The United Kingdom’s Court of Appeal is expected to rule on Monday whether the British government was right to proscribe the Palestine Action activist group as a “terrorist” organisation.Palestine Action was formally proscribed by the UK last July. A court in London ruled earlier this month that four activists convicted of criminal damage at a British facility owned by an Israeli weapons group would be sentenced on the basis that their actions had a “terrorist connection”.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listThe proscription of Palestine Action as a “terrorist” organisation has been challenged in the High Court, which ruled in February that the ban was unlawful. The government then appealed that decision.What is Palestine Action and why was it proscribed?Palestine Action is a British protest group which was founded six years ago and describes itself as a movement “committed to ending global participation in Israel’s genocidal and apartheid regime”.It says it uses “disruptive tactics” to target “corporate enablers” and companies involved in the manufacture of weapons for Israel, such as Israeli group Elbit Systems, Italian aerospace company Leonardo, French multinational Thales and Teledyne from the United States. The group has targeted British facilities linked to those companies.In all, British police have said action by the group has resulted in millions of pounds of criminal damage.Palestine Action’s protests include:
In 2021, members protested for six days on the roof of Elbit Systems’ subsidiary, UAV Tactical Systems in Leicester, until some were arrested by police.
In 2022, the group broke into a Thales equipment factory in Glasgow, causing damage to weapons worth more than a m …
