‘I am deeply ashamed' — Peter Hain breaks with Starmer government's ban on Palestine Action
Peter Hain, the former anti-apartheid activist and now a British Labour lord, has broken with Prime Minister Keir Starmer's government over its banning of the activist group Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation.
Hain, who grew up in South Africa, voted against the Terrorism Act 2000 (Proscribed Organisations) (Amendment) Order 2025 — which proscribes Palestine Action and two right-wing extremist groups — when it came before the House of Lords on Thursday, after passing the House of Commons on Wednesday.
The House of Lords also passed the Bill, and after the Court of Appeal rejected an appeal to block the ban on Friday, it came into effect on Saturday. That day, the police detained 29 individuals in London on Saturday on suspicion of terrorism-related offences for holding a demonstration in support of Palestine Action.
The decision to ban Palestine Action followed vandalism by its members of two Voyager refuelling planes at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on 20 June by spraying paint into their engines, resulting in about $9.5-million of damage. Palestine Action said the aircraft had been involved in Israel's bombing of Gaza.
Hain told his fellow lords that in 1969-70, 'I was proud to lead a militant campaign of direct action to disrupt all-white racist South African rugby and cricket tours, and we succeeded in getting them stopped for two decades.
'No doubt I would have been stigmatised as a terrorist today rather than vilified, as indeed I then was.
'That militant action could have been blocked by this motion, as could other anti-apartheid activity, including militant protests to stop Barclays Bank recruiting new students on university campuses, eventually forcing Barclays to withdraw from apartheid South Africa.
Nelson Mandela
'Remember also that Nelson Mandela was labelled a 'terrorist' by the apartheid government, by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, by the United States and other Western governments during much of the Cold War.
'Mandela even remained on the US terrorism watchlist until 2008, many years after becoming South Africa's first democratically elected president and receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.'
Hain noted that the suffragettes had gained iconic status and were treated as heroines today.
'Yet they could have been suppressed under this proscription. They used violence against property in a strategic manner to demand voting rights for women as part of civil disobedience protests when their peaceful protests seemed futile.
'They intended to highlight the injustice of denying women the vote and to provoke a reaction that kept the issue in the public eye. Like Nelson Mandela, they were vilified at the time, including in strident denunciations by members of this House.
'Suffragettes attacked shop windows, government buildings and political party offices, sometimes using hammers, stones or iron bars.
'They also set fire to unoccupied buildings such as churches, railway stations, sports pavilions and empty country houses, intending to cause material loss without causing injury.
'Suffragettes cut telegraph and telephone wires to disrupt government and commercial operations.
'They even hid small homemade bombs inside mailboxes and attempted to bomb Westminster Abbey and Prime Minister David Lloyd George's uncompleted house.
Criminal damage
'Frankly, Palestine Action members spraying paint on military aircraft at Brize Norton seems positively moderate by comparison. And those alleged to have done this are being prosecuted for criminal damage, as indeed they should be.
'There are plenty of criminal offences which such activity could attract rather than treating young people as terrorists because they feel frustrated about the failure to stop mass killings and bombings of Palestinians in Gaza.'
Hain stressed that he supported the right of Israel to exist and of Israelis to enjoy full security.
'I am also a long-standing supporter of Palestinian rights to self-determination in their own state.
'I was vehemently opposed to widespread anti-Semitism tolerated under Jeremy Corbyn's ill-fated Labour leadership.'
Hain deplored that the Labour Party government was now putting Palestine Action in the same category as 'real terrorists: Al-Qaeda and Islamic State', which had killed thousands of people in terror attacks.
'Nazi-like US racists and, here in the UK, the IRA, also committed terrible atrocities, targeting or killing innocent civilians, properly and rightly labelled 'terrorists'.
'This government is treating Palestine Action as equivalent to Islamic State or Al-Qaeda, which is intellectually bankrupt, politically unprincipled and morally wrong.
'Frankly, I am deeply ashamed,' he said. DM
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