MPS APPROVE BAN OF PALESTINE ACTION AS TERRORIST GROUP – Legislation to proscribe the protest group has been supported by the Commons
MPs voted to ban pro-Palestinian campaign group Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation, after its activists broke into a military base and damaged two planes in protest at what it says is Britain’s support for Israel.
Palestine Action, which describes itself as a direct action movement that uses disruptive methods, has routinely targeted companies in Britain with links to Israel, including Israeli defence firm Elbit Systems ESLT.TA, which it has called its “main target.”
Britain’s Labour government accused the group of causing millions of pounds of damage through action at a Thales TCFP.PA factory in 2022, an Elbit site last year and at the Royal Air Force base in southern England last month – the trigger for the decision to ban, or proscribe, the group.
Proscription would officially designate Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation on a par with the Islamic State or al-Qaeda under British law, making it a crime to support or belong to the groups.
Britain’s proscription order will reach parliament’s upper chamber, the House of Lords, today. If approved by lawmakers there, Palestine Action’s ban would become effective in the following days.
The group, which has called its proscription unjustified and an “abuse of power,” has challenged the decision in court and an urgent hearing is expected on Friday.
