Court bid to block Palestine Action terrorist ban fails
Huda Ammori, the co-founder of Palestine Action, is seeking to bring a legal challenge against the Home Office over Home Secretary Yvette Cooper's decision to proscribe the group under the Terrorism Act 2000.
The motion could become law as early as this weekend once it has been signed off by Cooper, which would make membership of, or support for, the direct action group a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
READ MORE: LIVE – Palestine Action in court to challenge UK Government's terrorist ban
The move was announced after two Voyager aircraft were damaged at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on June 20, an incident claimed by Palestine Action, which police said caused around £7 million worth of damage.
At a hearing on Friday, Justice Chamberlain decided not to grant 'interim relief' to Ammori, which would temporarily block the legislation from coming into effect at midnight on Saturday as currently planned.
The hearing began at 10.30am at the Royal Courts of Justice, with a further hearing to decide whether Ammori will be given the green light to challenge the Government's decision expected to be held later in July.
Ammori's legal team asked for the proscription order to be suspended until July 21. They also said that if the temporary block was not granted, a bid to appeal against that decision could be made on Friday evening.
(Image: Lucy North/PA) At the hearing on Friday, Raza Husain KC, for Ammori, told the London court: 'This is the first time in our history that a direct action civil disobedience group, which does not advocate for violence, has been sought to be proscribed as terrorists.'
The barrister said that his client had been 'inspired' by a long history of direct action in the UK, 'from the suffragettes, to anti-apartheid activists, to Iraq war activists'.
Quoting Ammori, the barrister continued that the group had 'never encouraged harm to any person at all' and that its goal 'is to put ourselves in the way of the military machine'.
He continued: 'We ask you, in the first instance, to suspend until July 21 what we say is an ill-considered, discriminatory and authoritarian abuse of statutory power which is alien to the basic tradition of the common law and is contrary to the Human Rights Act.'
The barrister later said that the Home Office 'has still not sufficiently articulated or evidenced a national security reason that proscription should be brought into effect now'.
READ MORE: Jeremy Corbyn confirms launch of new party - read the full statement
Some 81 organisations are already proscribed under the Terrorism Act, including Hamas, al Qaida and National Action.
Ben Watson KC, for the Home Office, told the High Court there was an 'insuperable hurdle' in the bid to temporarily block the ban of Palestine Action.
The barrister also said that if a temporary block was granted, it would be a 'serious disfigurement of the statutory regime'.
He said Palestine Action could challenge the Home Secretary's decision at the Proscribed Organisations Appeal Commission (POAC), a specialist tribunal, rather than at the High Court.
Watson said: 'At its heart, it is a challenge to the proscription of the organisation … POAC is the forum of first resort.'
He continued: 'Even if the court does conclude that there is some residual scope for judicial review … then we respectfully submit that the court needs to look at the bespoke regime that Parliament has provided.'
Cooper announced plans to proscribe Palestine Action on June 23, stating that the vandalism of the two planes was 'disgraceful' and that the group had a 'long history of unacceptable criminal damage'.
MPs in the Commons voted 385 to 26, majority 359, in favour of proscribing the group on Wednesday, before the House of Lords backed the move without a vote on Thursday.
Four people – Amy Gardiner-Gibson, 29, Jony Cink, 24, Daniel Jeronymides-Norie, 36, and Lewis Chiaramello, 22 – have all been charged in connection with the incident.
They appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Thursday after being charged with conspiracy to enter a prohibited place knowingly for a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the United Kingdom, and conspiracy to commit criminal damage, under the Criminal Law Act 1977.
They were remanded into custody and will appear at the Old Bailey on July 18.
