Palestine Action to be designated as terrorist group by UK government
Palestine Action is to be proscribed as a terrorist group in the UK after its members damaged two military planes at an air base on June 20.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said in a statement on Monday afternoon that she will lay an order before Parliament next week which, if passed, will make membership and support for Palestine Action illegal.
Also on Monday, police clashed with protestors at a demonstration in support of Palestine Action in Trafalgar Square, central London.
Palestine Action 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.
But it was a stunt against cargo planes at RAF Brize Norton, in Oxfordshire, southern England, which Palestine Action claimed were used in assisting Israel in its war in Gaza, that has led to its designation as a terrorist group.
"The disgraceful attack on Brize Norton in the early hours of the morning on Friday 20 June is the latest in a long history of unacceptable criminal damage committed by Palestine Action,' said Ms Cooper in a written statement to Parliament.
"The UK's defence enterprise is vital to the nation's security and this government will not tolerate those that put that security at risk."
Video posted on X by the Palestine Action network appears to show activists on electric scooters racing across the tarmac towards cargo planes at Brize Norton.
They can then be seen damaging the engine of a Voyager aircraft with repurposed fire extinguishers that sprayed red paint. They said they caused damage with crowbars. Paint was also sprayed on the runway. The activists claim to have escaped without detection.
If Parliament approves the order, Palestine Action will joins the 81 organisations have been proscribed under the Terrorism Act 2000, including Islamist groups such as Hamas, A l Qaeda, far-right groups such as National Action, Russian private military company the Wagner Group and Hizb ut-Tahrir.
But some within the governing Labour Party believe designating Palestine Action may be a step too far.
They include former shadow attorney general Shami Chakrabarti, who has said the actions of Palestine Action at Brize Norton are 'not what most people would understand as terrorism'.
"It is one thing to be a threat to property, to be a nuisance, to be prosecuted, and in some cases even imprisoned for those criminal offences, but it's another thing altogether to proscribe a whole group, and that means anybody fairly vaguely associated with it, to ban them (as) terrorists,' said Ms Chakrabarti , a former director of human rights organisation Liberty.
"From what I can tell, this is a militant protest group that engages in direct action and that includes criminality, no question, but to elevate that to terrorism so anybody who attends a meeting, or who promotes the organisation, or is loosely affiliated with it, is branded a terrorist - that is a serious escalation I think."
Former justice secretary Lord Charlie Falconer said vandalising aircraft at RAF Brize Norton would not solely provide legal justification for proscribing the group.
'I am not aware of what Palestine Action has done beyond the painting of things on the planes in Brize Norton, they may have done other things I didn't know,' he said.
"But generally, that sort of demonstration wouldn't justify proscription so there must be something else that I don't know about."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Middle East Eye
10 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
Glastonbury Festival says 'death to IDF' chant 'crossed a line'
Glastonbury Festival has published a statement condemning comments by punk duo Bob Vylan yesterday. The duo led chants of 'death to the IDF' during their Saturday performance at the large musical festival, referring to an acronym for the Israeli military. "With almost 4,000 performances at Glastonbury 2025, there will inevitably be artists and speakers appearing on our stages whose views we do not share, and a performer's presence here should never be seen as a tacit endorsement of their opinions and beliefs," Glastonbury Festival wrote on its official Instagram account. "However, we are appalled by the statements made from the West Holts stage by Bob Vylan yesterday. "Their chants very much crossed a line and we are urgently reminding everyone involved in the production of the festival that there is no place at Glastonbury for antisemitism, hate speech or incitement to violence." The UK government also condemned the chants, and British police said it was investigating the matter. Earlier on Saturday, British-Turkish singer Nilufer Yanya's set included a backdrop that read 'Free Free Palestine', and a banner supporting Palestine was unfurled on stage. Meanwhile, a member of Irish rap trio Kneecap wore a t-shirt dedicated to Palestine Action - a group set to be banned by the UK under terror laws.
