MPs are set to debate the Home Secretary’s controversial decision to ban Palestine Action after its members allegedly defaced two British military jets.
On Wednesday, legislation to proscribe the pro-Gaza protest group as a terror organisation will be laid in Parliament.
Two other firms are being banned alongside Palestine Action - white supremacist neo-Nazi group the Maniacs Murder Cult (MMC) and the ultranationalist militant organisation the Russian Imperial Movement (RIM).
Being a member or expressing support for the groups will become a criminal offence, punishable by up to 14 years in prison, if MPs and Lords pass the legislation this week.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “National security is the first duty of any government, we will always take the action needed to protect our democracy and national security against different threats.
“Maniacs Murder Cult, Palestine Action and the Russian Imperial Movement have each passed the threshold for proscription based on clear national security evidence and assessments.
“The right to protest and the right to free speech are the cornerstone of our democracy and there are countless campaign groups that freely exercise those rights. Violence and serious criminal damage has no place in legitimate protests.”
The Network for Police Monitoring (Netpol) lawyers’ group and the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers have both said that proscribing Palestine Action would set a dangerous precedent.
But Ms Cooper pointed to alleged “attacks” by the group, which included an incident at Thales in Glasgow in 2022 that caused over £1 million worth of damage to parts essential for submarines.
The pro-Palestinian group has also claimed responsibility for spraying two planes with red paint on jets at RAF Brize Norton last month.
Footage posted online showed two people inside the Oxfordshire airbase with one riding on a scooter up to an Airbus Voyager and spraying paint into its jet engine.
It comes after two people were arrested on Wednesday after Palestine Action claimed to have blockaded the entrance to an Israeli defence company’s UK headquarters.
India Kalff, 30, and Jordan Woodgate, 36, both from London, have been jointly charged with criminal damage after the entrance to Bristol's Elbit Systems facility was blocked on Tuesday.
Palestine Action has threatened legal action, arguing the order was “unlawful, dangerous and ill thought out”.
The group has been granted an urgent hearing at the high court in London on Friday, which could prevent the order coming into effect.
