Croydon-based campaigners against the genocide in Gaza and Britain’s role in arming the Israeli Defence Force were vindicated today when High Court judges issued a ruling that said that the Home Secretary’s ban on Palestine Action was unlawful.
Peaceful protest: Croydon pensioner David White makes his point outside the High Court this morning.
The Palestine Action co-founder who brought the High Court challenge described today’s ruling as “a victory for freedom for all”.
Many might also describe it as a victory for common sense.
Croydon activist David White and at least five other Croydon residents have been among the 2,700 people arrested since last July simply for holding a bit of card with the slogan: “I oppose genocide – I support Palestine Action”.
Most protestors were arrested for offences under Section 13 of the Terrorism Act, which carries a maximum sentence of six months in prison. More than 500 of those arrested, who include vicars, pensioners and military veterans, have been charged.
Today’s ruling delivered at the High Court in The Strand renders such protest a legitimate demonstration of free speech, and places the authoritarian Labour government in a hole of their own making.
The proscription of Palestine Action, which categorised it as a terrorist organisation alongside the likes of Islamic State, attracted widespread condemnation.
Being a member of Palestine Action or showing support for the group became an offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison. Some Palestine Action members have been in jail since November 2024 – before the group’s proscription – and have been held without trial and denied bail.
Ruling: Judge Dame Victoria Sharp
Huda Ammori, a co-founder of Palestine Action, challenged the ban at a hearing, which was in part held in secret, and which concluded in December.
Three judges, led by the president of the King’s Bench division, Dame Victoria Sharp, today ruled the decision to proscribe the group was unlawful. The ban on the group remains in place for now, to give the government time to appeal.
The judges called the ban “disproportionate”, adding that former Home Secretary Yvette Cooper had not fully followed her own policies when introducing the ban. She also failed to account for the impact it would have on the right to protest, the judges said.
Ammori called the ruling a “monumental victory”, adding that the ban will be remembered as “one of the most extreme attacks on free speech in recent British history”.
Judge Dame Victoria described Palestine Action as an organisation “that promotes its political cause through criminality and encouragement of criminality”, but added: “The court considered that the proscription of Palestine Action was disproportionate. A very small number of Palestine Action’s activities amounted to acts of terrorism within the definition of Section 1 of the 2000 Act.
“For these, and for Palestine Action’s other criminal activities, the general criminal law remains available. The nature and scale of Palestine Action’s activities falling within the definition of terrorism had not yet reached the level, scale and persistence to warrant proscription.”
The government appeal against the ruling is expected to be heard next week.
Today, the Met Police said it will continue to identify potential offences, but will now focus on “gathering evidence” for “enforcement at a later date”, rather than making immediate arrests.
“The group remains proscribed pending the outcome of any government appeal,” the Met said, adding that they “recognise these are unusual circumstances”.
The High Court allowed the challenge on two of four grounds. There was “a very significant interference” with the rights to freedom of speech, freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association.
Just cause: Croydon protestors were outside the Hilton on Purley Way, where Sir Sadiq Khan and Ed Miliband were attending a party fund-raiser
“We were banned because Palestine Action’s disruption of Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer, Elbit Systems, cost the corporation millions of pounds in profits and to lose out on multibillion-pound contracts,” Ammori said on the steps of the High Court this morning.
“We’ve used the same tactics as direct action organisations throughout history, including anti-war groups Keir Starmer defended in court, and the government acknowledged in these legal proceedings that this ban was based on property damage, not violence against people.
“Banning Palestine Action was always about appeasing pro-Israel lobby groups and weapons manufacturers, and nothing to do with terrorism … Today’s landmark ruling is a victory for freedom for all, and I urge the government to respect the court’s decision and bring this injustice to an end without further delay.”
The judgment is the first time that an organisation banned under anti-terrorism law has successfully challenged proscription in court.
And where was Croydon’s David White, the retired solicitor and former elected member of the old Greater London Council?
He was on the steps of the High Court holding a bit of card with the same form of words which have already seen him get arrested twice.
Just as White and several other protestors were out last night, outside the Croydon Hilton on the Purley Way, where the Labour Party was staging a fundraiser attended by London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan and cabinet minister Ed Miliband.
“There were loads of police there,” White said. “They were quite friendly to us.”
There were no arrests.
“The purpose of the protest was to condemn the Labour government’s complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza,” White said.
“Since the so-called ceasefire, another 600 Palestinians have been killed.”
Read more: Judicial Review will determine whether we have free speech
Read more: Record number of old people arrested at Palestine Action demo
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Good news! The government looked Draconian bringing in this action.
Does publishing a photograph of someone holding up the naughty words mean that Starmer’s Gestapo will soon be kicking in the front door of iC Towers?
But the Government are showing that they are bad losers and are planning to appeal.
Meanwhile it’s just been revealed that 2,000 Brits joined the IDF in the genocide with 45 cited as having committed war crimes
Great to see the mainstream media covering this in such depth. Couldn’t get it off the front pages fast enough, could they? Even the usual suspects don’t seem to want to be wheeled out to publicly defend the ban. It was pretty dirty work after all. Yvette Cooper couldn’t even be bothered to turn up to the 90 minute debate on proscribing Palestine Action… dispatching Junior Minister Dan Jarvis instead. Still the art of leadership is delegating can carrying. And even then the vote was bundled up with the proscription of two other organisations so in all Parliament spent probably less than three quarters of an hour thinking out this one. What could possibly go wrong? That said … Maybe they knew it would be overturned eventually. I guess it doesn’t matter now as the ban has served it’s purpose as the war is “over” now …. officially at least. A bit of compensation for false arrest is a small price to pay to protect the lucrative arms industry…