Newscasts - UK high court rules terrorism ban on Palestine Action is unlawful

Elbit Systems

13/02/2026 14:15

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Source: 'Reuters - General news videos'

Description: Activists celebrated outside London's High Court on Friday (February 13), after it ruled unlawful Britain's ban on the Palestine Action campaign group. The ban, which proscribed it as a terrorist organization, will temporarily remain in place pending a government appeal. Lucy Fielder reports. 

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Video Transcript:

Britain's ban on campaign group Palestine Action was ruled unlawful by London's High Court on Friday. Palestine Action was proscribed as a terrorist organization in July. More than 2,000 people have since been arrested for holding signs in support of the group. It had targeted Israel linked defense companies in Britain, particularly Elbit Systems, with direct action, often blocking entrances or spraying red paint, that culminated in a June break in at the RAF Brize Norton air base, when activists damaged two planes. Britain's interior ministry argued such actions amounted to terrorism. Judge Victoria Sharp said on Monday the group "promotes its political cause through criminality," but she said proscription, which put it on a par with Islamic State or al Qaeda was disproportionate. Lawyers representing Huda Ammori, who co founded Palestine Action in 2020, had argued that the ban was an authoritarian restriction on the right to protest. The High Court upheld that it interfered disproportionately with rights to freedom of expression and assembly. Activists celebrated outside the court on Monday.

All those thousands of people carried into police vans in Parliament Square, everyone in Britain felt this isn't Britain.

So, I just cried over it because it's just the best outcome possible.

Civil liberties groups, including Amnesty International, had called for the ban to be lifted, but it will temporarily remain in place, and the government said it would appeal the decision. The judgment was announced two weeks after six people charged over a 2024 raid on Elbit Systems were all acquitted of aggravated burglary.