Palestine Action ban appeal enters closed proceedings at UK Supreme Court
The appeal against the ban on Palestine Action entered closed proceedings at the UK Supreme Court on Thursday, after the government and lawyers representing the group's co-founder concluded their public arguments, paving the way for judges to hear secret evidence presented by the government. Opening the proceedings, James Eadie KC, representing the Home Office , disputed claims that Palestine Action "stood within the long tradition of civil disobedience in Britain".
"Their activities are planned and undertaken secretly in order to avoid detection," Eadie said, adding that they caused "serious damage to property". Reiterating that the court should defer to parliament's decision to ban Palestine Action, Eadie argued that the direct-action group's track record of property damage to Israeli weapons met the legal definition of terrorism. Eadie claimed that Palestine Action's campaign against Israeli arms company Elbit Systems demonstrated the group's intent to target "Jewish businesses" - a claim the group denies.
Left out here: Drops what it reported before
The article reports Eadie's claim that the group's track record of property damage met the legal definition of terrorism. It never says that, by the Home Office advisers' own assessment, only three of 385 actions over five years met that definition. Middle East Eye printed this figure two days earlier, and other outlets reported it from the hearing. Without it, a reader takes the group's record as a whole to have been assessed as terrorism.
How we know
- Middle East Eye wrote earlier“only three out of 385 actions carried out by Palestine Action over a five-year period were assessed as meeting the definition of terrorism”UK Supreme Court to hear landmark appeal over Palestine Action ban (opens in a new tab)
- Evening Standard reported“the Home Secretary’s advisers assessed that less than 1% of Palestine Action’s direct action protest activities over five years fell within a definition of terrorism.”Arrests made as Supreme Court begins hearing appeal against Palestine Action ban (opens in a new tab)
New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Eadie added that Palestine Action's tactic of damage to property was a key factor that led the government's Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) to determine that the group was a terrorist organisation. When Judge Sales asked Eadie about JTAC's membership, Eadie replied by saying the group's membership "may not be an open" document to the public.
Eadie's appearance before the Supreme Court judges stands in stark contrast to the tense first day of the two-day hearing, when Raza Husain KC, representing Palestine Action's co-founder, Huda Ammori, appeared before the court. During Husain's appearance on Wednesday, Supreme Court judges repeatedly interrupted Ammori's lawyer. Husain nonetheless closed Thursday's proceedings by disputing Eadie's claims and repeated that the ban on Palestine Action had affected the freedom of speech and assembly of thousands of people who opposed the decision.
"There are probably hundreds of thousands of people, at least, whose profoundly important rights of political speech, association, and assembly ... have been extinguished or seriously interfered with," Husain said. Ammori's lawyer then rejected claims by Eadie that Palestine Action was a threat to British democracy, stating that the only threat "Palestine Action posed was to the property of [Israeli arms company] Elbit Systems and their enablers".
He then responded to claims made by Eadie that Palestine Action purposely targeted "Jewish-owned" businesses, emphasising that the group was not antisemitic by referencing statements given to the court by prominent anti-apartheid campaigner and Jewish activist Andrew Feinstein, who has stated that the group did not purposely target Jews. UK: Dozens arrested outside Supreme Court hearing on Palestine Action ban Read More » The remainder of the case will now be heard in closed proceedings, where the government will present secret evidence to the five Supreme Court judges.
During this portion of the proceedings, Ammori's legal team will not be able to access the secret evidence the government presents against their client. Ammori's legal team will instead be defended during these closed proceedings by a special advocate appointed by them and given the relevant security clearance to view the secret evidence. The special advocate, however, is not allowed to disclose any evidence presented against Ammori during this portion of the hearing.
Following the two-day hearing, the five judges of the Supreme Court will deliver their judgment at a later date. The two-day hearing marks Ammori's final attempt to oppose the ban on Palestine Action, which came into effect in February 2025 after Parliament ratified a decision by the then home secretary Yvette Cooper to ban the group. Ammori's legal challenge to oppose the ban has moved through England's highest courts. UK police have arrested more than 4,000 people under Britain's Terrorism Act for defying the ban and holding up placards in support of Palestine Action.
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