Palestine Action’s ban under terrorism laws will remain in place after the Court of Appeal ruled that the group’s proscription was not unlawful in a major win for the government.
A rare five-judge panel at the Court of Appeal found that the High Court was wrong when they previously ruled that the group’s proscription was unlawful.
Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr told the Court of Appeal on Monday that the home secretary’s decision to proscribe the group was “a justified and proportionate interference with individual rights”.
“The proscription decision was not unlawful”, she told the court, describing Palestine Action as a group that “overtly promotes unlawful violence amounting to terrorism”.
The Court of Appeal agreed with the Home Office on all grounds of appeal in a definitive victory for the government.
The group was banned by then-home secretary Yvette Cooper in July 2025 after members broke into RAF Brize Norton and vandalised jets to protest the war in Gaza.
The High Court had previously ruled that Ms Cooper’s decision to ban Palestine Action under terrorism legislation was unlawful. Three senior judges at the High Court concluded that only a small number of Palestine Action’s activities amounted to terrorism, and that the group’s acts had not crossed the high bar to make it a terrorist organisation.
The High Court said that Ms Cooper had failed to consider whether imposing a terror ban on Palestine Action was “proportionate” to the threat posed by the organisation. Justice Sharp wrote that, by doing this, Ms Cooper had made a “significant” error by failing to follow the Home Office’s own policy on proscription.
Since the group’s proscription, thousands of people have been arrested for holding up placards in support of Palestine Action.
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