Palestine Action will be officially banned as a proscribed terrorist group this weekend after a High Court judge refused to issue an interim order blocking the move.
Mr Justice Chamberlain refused an application for “interim relief” to temporarily stop the legislation banning the group coming into force at midnight on Saturday.
It comes as the group’s co-founder, Huda Ammori, seeks to bring a legal challenge against the Home Office over home secretary Yvette Cooper’s decision to proscribe the group under the Terrorism Act 2000.
The motion will make membership of, or support for, the direct action group a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
In writing, Mr Justice Chamberlain said that the order, which the Home Secretary considered to be “required in the public interest”, was affirmed by both Houses of Parliament.
While the proscription would “undoubtedly have severe effects on the claimant and many others”, it was not “the court’s function to comment on the wisdom of the use of the power in the case.”
It was announced after two Voyager aircraft were damaged at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on 20 June, which police said caused around £7 million worth of damage.
Hundreds of protesters gathered waving Palestinian flags and carrying signs saying “Free Palestine” and “We are all Palestine Action” outside the Royal Courts of Justice during the hearing on Friday.
Raza Husain KC, representing Ms Ammori, said: “This is the first time in our history that a direct action civil disobedience group, which does not advocate for violence, has been sought to be proscribed as terrorists.”
Mr Husain said Ms Ammori “was inspired by the long tradition of direct action in this country” and wished to take action “to prevent harm before it happens”.
Quoting Ms Ammori, the barrister continued that the group had “never encouraged harm to any person at all” and that its goal “is to put ourselves in the way of the military machine”.
She called for the judge to suspend the “ill-considered, discriminatory and authoritarian” decision to proscribe the group until 21 July, when a wider challenge is due to be heard.
“The Secretary of State has still not sufficiently articulated or evidenced a national security reason that proscription should be brought into effect now,” she added.
However Ben Watson KC, for the Home Office, told the High Court there was an “insuperable hurdle” in the bid to temporarily block the ban.
The barrister also said that if a temporary block was granted, it would be a “serious disfigurement of the statutory regime”.
Mr Justice Chamberlain continued in his judgement that it was “ambitious” for Palestine Action to claim it was not “concerned in terrorism”, as the “action which immediately preceded the announcement of the decision to lay a proscription order was against an RAF base”.
A further hearing to decide whether Ms Ammori will be given the green light to challenge the government’s decision expected to be held later in July.
Ms Cooper said the vandalism of two planes was “disgraceful” and that the group had a “long history of unacceptable criminal damage” as she announced plans to ban them last month.
MPs in the Commons voted 385 to 26, majority 359, in favour of proscribing the group on Wednesday, before the House of Lords backed the move without a vote on Thursday.
Four people – Amy Gardiner-Gibson, 29, Jony Cink, 24, Daniel Jeronymides-Norie, 36, and Lewis Chiaramello, 22 – have all been charged in connection with the incident.
They appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday after being charged with conspiracy to enter a prohibited place knowingly for a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the United Kingdom, and conspiracy to commit criminal damage, under the Criminal Law Act 1977.
They were remanded into custody and will appear at the Old Bailey on 18 July.
Counter Terrorism Policing South East said on Wednesday that a 41-year-old woman arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender had been released on bail until September 19, and a 23-year-old man who was arrested has been released without charge.
In a statement issued after the judgment, Ms Ammori said the public are being left “in the dark about their rights to free speech”.
She added they were seeking an urgent appeal in an attempt to “prevent a dystopian nightmare of the Government’s making which would see thousands of people across Britain wake up tomorrow to find they had been criminalised overnight for supporting a domestic protest group which sprays red paint on warplanes and disrupts Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer to disrupt the flow of arms to Israel’s genocidal war machine.”
She continued: “We will not stop fighting to defend fundamental rights to free speech and protest in our country and to stand up for the rights of the Palestinian people.
“The Home Secretary is rushing through the implementation of the proscription at midnight tonight despite the fact that our legal challenge is ongoing and that she has been completely unclear about how it will be enforced, leaving the public in the dark about their rights to free speech and expression after midnight tonight when this proscription comes into effect.”
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