The National
2 days ago
- The National
UK Space Command rises to meet the challenges on the frontier beyond planet Earth
The bright yellow track of the missile ocean launch streaks upwards from Earth on a near-vertical trajectory towards space. Instantly a warning appears across the bank of computer screens in the crucible-like operations room of UK Space Command. 'Missile in flight,' says one of the operators at UK Space Command. There is a question that they need to very rapidly answer: is this going to threaten a major UK or allied satellite? It becomes rapidly apparent that this is not a rocket fired in anger from the Ukraine conflict or by Iran. Instead its line of travel is heading unflinchingly towards the heavens, an anti-satellite (Asat) weapon released to hunt its prey more than hundreds of kilometres above Earth. The stakes are high. In geostationary orbit 35,000km above Earth is one of the four Skynet 5 satellites, a $5.4 billion communications system that serves all of Britain's highly sensitive government communications, from special forces, spies in the field to the prime minister giving commands to nuclear submarines. If it is destroyed it will create a major vulnerability in UK defences. The Asat's yellow streak surges upwards gathering speed but now giving a strong indication of what its target might be, as within 10 minutes it has breached Earth's atmosphere. The computer readout indicates about 20 satellites in the missile's path, giving their nationalities as Russian, Chinese, American, Australian and British. As the weapon soars upwards, the number of satellites on an elliptic course narrow down to just five: two Russian, two Chinese and the UK's Skynet 5. The staff at Space Command have about 15 minutes to notify the operators to begin evasive manoeuvres and carry out defensive actions. 'The first shot in the next war going to be in space,' says one of the officers, as the scenario played out at the 24/7 operations centres comes to an end, after The National had been put in the hot seat to make the decisions on whether or not the Asat was a threat. But we were not given the options on defensive measures that, beyond rapid manoeuvring, could be taken – they remain classified. Space wars The last decade has made it became apparent that space will be another dimension in future war and the military personnel at the centre have been deployed to the furthest frontier the armed forces patrol. When Britain's military realised it had to have much better 'situational awareness', it set up Space Command in 2021. It has since grown to a force of more than 600 personnel, three quarters from the RAF, based at former Bomber Command headquarters near High Wycombe, housed in a series of unremarkable 1930s redbrick buildings that had been designed to resemble a village to put off German bombers in the Second World War. As in the Second World War, behind these walls a hub of specialists are assembled to observe the sky far above for any threats to Britain or its allies. To date there has never been an aggressive Asat launch, although Russia, the US, China and India have all shot down their own satellites to demonstrate their capabilities. That threat is evident in the low-key offices of Space Command, where personnel know that one consequence of a satellite being destroyed is that the timing signal for financial transactions would result in a loss of £1 billion a day, and that 18 per cent of the UK's economy dependent on space. Protect and Defend In what was the first time it had opened its doors to the press, the UK Space Operations Centre demonstrates a template for those countries operating in space – more than 80 currently – on how they can, as Space Command's logo urges, to 'protect and defend' the 811 UK vehicles in orbit. 'From a national security point of view, space is a contested, congested and competitive domain and we need to make sure as our adversaries advance their capabilities that we're able to deal with what that throws up,' said Maria Eagle, the Minister for Defence Procurement, as she officially opened the operations centre. With the global space economy projected to grow to $1.8 trillion by 2035, the dimension is about to get a lot more congested and competitive. Asteroid alert The British government is putting cash alongside its words with £13 million of funding for a constellation of new telescopes that will be arrayed across most of Britain's 14 independent overseas territories. They will be on hand to enhance the constant looking-towards-the-heavens operation of the space officers on duty who spotted the 876 'uncontrolled re-entries' of last year, or the nearly 30,000 collision risks to UK satellites, of which 20 resulted in an official alert. It is not only foreign powers but space itself that throws up many hazards, with 3,206 'close approach asteroids' reported and one actual 'asteroid alert' that ultimately came to nothing. The centre also monitors for space weather alerts, including the coronal mass ejections from the Sun which could wipe out power grids and satellites, particularly during a 'solar maximum' period, which Earth is currently experiencing. Given the 12,000 or so satellites currently orbiting Earth, space command is one of many now monitoring the skies to avoid a collision that could lead to a cascade of crashes causing the Kessler Effect, which could take out all orbiters, with catastrophic consequences. Satellite grabbers Ultimately it appears that the nations racing to colonise space will present the biggest dangers, and not just from their weapons. Space junk caused by the debris of obliterated satellites still presents hazards, including that from 2007, when China shot down one of its own older weather satellites, and 2021, when Russia conducted a similar exercise. But nations are also developing elaborate space weapons that could pose dangers to Earth and in the cosmos, with a 'satellite grabber' device being among the most feared. 'The National Space Operations Centre does vital work in monitoring and protecting our interests,' Ms Eagle told The National. 'It's a recognition of the fact that our adversaries are active there, and we need to know what's going on.'
Zawya
2 days ago
- Zawya
United Arab Emirates (UAE) Strongly Condemns Attack on United Nations (UN) Mission in Central African Republic
The United Arab Emirates has strongly condemned the attack targeting the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), near the town of Birao, which resulted in the death of a Zambian peacekeeper and the injury of another. In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) underscored the UAE's strong condemnation of these criminal and terrorist acts, and its permanent rejection of all forms of violence, extremism and terrorism aimed at undermining security and stability. The Ministry reaffirmed that targeting UN and humanitarian missions constitutes a blatant violation of the principles of international law and UN Security Council Resolution 1701, stressing the UAE's full support for the vital role of MINUSCA in promoting security and stability in the Central African Republic. The Ministry expressed its sincere condolences and sympathy to the family of the victim, and to the government and people of Zambia, as well as its wishes for a speedy recovery for the injured peacekeeper. The Ministry further expressed its solidarity with the United Nations and its humanitarian missions, and the countries contributing to international efforts aimed at achieving peace and stability in the region and worldwide. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of United Arab Emirates, Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
