The British government’s decision to ban the Palestine Action group under counter-terrorism legislation was lawful, the Court of Appeal of England and Wales in London ruled on Monday.
The Court of Appeal overturned a High Court ruling issued in February that found the ban unlawfully interfered with freedom of expression. Palestine Action remained proscribed pending the government’s appeal.
Lady Chief Justice Sue Carr said the organization’s behavior was not that of a nonviolent protest group and that proscription was justified and proportionate, Reuters reported.
Carr said the ban was “highly controversial” but called it “a fundamental mistake to overlook the fact that Palestine Action overtly promoted unlawful violence amounting to terrorism.”
British Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood had argued at a hearing in April that the conclusion that the ban had a significant impact on freedom of expression was “overstated and wrong.”
Board of Deputies Acting President Adrian Cohen today welcomed the ruling, saying in a statement that, “Palestine Action’s targets have included Jewish communal institutions and Jewish-owned businesses. Peaceful protest is a fundamental democratic right. Violence, intimidation and the deliberate targeting of property and infrastructure are not.”
However, Huda Ammori, who co-founded Palestine Action in 2020, said the move had imposed “severe restrictions on the fundamental free speech and assembly rights of vast numbers of people” who supported the anti-Israel cause.
The British government in July 2025 outlawed Palestine Action and declared it to be a terrorist organization after its followers vandalized aircraft at a Royal Air Force base, as well as a series of what the group called “occupations” of firms with ties to Israel.
On Friday, a British judge sentenced four Palestine Action activists to prison terms totaling over 20 years for a 2024 raid on an Elbit Systems UK factory that caused about £1 million (around $1.3 million) in damage and left a police officer with a fractured spine, a case he said had “terrorist connections.”
Samuel Corner, 23, received a sentence of eight years and eight months in prison for grievous bodily harm and criminal damage, with parole eligibility after seven years and eight months, after striking a policewoman with a sledgehammer during the Aug. 6, 2024, break-in at the Bristol-area site.
Co-defendants Charlotte Head, 30, and Leona Kamio, 30, were each jailed for six years minus 45 days for criminal damage, and will be eligible for parole after four years and 320 days, while Fatema Rajwani, 21, was sentenced to five years and eight months minus 45 days, with parole possible after four years and 200 days.
Head was also banned from driving for a year for using a repurposed prison van as a battering ram to force entry into the facility, where the group destroyed drones, computers and other equipment in protest over Israel’s war in Gaza.
Jerusalem was fighting Hamas terrorists in the territory after the U.S.-designated terrorist organization led a killing and kidnapping spree targeting mostly civilians across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
