, they protect the private property of imperialist monopolies, valued by the courts far above the lives of colonised people. When they weep over £7m in ‘violence’ and property damage at RAF Brize Norton – where activists painted military aircraft blood-red – they remain completely silent on the daily violence inflicted on the victims of British-backed Zionism.
The failure of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and the ‘mainstream’ sections of the movement to build an effective campaign has driven people to directly attack the companies supplying and financing Zionist genocide. The state’s response is to brand them ‘terrorists’. Criminal law, as the Home Office’s own counsel admitted, had ‘demonstrably failed’ to deter these activists, so the state has now resorted to the ultimate weapon in its legislative arsenal: the counter-terrorism apparatus. Undeterred, direct action has continued outside the auspices of Palestine Action, while over 3,000 people have been arrested in the civil disobedience campaign defying the proscription by carrying signs expressing support for the proscribed organisation.
This decision does not exist in a vacuum. It represents the sharp edge of a domestic strategy designed to crush dissent. These new assaults on the movement come after a range of victories against the state’s agenda in the courts, including the not-guilty verdict for Kwabena Devonish and hung juries for others charged under s12 of the TA, the lack of any convictions in the initial Filton trial, and the initial High Court ruling in February that the ban on Palestine Action was unlawful. It is plain to see now that the state is rearming to crush the Palestine solidarity movement and recuperate its losses in the courts.
On 12 June four Palestine Action activists, who had targeted an Elbit Systems factory in 2024, were sentenced under terrorism provisions to up to eight years in prison – a possibility intentionally hidden from the jury until after the verdict. The state uses the courts to manufacture a culture of fear, hoping to isolate from the broader working class those who take direct action or who explicitly stand by the right of the Palestinians to resist by any means necessary. But the state’s overreach demonstrates its underlying vulnerability. It is terrified of a growing consciousness that links the struggle against British capitalism at home with the anti-imperialist resistance abroad.
Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori has vowed to fight this decision all the way to the Supreme Court. While the legal battles continue, the anti-imperialist movement cannot rely on the institutions of the capitalist state to grant us permission to resist. The courts, the police, and Parliament are all wings of the same beast.
We must build a mass movement that actively defies these attempts to criminalise solidarity. We must continue to defend all those facing state repression for their principled defence of the Palestinian liberation struggle. That means protesting outside police stations, prisons and courts for those in the firing line. It means turning up outside the Old Bailey from 22 June onwards to defend Sarah of the SOAS 2 against the serious Terrorism Act charges she faces. It means recognising that an injury to one is each and every time an injury to all. The ruling class wants us to look away from Gaza, intimidated by the threat of their prison cells. We refuse.
Down with the Terrorism Act!
Victory to the Palestinian Resistance!
Smash British Imperialism!
Jacob O’Neill
