The Home Office is challenging the High Court ruling in February that found the ban against Palestine Action as a terror group to be “disproportionate”.
The ban under the Terrorism Act 2000, which began on July 5 last year, made membership of, or support for, the direct action group a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
More than 3,200 people have been arrested since the ban came into effect in July last year, according to Defend Our Juries.
The new challenge is set to be heard at the Court of Appeal on Tuesday.
The hearing before the Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr, Sir Geoffrey Vos, Lord Justice Edis, Lord Justice Lewis and Lady Justice Whipple is due to conclude on Thursday.
Here is a look at where the protest group emerged from and how it came to be banned.
– 2020
The network launched with a protest at Elbit Systems’ UK headquarters in London. Activists broke inside and smeared red paint over the building.
The group’s founders are said to be Huda Ammori and Richard Barnard, but the extent and nature of its membership and organisation is largely unexplained, according to the High Court ruling.
Some 20,000 people are said to be on the organisation’s mailing list.
– 2022
Palestine Action targeted the Thales defence factory in Glasgow in a high-profile attack.
The group is said to have caused more than £1 million worth of damage, including to parts essential to submarines.
The sheriff, in passing custodial sentences, described the panic among staff, who feared for their safety as pyrotechnics and smoke bombs were thrown in the area where they were evacuating.
– 2023
Towards the end of the year, the group released The Underground Manual.
Its “direct action” comprises “various types of criminality, including acts of criminal damage such as spray painting, damaging buildings or other property and destroying or attempting to destroy property”, the judgment said.
According to the Home Office, the document encourages the creation of cells, provides practical guidance on how to carry out activity against private companies and Government buildings on behalf of Palestine Action, and provides a link to a website that contains a map of specific targets across the UK.
The Underground Manual recommends “smashing stuff… with an efficient sledgehammer in your hand” as something that is “very quick” and can cause “quite a bit of damage”.
It suggests targeting expensive equipment or blocking drains with concrete and recommends “breaking in” and damaging contents as “obviously a very effective tactic”.
The manual also encourages those involved to record their actions so Palestine Action can publicise them.
– 2024
Palestine Action’s activities increased in frequency and severity from the start of the year.
The group targeted sporting events and the homes of politicians and occupied university campuses.
More than 15 branches of Barclays Bank across England and Scotland were vandalised by the group’s members.
Barclays’ staff said they have experienced abuse, intimidation, and fear for personal safety while at work, the court’s ruling said.
Three protesters avoided jail after demonstrating outside the house of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
– 2025
The group claimed responsibility for action in which two Voyager planes were damaged at RAF Brize Norton.
Palestine Action posted footage of two people inside the base in Oxfordshire.
The clip showed one person riding an electric scooter up to an Airbus Voyager air-to-air refuelling tanker and appearing to spray paint into its jet engine.
Then-home secretary Yvette Cooper announced plans to ban Palestine Action days later.
Speaking on June 23, she said that the vandalism of the two planes, which police said caused an estimated £7 million of damage, was “disgraceful”.
The ban, which came into force on July 5, made it a criminal offence to belong to or support the group, punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
At a High Court hearing at the end of November, Raza Husain KC, for Ms Ammori, said the “suffragettes would have been liable for proscription” if the same legislation had been in force at the beginning of the last century.
Sir James Eadie KC, for the Home Office, told the court that the ban “strikes a fair balance between interference with the rights of the individuals affected and the interests of the community”.
– 2026
In the High Court decision in February, Dame Victoria Sharp, Mr Justice Swift and Mrs Justice Steyn said the ban was “disproportionate”.
Reading a summary of the decision, Dame Victoria said: “The nature and scale of Palestine Action’s activities falling within the definition of terrorism had not yet reached the level, scale and persistence to warrant proscription.”
The ban has remained in place until the conclusion of the Home Office challenge.
More than 500 people were arrested at a protest in Trafalgar Square in April, according to the Metropolitan Police, including Massive Attack musician Robert Del Naja.
Prior to his arrest, he told the Press Association: “I think that the actions of Palestine Action were highly patriotic because they were pretty much protecting our country from getting involved in serious war crimes, and breaking international law.
“How much more patriotic can you be than that?”