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Scotsman
38 minutes ago
- Scotsman
Readers' Letters: Proscribing Palestine Action as terrorists is over the top
Palestine Action should not be considered a terror group, say readers Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... I am sure Home Secretary Yvette Cooper must be well aware of the long and honourable history of Non-Violent Direct Action (NVDA) in development of political and social understanding. In the development of our democracy I would instance the movements for women's suffrage, without which she could not hold her present office, and for Indian independence. However, only by extreme distortion of the meaning of words could Emmeline Pankhurst or Mahatma Gandhi be described as terrorists. Here in Dunblane there are many in the local churches who still honour the memory of the late Helen Steven and Ellen Moxley, pacifist Quakers who ran the Iona Community's Peace House in Braco for 12 years from 1985. They were experts in NVDA. Ellen was one of the three peace activists who in 1999 broke into the naval facility on Loch Goil and threw computers into the loch. Was it an act of criminal damage? Possibly. The Sheriff who accepted their plea that they were acting to prevent a worse crime was later held to have been wrong in law. Were they acting as terrorists? Certainly not! Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad There must be many, like me, concerned that the Home Secretary, in proscribing Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act 2000, is stretching the definition of 'terrorism' beyond any reasonable limit. Organisations supporting NVDA may be a nuisance to government, their actions may be costly and inconvenient, but that does not make them terrorists. Using anti-terrorist legislation against such an organisation appears excessively draconian against legitimate protest and risks diluting the focus of the security forces against real terrorist threats. A protester lights a flare outside the Royal Courts of Justice as Palestine Action challenge proscription in a High Court hearing in London on 4 July. The ban, which critics have called draconian, will make it illegal to be a member of the group. (Picture:) Anthony Birch, Dunblane, Stirling Running sore Surely, nobody could begrudge the Jews their homeland, particularly after the hell they went through in the Holocaust. But what about the Palestinians? Their land of Palestine was decreed by the colonial powers of the day, not least the British and French, to be the setting for the Jewish homeland. The infamous Balfour Declaration was passed in 1917, without any reference to what would happen to the Palestinians. It wouldn't be until 1948 that the Nakba would happen and the Palestinians' fate be sealed in a running sore that hasn't been healed. Indeed, it has worsened in their experience now of ethnic cleansing. What other people has been asked to make such a sacrifice? The absurd situation has been reached where even supporting the Palestinian cause is deemed to be a criminal offence. Yvette Cooper has had a twin victory, in Parliament and the courts, deeming Palestine Action a terrorist group. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad I ask again, what about the Palestinians? The question is urgent, and remains in need of an answer. Ian Petrie, Edinburgh Prove me wrong David Millar (Letters, 7 July) accuses me of 'disappearing down the usual separatist rabbit warren of claiming we in Scotland are in a better state than our English and Welsh neighbours regarding levels of poverty'. I don't claim this. The statistics contained in the letter he refers to prove it. If Mr Millar believes they are incorrect he is free to refute them. His letter makes no attempt to do this! Alan Woodcock, Dundee What wealth? The UK's National Wealth Fund (NWF) is apparently geared up to spend billions over the next 25 years. Apart from the fact that given our national debt is almost 100 per cent of GDP and we have no cash to spare, we have to ask if this expenditure is expected to earn interest and if so what the anticipated rate of return will be. This NWF could be just another wheeze by government to pretend that government spending is not money down the drain but actually investment! I remember the Tony Blair government suggesting that spending was investment and look where that took us. The country has yet to recover from the 2007/08 debacle, let alone Covid expenditure and the impact of Putin's invasion of Ukraine on prices in this country. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad We don't have a magic money tree despite Rachel Reeves suggesting that some financial chicanery allows headroom to 'borrow more'. Our money tree is cash taken from our pockets to be spent in servicing our huge debt, plus big pay increases to those areas funded by government (that is, by taxpayers and even more borrowing). It should be obvious that this merry-go-round cannot continue. In fact, the sooner it stops the better it will be for the country and we taxpayers have to take a stand on the 'we need more' that is leading us nowhere but poverty for all. Perhaps that is Labour's idea of equality! T Lewis, Coylton, Ayrshire Trump China In a review of its military support, the White House says it must 'put America's interests first', and still seems ambiguous in its attitude to Vladimir Putin's war. But in a meeting last week with Kaja Kallas, Vice-President of the European Commission, China's foreign minister Wang Yi said Beijing does not want Russia to lose the war, as the USA would then be able to focus more directly on China. That plausible (albeit surprising or even unintended) admission surely makes President Donald Trump's priorities straightforward. