Three judges of the UK High Court have ruled that the government’s ban of Palestine Action is illegal.
The judgment on Friday 13 February 2026 agreed to a legal challenge from Palestine Action to the government’s proscription on two of four grounds:
– there was “a very significant interference” with the UK Human Rights Act’s entitlement to freedom of speech, freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association
– the then Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s decision to proscribe Palestine Action was not consistent with her own policy.
However for now, the group will remain outlawed and expressing support for Palestine Action remains a criminal offence as the banning order will not be legally quashed until both the government and Palestine Action make arguments at a court hearing on February 20.
Current Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said she will appeal the ruling although the London Metropolitan Police said in a statement it would “focus on gathering evidence… for enforcement at a later date, rather than making arrests at the time” as it will “continue to identify offences where support for Palestine Action is being expressed”.
The UK branch of Amnesty International said the ruling “matters for everyone” as “the right to protest has been under sustained and deliberate attack” and the government must now “protect protest rights and make sure counter-terror laws are not misused”.
Palestine Action is expected to call for an immediate lifting of the ban, and Liberty and the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, who also intervened in the case, called for Mahmood to respect the court’s decision. The UN’s Ben Saul said accepting the judgment “will enable the relevant authorities to take no further action against those who legitimately expressed their beliefs about Israel and Palestine since 5 July 2025 and were caught up in the policing of the unlawful ban; and also, to apologise to those affected for stigmatising them as terrorists”.
Huda Ammori, a co-founder of Palestine Action, said “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.”
“We were banned,” she added, “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.”
The court ruling itself noted that the “main target” of Palestine Action’s activities in the United Kingdom is Elbit Systems UK Limited, a subsidiary of Israeli-based defence contractor Elbit Systems Limited, Israel’s largest military manufacturer and a major supplier of military equipment to the Israel Defence Forces.
The court said Palestine Action was an organisation “that promotes its political cause through criminality and encouragement of criminality”, and said that a small number of incidents carried out by them crossed the legal line into terrorism.
But it added that: “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 … 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.”
It noted that banning the group required a proper legal assessment of whether it was “proportionate” to do so and she had not carried out that proportionality test correctly.
The court ruling said Yvette Cooper had focused on the benefits of a ban (to help the police disrupt Palestine Action’s criminal activity) but had not considered the cons – most importantly a risk to the right to protest.
“Considering in the round,” the court ruled, “the evidence available to the Home Secretary when the decision to proscribe was made, the nature and scale of Palestine Action’s activities, so far as they comprise acts of terrorism, has not yet reached the level, scale and persistence that would justify the application of the criminal law measures that are the consequence of proscription, and the very significant interference with Convention rights consequent on those measures.”
Two Jewish groups said they were “deeply concerned” at the ruling, and welcomed the government’s intention to appeal. In a joint statement, the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council said: “We recognise the vital importance of judicial oversight in matters of national security and civil liberties.
“However, the practical impact of Palestine Action’s activities on Jewish communal life has been significant and deeply unsettling.” They claimed to need “clarity” from the government to “ensure that communities are protected from intimidation and criminality”.
Political Opposition reaction divided along expected lines.
Green party leader Zack Polanski said: “It is time for the government to stop criminalising the people protesting a genocide.”
Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesperson Max Wilkinson said: “Placing Palestine Action in the same legal category as Isis was disproportionate.”
The shadow home secretary, Conservative Chris Philp, supported the government’s decision to appeal because “there can be no hesitation when public safety and national security are at stake”.
The ruling leaves 2,787 people identified by the Defend Our Juries group (which organises protests against the ban) as arrested since the government proscription in July in legal limbo. BBC News reports that hundreds of people have been charged with a terrorism offence and faced preliminary court proceedings, although no-one has yet been convicted.
The government proscription on 5 July 2025 made support for Palestine Action a “terrorism” offence, putting the group in a list of 84 such organisations which include Islamic State (ISIS), al-Qaeda previously led by Osama Bin Laden, neo-Nazi group National Action, and private Russian military company the Wagner Group.
Many of those arrested for allegedly supporting Palestine Action were older people well over 60, arrested simply for holding placards or wearing clothes which said they supported the group.
The government announced the proscription of Palestine Action shortly after the group broke into RAF base Brize Norton in June -and sprayed two military planes with red paint in an embarrassing security breach.
And in the wake of a series of pro-Palestinian protests over the past two years over Israel’s attack on Gaza.
After the ban, on August 9, at least 532 people were arrested at a protest demonstration in central London, at least 522 for displaying a sign, placard, or something else to show support for Palestine Action – according to police data nearly half of them over the age of 60 including a hundred or so in their 70s or 80s.
A number of rights groups including Human Rights Watch, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Global Witness, and the Quakers asked the attorney general to delay any prosecutions until the ban has been ruled legal.
The ban was challenged in court and allowed by a High Court judge who considered it “reasonably arguable that the proscription order amounts to a disproportionate interference” with rights guaranteed both by common law and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) as well as “likely to have a significant deterrent effect on legitimate speech”.
Palestine Action ban ruled unlawful – BBC News
Humiliating ruling for ministers – The Guardian
Palestine Action wins High Court challenge – Sky News
High Court ruling – full text
Terrorism ban on Palestine Action unlawful – Reuters
Britain’s High Court says government acted illegally – AP
Court ruling blow to Starmer – New York Times
Secret report undercuts government argument for Palestine Action ban – New York Times 12 September 2025
Palestine Action breaks into Brize Norton – Sky News 20 June 2025
Europe’s human rights commissioner calls out UK protest laws – AEJ 17 October 2025
Pro-Palestinian protests provoke ban – AEJ 26 August 2025
Battling the ban on Palestine Action – BBC News
Half of UK Palestine Action arrested protesters are older than 60 – The Guardian
UK poet and former royal adviser Sir Jonathon Porritt on being arrested for supporting Palestine Action – YouTube from BBC Newsnight August 11
“I was arrested” – Jonathon Porritt – the Independent
Rights groups call for suspension of prosecutions – 15 August 2025
High Court judge’s ruling for a judicial review of the proscription on Palestine Action – 30 July 2025
International Bar Association says proscription “a dangerous shift in the law” – 12 August 2025
Questions about how Palestine Action was banned – Declassified 24 July 2025
Yvettte Cooper defends ban – FT 17 August 2025
Ban on Palestine Action – what happens next? – The Conversation 15 August 2025
Using the Terrorism Act is “disturbing legal overreach” – Amnesty International 2 July 2025
