This decision is part of a campaign by the British state to quell direct action movements
~ James Horton ~
Palestine Action, it was announced on Friday, is set to become a proscribed group. The announcement was made less than twenty four hours after the group broke into RAF Brize Norton, “decommissioning two military aircrafts”. The rationalisation given for the group’s target was that “from Cyprus, British planes collect intelligence, refuel fighter jets, and transport weapons to commit genocide in Gaza”.
This is not a decision that has been made on a whim: it is the latest act in a campaign by the British state to quell movements of direct action who block the international trade of killing machines. It is a decision made precisely because of the Israel lobby in the UK, and those who receive payments from them. In many other countries this kind of “anti-terror” policing would be called corrupt, anti-democratic, and authoritarian, but it is the modus operandi for Starmer’s government.
Palestine Action was started in 2020 by Huda Ammori and Richard Barnard, the latter of whom is currently facing charges from August 2024 under the same Terrorism Act of 2000. The group has since undertaken some of the most impactful direct action campaigns in British history against Israel’s arms manufacturers and their backers.
Perhaps their most influential campaign has been the fight against Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms manufacturer. Elbit specialises in the manufacture of systems for aircraft used by the Israeli Defence Forces, as well as in the creation of what it describes as “the backbone” of Israel’s drone fleet.
The campaign has successfully led to the closing down of their London HQ and numerous factories across the country, such as Leicester, Oldham, and Tamworth. It is difficult to quantify just how much financial damage has been done to Elbit, but there is no doubt Palestine Action have put a major dent in the supply of weapons from the UK to Israel.
As a result, however, they’ve attracted a substantial amount of attention from some of the British establishment’s most vile figures. Once John Woodcock (Lord Walney) was finished allegedly sexually harassing his staff, he was appointed independent advisor on Political Violence and Disruption in 2020. And in his detailed report, he called for Palestine Action, amongst others, to be banned or heavily restricted due to the harm they cause to “companies and their staff”, and the “detrimental effect they have on local economies”. It was utter nonsense then, and it is utter nonsense now.
Terrorism is a charged term. Some scholars dedicate their careers to studying its origins, manifestations, and effects. The definition of terrorism is hotly debated still, though there are some key aspects on which most scholars (like David Rapoport and Martha Crenshaw) agree. Broadly, terrorism involves violence and intimidation against non-combatants (i.e., civilians) in pursuit of a political outcome. How on Earth, then, does Palestine Action fit this definition?
The argument progresses even more infuriatingly when considering that even the Prime Minister stated in a tweet, soon after the action, that the break-in was an act of “vandalism”, not terrorism. No people were harmed during the process, the activists’ only targets were the aircraft used to wage war on civilians in Gaza. In contrast, Israel’s campaign has directly targeted civilians for the political end of grasping and holding greater land and resources, in violation of international law. Its terroristic genocide in Gaza is an ongoing aberration to everything these same politicians and commentators claim to stand for.
The death toll in Gaza is close to 63,000 at time of writing, and that is likely an underestimate. Men, women, and children whose lives have brutally severed short, whilst those with serious influence in the West watch on. That is what Palestine Action and other campaigns are attempting to stop. And because their choice of inanimate targets is both effective and ethical, the British government is attempting to ban them and legally smear them as a terrorist organisation.
If the proscription is not defeated by public and political pressure, it will be the precedent for a much broader attack on the right to protest, affecting everyone who has ever engaged in politics even indirectly. The right to take collective action is gradually being carved out of our public lives, and we cannot allow that to continue.
Image: Demonstrators for Palestine in London, 21 June 2025 (Peter Marshall, with permission)
