The pro-Palestine activist group that broke into an Oxfordshire RAF base to spray-paint military planes has been banned by the Home Office .
Formed in 2020, Palestine Action has conducted a series of direct action protests over the past five years, largely against arms manufacturers operating in the UK and selling weapons to Israel.
Home secretary Yvette Cooper has now confirmed her decision to proscribe the group following its latest action, effectively branding it a terrorist organisation. This would make it illegal to become a member of Palestine Action or solicit support for it.
A spokesperson for Palestine Action said: “When our government fails to uphold their moral and legal obligations, it is the responsibility of ordinary citizens to take direct action.”
A protest in central London on Monday in response to the fallout, has seen police clash with demonstrators. Met Police chief Mark Rowley said before the event he was “shocked and frustrated” by the plans, adding that he believed the action goes “beyond what most would see as legitimate protest.”
What else has Palestine Action done in the past?
Palestine Action was established on 30 July 2020 after a group of activists broke into and spray-painted the interior of Elbit Systems’ UK headquarters in London.
The defence contractor has continued to be the main target of Palestine Action’s protests since its formation. Based in Israel Elbit Systems is the country’s largest weapons manufacturer. It supplies the majority of the drones and land-based equipment used by the Israeli military.
In the UK, Elbit has multiple UK subsidiaries which operate across 16 sites across the country, with 680 employees. Its latest new site is a manufacturing and development facility in Bristol, opened in 2023.
On 19 May 2021 four members of Palestine Action dressed in boilers suits climbed onto the roof of an Elbit-owned drone factory in Leicester. The action was taken in response to a period of unrest in May of that year, in which 256 Palestinians and 17 Israelis were killed.
Similar occupations have been carried out at Elbit-owned sites in Bristol, Oldham and Tamworth.
In April 2024, the group targeted Somerset County Hall, a Grade II-listed building owned by Somerset council, by splashing it with red paint. This was in response to the local authority leasing a building to Elbit near Bristol.
This site was targeted by Palestine Action for the 17th time in March 2025, with four of the groups members using a cherry picker to damage the building. One used a sledgehammer on a rope to smash windows while others spray painted the building.
In June 2025, activists from the group damaged two planes at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire by using repurposed fire extinguishers to spray red paint into their turbine engines and cause further damage with crowbars.
Palestine Action say its members did this due to flights that leave the site daily for Akrotiri in Cyprus, the site of a base used for military operations in Gaza and across the Middle East.
A spokesperson for the group said: “By putting the planes out of service, activists have interrupted Britain’s direct participation in the commission of genocide and war crimes across the Middle East.”
