MPs have backed the Government’s move to ban direct action group Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation, despite warnings it will have a “chilling effect” on protest.
Legislation passed in the Commons on Wednesday, as MPs voted 385 to 26, majority 359 in favour of proscribing the group under the Terrorism Act 2000.
The motion is expected to be debated and voted on by the House of Lords on Thursday before it becomes law.
If approved, it would become a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison to be a member of the direct action group or to support it.
Security minister Dan Jarvis told MPs that protesters expressing support for Palestine “have always been able to, and can continue to do so” as he urged support to ban Palestine Action.
He said: “Palestine Action is not a legitimate protest group.
“People engaged in lawful protest don’t need weapons. People engaged in lawful protest do not throw smoke bombs and fire pyrotechnics around innocent members of the public.
“And people engaged in lawful protest do not cause millions of pounds of damage to national security infrastructure, including submarines and defence equipment for Nato.”
Palestine Action is seeking a legal challenge against the Government’s bid to proscribe it, with a hearing expected on Friday to decide whether the ban can be temporarily blocked, pending further proceedings to decide whether a legal challenge can be brought.
The Government’s move comes after two planes were vandalised at RAF Brize Norton on June 20 in an action claimed by Palestine Action.
Five people have since been arrested on suspicion of a terror offence in relation to the incident.
Mr Jarvis said the attack at RAF Brize Norton “was just the latest episode in Palestine Action’s long history of harmful activity”, adding: “Palestine Action has orchestrated a nation-wide campaign of property damage featuring attacks that have resulted in serious damage to property and crossed the threshold from direct criminal action into terrorism.”
But the minister faced backlash from some MPs who described the move as a “draconian overreach” and likened the group to the Suffragettes.
The United Nations also warned ahead of the vote for the UK not to proscribe Palestine Action, as experts are concerned at the “unjustified labelling of a political protest movement as ‘terrorist’.”
Independent MP for Coventry South Zarah Sultana also told the Commons: “To equate a spray can of paint with a suicide bomb isn’t just absurd, it is grotesque.
“It is a deliberate distortion of the law to chill dissent, criminalise solidarity and suppress the truth.”
Former soldier Clive Lewis, now the Labour MP for Norwich South, said: “I understand what terrorism is. I was in London on July 7 in 2007 and I watched my community, this city, attacked by real terrorists.
“And at that point, rightly or wrongly, I decided I was going to Afghanistan to fight the terrorists.
“And I went because I love this country, and I love our democracy, and I want to see it protected. I think today’s proscription order against Palestine Action undermines that and I wish my Government wouldn’t do it.”
A spokesperson for Palestine Action said: “We are confident that this unlawful order will be overturned.
“As United Nations experts have made clear, spraying red paint and disrupting the British-based operations of Israel’s largest weapons firm, Elbit Systems, is not terrorism.”
Outside of Parliament, four protesters were arrested by the Metropolitan Police following a demonstration to oppose the move to ban Palestine Action.
The police had imposed Public Order Act conditions aimed at limiting the protest to Richmond Terrace, off Whitehall.
One woman, who identified herself as Emma Kamio to the PA news agency, appeared to use the protest technique known as “locking on” to cause an obstruction outside of Carriage Gates, one of the entrances to the parliamentary estate.
Her daughter Leona Kamio was among a group of pro-Palestine protesters who have appeared in court to deny breaking into the UK site of an Israel-based defence firm with sledgehammers, causing £1 million of damage.
Police were seen speaking to Ms Kamio as she sat on the pavement outside Parliament with her arm inside what appeared to be a suitcase.
Listing the four arrests, a Met spokesperson said a woman “who locked herself onto a suitcase outside the gates of Parliament” was among them for “breaching the conditions and for being in possession of articles intended for locking on”.
Among those arrested was also a “man who blocked the gates of Downing Street with his mobility scooter and refused to move to the conditioned area”.
A larger than usual number of officers could be seen in the area around Parliament.
The Met said the “significant policing presence in the vicinity of Parliament” was because of its “responsibility to take action to prevent serious disruption to the life of the community”, including by ensuring MPs “can go about their business free from intimidation or unreasonable interference”.
The legislation approved by MPs also bans two white supremacist groups, Maniacs Murder Cult and Russian Imperial Movement, including its paramilitary arm Russian Imperial Legion.
The Home Office describes the Maniacs Murder Cult as a neo-Nazi transnational and online organisation which has claimed a number of violent attacks around the world.
Russian Imperial Movement is a ethno-nationalist group which aims to create a new Russian Imperial State. Its paramilitary unit fought alongside Russian forces in the invasion of Ukraine to advance its ideological cause.
It also runs a paramilitary training programme to support attendees to carry out terror attacks, the Home Office added.
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