Campaign group Palestine Action is seeking a legal challenge against the Government’s bid to proscribe the group under anti-terror laws.
An urgent hearing was held in the High Court on Monday related to an application for judicial review on behalf of one of the founders of the direct action group, Huda Ammori.
A further hearing will be held on Friday to decide whether the Government can temporarily be blocked from banning the group, pending a hearing to decide whether Palestine Action can bring the legal challenge.
A decision on whether the group will be given the green light to bring the legal challenge will be given at a further hearing expected to be held in the week of July 21.
Supporting statements have also been submitted by Amnesty International, Liberty and European Legal Support Centre over concerns of unlawful misuse of anti-terror measures to criminalise dissent, a spokesperson said.
It comes as a draft order was laid before Parliament on Monday to amend the Terrorism Act 2000 to include Palestine Action as a proscribed organisation, making membership and support for the direct action group illegal.
If approved, it would become a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
It is expected MPs and peers will debate the legislation over Wednesday and Thursday and, if approved, the ban could come into force by Friday.
Commenting on the hearing, Ms Ammori said: “I have been left with no choice but to request this urgent hearing and to seek either an injunction or other form of interim relief because of the Home Secretary’s decision to try to steamroll this through Parliament immediately, without proper opportunity for MPs and peers to debate and scrutinise the proposal, or for legal and human rights experts and civil society organisations to make representations, or for those of us who would be denied fundamental rights as a result and criminalised as ‘terrorists’ overnight, including the many thousands of people who support Palestine Action.”
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.
Unveiling the intention to ban the group following the incident on June 23, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said it was the latest in a “long history of unacceptable criminal damage committed by Palestine Action”.
She said on Monday: “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 group has staged a series of demonstrations in recent months, including spraying the London offices of Allianz Insurance with red paint over its alleged links to Israeli defence company Elbit, and vandalising US President Donald Trump’s Turnberry golf course in South Ayrshire.
Its website states the group uses disruptive tactics to target “corporate enablers of the Israeli military-industrial complex” and seeks to make it “impossible for these companies to profit from the oppression of Palestinians”.
Ms Ammori added that causing disruption “is not terrorism”, while Ms Cooper has said proscribing the group is a “legitimate response to the threat posed” by Palestine Action.
The Home Secretary has the power to proscribe an organisation under the Terrorism Act of 2000 if she believes it is “concerned in terrorism”.
Some 81 organisations have been proscribed under the 2000 Act, including Islamist terrorist groups such as Hamas and al-Qaida, far-right groups such as National Action, and Russian private military company the Wagner Group.
The draft order laid on Monday also lists neo-Nazi group Maniacs Murder Cult and far-right nationalist group Russian Imperial Movement, including its paramilitary arm Russian Imperial Legion, to be proscribed in the UK.
A spokesperson for Palestine Action said: “Bundling Palestine Action – a domestic civil disobedience protest group – in with foreign neo-Nazi organisations (the Moldovan ‘Maniacs Murder Cult’ and the Russian ‘Imperialist Movement’) further highlights how unjustified and preposterous the Home Secretary’s proposed proscription of Palestine Action is.
“These foreign organisations are the kind of groups proscription was created to target – not protesters who disrupt arms factories and spray paint on war planes to protest war crimes and genocide.”
