When the Home Secretary proscribed the militant group Palestine Action in July 2025, there was relief in the Jewish community. Supporting the organisation’s activities was made illegal, curtailing their violent campaign which included attacks against “Zionist” targets in significantly Jewish areas – Stamford Hill, Hendon and Prestwich.
Yet in February this year, the High Court overturned the group’s proscription. The court recognised Palestine Action had carried out terrorist attacks, and was violent, reckless and risked injury to the public. The court, moreover, acknowledged the group was “not engaged in any exercise of persuasion… consistent with democratic values and the rule of law.” But proscription was found to be a “disproportionate” measure that curtailed the rights of those wishing to protest in their name.
This rationale sits uneasily with reality: Palestine Action has no discernible interest in peaceful protest. Its defining characteristic is not expression, but intimidation, destruction and, in some cases, terrorism.
Next week, the Home Secretary’s appeal against the ruling will be heard by the Court of Appeal. An application to intervene from my organisation, the Jewish Leadership Council, along with the Community Security Trust, was rejected due to the expedited timetable. The proscribed group’s case is being supported by Amnesty International UK, Liberty and the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and terrorism. Amnesty and Liberty argue that tolerating property damage as a form of "peaceful” protest forms part of the “cultural tradition of this country”.
The term “cultural tradition” is telling. It’s true that freedom of protest is a British tradition. What’s certain, however, is that Palestine Action’s methods go far beyond any right to peaceful assembly. In six years, they have carried out 385 attacks on businesses, institutions and military targets in the UK. Of these, three incidents met the definition of terrorism, a fact which Palestine Action themselves did not contest in court.
Palestine Action is not an ordinary protest group. The High Court found that it operates a decentralised, cell-based structure. Its "Underground Manual” encourages “smashing stuff… with an efficient sledgehammer in your hand”. Its activists have used violence against individuals, allegedly including a police officer during a factory raid.
What’s more, their campaign extends beyond its stated focus on defence companies to what it calls the "Zionist machine”, a category which according to antizionist activists encompasses most Jewish organisations and individuals. The majority of Jewish people and institutions, after all, consider themselves broadly Zionist, supporting the existence of Israel even where they may disagree with its government. That identity places them within the target category.
By the middle of last year, Palestine Action’s focus on "Zionist” targets included buildings owned by Jewish individuals in Stamford Hill and Prestwich, and the offices of the Jewish National Fund in Hendon and the registered office of the British Israel Communications and Research Centre in Hampstead. Windows were smashed, equipment destroyed, buildings defaced.
These incidents aren’t just about property damage. They are about intimidation. The message to British Jews is unmistakable: you are not safe, and your identity places you at risk.
We’ve seen exactly this risk dramatically escalate over the past few weeks with a series of unprecedented incidents: Jewish ambulances firebombed, arson attacks on two synagogues and a former Jewish charity premises in Hendon, and a drone incident targeting the Israeli Embassy. Six months ago, on Yom Kippur, there was a terror attack at Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester, the first deadly assault on a British synagogue in modern times.
These are not isolated events. They form part of a pattern in which hatred, increasingly framed as "antizionism”, translates into action against Jews. “This is what they get for killing our children,” the Heaton Park attacker said during his attack. In a separate terrorism case linked to lethal plots against the Manchester Jewish community, a defendant shouted in court: “They are killing our children in Gaza, so we kill them here”.
The same pattern is happening internationally. In Washington, a gunman shouted: "Free Palestine” as he gunned down two workers at the Israel embassy. “I did it for Palestine. I did it for Gaza,” he later told police. In Boulder, Colorado, a man who attacked a gathering in support of Israeli hostages was heard shouting: “Free Palestine.”
In each case, the justification was framed in terms of Gaza or Palestine, but the targets were Jews.
Increasingly, violence against synagogues and Jewish institutions are justified through the language of "antizionism”. The Islamist group claiming responsibility for the recent arson attacks, for instance, has said its targets are not Jewish but “Zionist” institutions, echoing the justification used by Palestine Action in Hendon, Prestwich and Stamford Hill.
Jews are familiar with the long European tradition of perpetrating and tolerating violence against their property and institutions. They know it only leads to more violence, and much worse.
At the heart of the Palestine Action case is a broader question: how far should the courts limit or intervene in the Home Secretary’s assessment of national security risks posed by groups creating terror on our streets?
The consequences will go well beyond this case, setting a precedent that other organisations, including terrorist groups, may seek to rely on. The Court of Appeal should recognise this threat and confirm that the proscription of Palestine Action was lawful.
Keith Black is the Chair of the Jewish Leadership Council
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