Palestine Action must be labelled terrorist group, say Farage and Jenrick
Palestine Action should be proscribed as a terrorist organisation after its activists breached security at an air base to damage two RAF planes, Robert Jenrick and Nigel Farage have said.
The pair joined other senior politicians in demanding that the group should be banned over its 'illegal' and 'extremist' actions after activists broke into RAF Brize Norton and sprayed red paint into the engines of two Airbus Voyager aircraft.
Mr Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, told Sir Keir Starmer: 'You are the Prime Minister – do something. Ban Palestine Action. Investigate the security breach.'
Mr Farage, the leader of Reform UK, said: 'Palestine Action must be proscribed as a terrorist organisation after the attack on RAF planes at Brize Norton.'
Proscribing Palestine Action would make it illegal to be a member of the group, to invite support for it or to wear clothing or carry flags or placards backing it. Anyone caught doing so would face up to 14 years in prison.
It would put the group on a par with membership of the Islamic State, Hamas or Al-Qaeda.
Lord Walney, a former government adviser on political violence and disruption, said: 'The Government must now act to ban Palestine Action after this grotesque breach of military security.
'With Iran's nuclear programme on the brink and Britain facing rising threats from abroad, we shouldn't let these criminal activists act like the Ayatollah's apparatchiks by attacking the country from within.
'Employees at the workplaces they target have been systematically terrorised by Palestine Action for too long – this is the moment for ministers to proscribe the group as terrorists or enact the new sanctions recommended in my review submitted to Downing Street and the Home Office.'
Suella Braverman, a former home secretary, said: 'This is not a legitimate protest. These are the actions of militant extremists who are undermining our national security. Palestine Action should be proscribed and face the full force of the law.'
Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, is understood to support a ban and urged the Government and police to ensure that the activists responsible faced the 'full force of the law'.
'The security breach at Brize Norton is deeply concerning.This is not lawful protest, it is politically motivated criminality,' she said. 'We must stop tolerating terrorist or extremist groups that seek to undermine our society. The full force of the law must come down on those responsible.'
David Taylor, the Labour MP for Hemel Hempstead, also called for Palestine Action to be proscribed, saying its protest at Brize Norton amounted to 'sabotage'.
He added: 'This group have engaged in illegal activity – smashing into defence sites, vandalising property and disrupting key infrastructure. These are not isolated incidents – they are part of a coordinated campaign of unlawful direct action.
'Such behaviour puts lives at risk, undermines public safety and is against British values. It is time for the Government to take a firmer stance. I believe Palestine Action should now be considered for proscription under the Terrorism Act. We cannot allow groups who glorify and incite violence to operate unchecked under the guise of activism.'
Palestine Action has been involved in previous violent protests. In January last year, it vandalised an office of the logistics company Kuehne+Nagel in Milton Keynes, smashing windows and spraying the building with paint.
Last March, it claimed responsibility for spray-painting a historic portrait of Arthur Balfour at Trinity College, Cambridge. Palestine Action said the action was taken because of the 1917 Balfour declaration, in which the UK backed a separate state for Jewish people.
Last November, members broke a glass cabinet in the University of Manchester's Chemistry Building and stole two busts of Chaim Weizmann, the first president of Israel and a former lecturer at the university.
In March this year, members of Palestine Action threw red paint on the Old Schools building at the University of Cambridge, calling on the university to divest from companies selling arms to the Israeli military.
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