Palestine Action granted permission to judicially review proscription as terror group

However, he refused six other grounds the group had put forward for its application for judicial review.

Responding to the judgement, shadow home secretary Chris Philp said that PA “vandalise, and destroy. Their entire playbook is criminal damage and has no place in British society.

The Tory frontbencher said that the group “sabotaged RAF aircraft, attacked a police officer with a sledgehammer, and caused millions in damage. This is political violence.

“The public expect the law to protect them from this kind of political violence. We fully support the decision to proscribe this group”, he added.

Conservative MP Jack Rankin described the decision as: “More ‘maybe the courts know better than Parliament’ bull****”.

In a post on X, the MP for Windsor said: “Palestinian (sic) Action invaded RAF Brize Norton and damaged military aircraft – terrorism. The House of Commons then voted to proscribe the organisation by 385 votes to 26.”

Earlier this month, both Houses of Parliament backed the government’s bid to designate PA as a terrorist group in the same vein as Al-Qaeda and Hamas.

In her draft proscription order, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper described the attack as “the latest in a long history of unacceptable criminal damage committed by Palestine Action,” adding: “The UK’s defence enterprise is vital to the nation’s national security and this Government will not tolerate those who put that security at risk.”

And, during the debate to proscribe the group, Security Minister Dan Jarvis told MPs that it had “orchestrated a nationwide campaign of attacks that have resulted in serious damage to property and crossed the threshold between direct criminal action and terrorism”.

Likewise, Jon Pearce MP, the chair of Labour Friends of Israel, described the group’s “track record of attacks against the country’s Jewish community”.

“In May, a building housing Jewish-owned businesses in north Manchester was vandalised with red paint and graffiti reading ‘Happy Nakba Day’.

"Later that month, a Jewish-owned business in Stamford Hill was attacked by the organisation, with windows broken, red paint graffiti, and damage done to the building’s mezuzah. In the latter case, Palestine Action’s claims that the business was linked to Israeli defence companies proved baseless.”

“This campaign of antisemitic harassment reveals the logical conclusion of its extremism. The important difference between it and all the other groups mentioned in the House is that it targets a specific ethnic and religious minority in our country.”

But the ruling was celebrated by independent MP Zarah Sultana, recently announced as co-leader of a new leftist party with Jeremy Corbyn, who called it “the first step in fighting against Labour’s authoritarianism”.

She wrote on X: “The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned the proscription of Palestine Action as “disproportionate and unnecessary”, warning it risks creating “a further chilling effect” on protest and dissent.

“A full judicial review has now been granted and if successful, the ban will be overturned.”

The Home Office has been contacted for comment.