UK government defends Palestine Action ban in Supreme Court
A UK government lawyer on Thursday defended before Britain's highest court the banning of Palestine Action as a "terrorist" organisation, insisting that it was not a "non-violent protest group". Palestine Action was proscribed in July 2025 after a string of protests targeting a UK military site and defence contractors that caused thousands of pounds worth of damage. Co-founder Huda Ammori has taken the legal battle against the decision to the Supreme Court after a successful High Court appeal was overturned this year.
Left out here: Drops what it reported before
The article says only that the protests targeted a UK military site and defence contractors. It never says the contractors were Israeli arms makers such as Elbit, which this outlet reported days earlier, so the reader is not told what the group was protesting against.
How we know
- Al-Monitor wrote earlier“Palestine Action has mainly targeted weapons factories in Britain, especially those belonging to the Israel-based defence group Elbit.”UK police arrest Palestine Action supporters ahead of Supreme Court hearing (opens in a new tab)
- Euronews reported“actions targeting Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems”UK Supreme Court to hear appeal against ban on Palestine Action group (opens in a new tab)
Several people gathered outside the London court on both days of the hearing to support Palestine Action, and at least one woman was arrested Thursday, an AFP photographer saw. The government's decision -- which places Palestine Action in the same category as the Islamist Al-Qaeda organisation and Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah -- has made publicly supporting the group a criminal offence. Since its proscription, some 4,200 people, including many elderly, have been arrested for showing support for it, according to the Defend Our Juries campaign group which has organised demonstrations.
Lawyer James Eadie told judges that Palestine Action was not a "transparent non-violent protest group", nor "part of a long and honourable tradition of civil disobedience". "Their activities are planned and undertaken secretly in order to avoid detection," Eadie said, adding that "serious damage to property" -- even without injury to people -- could be considered "terrorism". The ban came weeks after Palestine Action activists broke into a Royal Air Force base in southern England and spray-painted planes, sparking criticism from human rights organisations.
Left out here: Leaves out what changes the picture
The article gives the Home Office lawyer four sentences on why Palestine Action is a terrorist group. It never reports Ammori's written submission that only three of the group's 385 actions over five years were assessed as meeting the definition of terrorism. A reader sees the government's case in detail and not the appellant's main figure against it.
How we know
- Euronews reported“only three of the 385 actions undertaken by PA over five years were assessed as meeting the definition of terrorism”UK Supreme Court to hear appeal against ban on Palestine Action group (opens in a new tab)
- The Jewish Chronicle reported“only three out of 385 actions carried out by Palestine Action over a five-year period were assessed as meeting the definition of terrorism”Supreme Court defers verdict on Palestine Action ban appeal (opens in a new tab)
The lawyer for the Home Office said that no measure other than proscription "could properly be said to be equivalently effective". Two UK Jewish groups have made legal submissions in support of the government's ban, saying the Jewish community was "especially vulnerable to Palestine Action's violent activities". But Ammori's lawyer Raza Husain rejected accusations of antisemitism, saying Palestine Action "never targeted Jewish people and Jewish businesses".
Left out here: Leaves out what changes the picture
The article reports that two UK Jewish groups backed the ban and said the Jewish community was especially vulnerable. It does not report that the Jewish Bloc, a group of Jewish organisations, told the same court this claim was a fundamental fallacy. Without it a reader may take Jewish organisations to be united behind the ban.
How we know
- The Jewish Chronicle reported“said the claim that Palestine Action had targeted the Jewish community was a”Supreme Court defers verdict on Palestine Action ban appeal (opens in a new tab)
"There are probably hundreds of 1000s of people, at least, whose profoundly important rights of political speech, association, and assembly... have been extinguished or seriously interfered with," Husain said. The Supreme Court judges are expected to hand down a decision at a later date. cla/aks/jj
Read the original article on al-monitor.com (opens in a new tab)