A London appeals court ruled Monday that the British government acted lawfully when it banned the pro-Palestinian protest group Palestine Action as a terrorist organization, rejecting claims that the move amounted to an unlawful attack on free speech and protest rights.
Chief Justice Sue Carr said the group had gone far beyond nonviolent protest, carrying out destructive attacks on defense companies, banks and a military base.
“It is not, as claimed, a direct action civil disobedience protest group like the suffragettes, operating transparently in the open,” Carr said. “It is a covert organization which operates with secret cells to avoid the detection and prosecution of those using violence to destroy property and cause injury.”
The ruling overturned a February decision by three senior High Court judges, who had found that although the group promoted its political cause through some criminal acts, the scale of its activity did not justify proscription.
The five-judge appellate panel said the lower court had understated the discretion then-Home Secretary Yvette Cooper held in banning the group, and ruled that her decision was “justified and proportionate” when balanced against freedom of expression.
Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori said the group would fight the decision all the way to the Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights, calling the ban “one of the most extreme attacks on free speech and the right to protest in modern British history.”
The British government outlawed Palestine Action after activists broke into a Royal Air Force base in June 2025 to protest British military support for Israel’s war in Gaza. The incident followed several other destructive acts of vandalism by the group, including actions targeting sites linked to Israeli defense company Elbit Systems.
Palestine Action was designated as a terrorist organization alongside groups such as al-Qaida and Hamas, making membership in or support for the group a crime punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
Supporters of Palestine Action and civil liberties groups said the ban had trampled on free speech and protest rights, arguing that peaceful protesters had been swept up under terrorism laws.
The ban remained in effect during the appeal. More than 3,300 people have been arrested at protests, including for holding signs reading, “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.”
More than 700 people have been charged under the U.K.’s Terrorism Act, though no one has yet been convicted, with cases paused while the appeal was pending. A judge is expected to decide on June 30 whether those cases can proceed.
The backlog is likely to keep growing. Protesters gathered outside the Royal Courts of Justice after the ruling, and police arrested many Palestine Action supporters at the scene.
The group Defend Our Juries criticized the ruling and said it would lead to more police resources being used to arrest peaceful protesters.
“It appears the courts have been instrumentalized to suppress opposition to genocide, when they should be doing the precise opposite,” the group said in a statement.
Carr said the court understood that the decision could have a “chilling effect” on law-abiding people who support the Palestinian cause but fear being associated with Palestine Action.
“It is one thing for people voluntarily to hold a placard supporting Palestine Action which they know to be a proscribed organization. That is a criminal act,” Carr wrote. “As a matter of law, the proscription decision will not prevent public expressions of support for the Palestinian cause or opposition to Israel and to the Israeli Defense Force.”
Palestine Action has carried out direct-action protests at military and industrial sites in the U.K. since it was founded in 2020, including break-ins at facilities owned by Elbit Systems UK. Officials said the group’s actions caused millions of pounds in damage and affected national security.
The High Court judges had previously said that while some of the group’s crimes amounted to terrorist acts, they could be prosecuted through ordinary criminal law even without a ban.
On Friday, four members of the group who broke into an Elbit factory in Bristol in southwest England in 2024 and smashed equipment were jailed after a judge found they had acted as terrorists. The group clashed with security guards and police, and a police sergeant suffered a fractured spine after being struck with a sledgehammer.