From Saturday, membership or support for Palestine Action will be a criminal offence after a legal challenge to suspend the group's ban under anti-terrorism laws failed. The group, which focuses on direct action against Israeli weapons factories in the UK, was voted to be banned by parliament. The ruling places Palestine Action alongside groups like Islamic State and al-Qaida. UN experts and various organizations have condemned this ban as excessive, warning it conflates protest actions with terrorism. A judicial review hearing is scheduled for 21 July regarding this order.
Palestine Action will become the first direct action protest group to be banned under the Terrorism Act, placing it in the same category as Islamic State, al-Qaida and the far-right group National Action.
UN experts, civil liberties groups, cultural figures and hundreds of lawyers have condemned the ban as draconian and said it sets a dangerous precedent by conflating protest with terrorism.
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