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad He should immediately support the pro-Ukraine Republicans in Congress, enforce with the European and other allies the maximum economic and financial sanctions against Russia, impose stronger penalties on those countries that finance Putin by their purchase of Russia's oil, gas and minerals, and supply Ukraine with the intelligence data and hardware needed for swift military success – something many experts have thought feasible since late 2022, with the right support. That would then allow the USA to pass the Ukraine baton safely and effectively to Europe, and to concentrate on globally confronting China – politically, diplomatically, economically and militarily – which Trump has for years asserted is their greatest competitor and enemy. John Birkett, St Andrews, Fife NHS app disgrace New figures show that the number of patients waiting more than 78 weeks for treatment in Scotland is now over 38,000, compared to 1,154 in England. More than 35 million people in England use their NHS app, with Scotland's app not expected before 2030. Another national SNP disgrace with no one held accountable (as usual). Jim Houston, Edinburgh Pecking order Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad According to John V Lloyd (Letters, 7 July), what are known in Peterhead as "scurries' are a menace. I am sure the herring gull, or scurry, might regard us a menace, might they not? I was not paying attention one morning and just accepted the scurry had won a buttery from me of the two I had bought at the bakers and just got on with life. When do we accept that the nesting season is only a couple of months long and they are protecting their young by dive bombing people? Peter Ovenstone, Peterhead, Aberdeenshire Lawyers' payday Labour is to increase the legal aid fees paid to lawyers to represent migrants fighting to stay in Britain by 30 per cent. The cost will rise from £47 million to £61m a year. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Ministers say the move was necessary to clear the 90,000-strong backlog of asylum claims and end the use of hotels to house migrants. Yes, and pigs can fly. This will never clear the backlog since there are numerous migrant lawyers all too willing to coach migrants on what to say as they get a slice of this £61m pie. Fear of persecution in your home country? Tick. Gay? Tick. Unable to get protection from the authorities in your home country? Tick. Subjected to sex slavery? Tick. What not to say is that you passed through numerous safe countries before arriving in the UK. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad So why are lawyers now being paid more as they use every trick in the book to prevent illegal immigrants being deported? Britain is a soft touch. Instead of increasing legal aid for migrant lawyers we should abolish it. Clark Cross, Linlithgow, West Lothian Waking Nessie Reports of the Loch Ness Monster are surely 'based on some underlying physical reality' (Editorial, 4 July). But if not Nessie then what? I have examined very many reports and have come to the conclusion that boat wakes are the usual culprit. There is a phenomenon peculiar to long and deep narrow lakes used by heavy vessels. All sizeable vessels create wakes in deep water if travelling at a constant speed. Firstly a disturbance created by the screw propellers, trailing in line behind the vessel. Secondly, a wake created by the bows, spreading out both sides at a particular angle. This is known as the Kelvin wake and is always at an angle to the direction of the vessel of 19.5 degrees. On a calm surface – 'Nessie weather' – boat traffic creates wakes that will travel a long way and may even be reflected from the shoreline, sometimes interfering with the wake itself and/or the screw wake, to create a lump of water than can seem animated. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad One major cause of Nessie-like wakes on Loch Ness was British Waterways' converted ice-breaker tug Scot II, which operated on the Caledonian Canal from 1931. From 1960-1991 it carried tourists on cruises according to a strict timetable. It is no longer on the Canal. Steuart Campbell, Edinburgh Write to The Scotsman
The Herald Scotland
an hour ago
- The Herald Scotland
So this is what it's come to: arresting pensioners and priests
That was made abundantly clear when we were treated to the sight of elderly women being bodily carried away by police, arrested under the Terrorism Act, and taken into custody. Their crime was to hold placards reading: 'I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.' Among the 29 arrested was 83-year-old Reverend Sue Parfitt, taken away by police while wearing her dog collar. Palestine Action is now proscribed as a terror organisation. Members broke into RAF Brize Norton and sprayed two military planes red. For that, it is now on an equal footing with the IRA. The terror label means that even showing support for Palestine Action can lead to 14 years in prison. Our Government has gone through the looking glass when it comes to Gaza. Read more from Neil Mackay To stand in the street and protest what you believe to be genocide, to offer support to an organisation which has been labelled a terror gang itself for protesting what it believes to be genocide, is now enough to get you carted away by the police in Britain in 2025. There's a craziness about this. Rather than discuss what is happening in Gaza, rather than debate how our Government is behaving regarding Gaza, rather than focus on the death, the bombing, the hunger, we're fixated on sideshows about singers causing outrage at Glastonbury, and arresting old ladies. The wilful blindness is absurd. The silencing runs deep. The BBC refused to air one of the most important documentaries of recent years, the film Gaza: Doctors Under Attack. Channel 4 stepped in after the BBC claimed the documentary could create 'a perception of partiality that would not meet the high standards that the public rightly expect'. Channel 4 said the film was 'meticulously reported' and 'deserves to be widely seen'. It was, according to the channel's head of news and current affairs, subject to 'rigorous fact-checking' and presented an 'impartial view'. The channel had a 'duty to tell important journalistic stories – especially those that aren't being told elsewhere'. The film was among the most harrowing and horrifying ever aired on British television. Yet our national broadcaster chose to keep it from public sight. Instead, Channel 4 assumed the mantle of national broadcaster. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy wants BBC staff fired over the decision to air a separate Gaza documentary narrated by the child of a Hamas official. The Mail on Sunday ran a front page headline reading "Now arrest punk band who led 'Death to Israelis' chants at Glastonbury". The band in question is Bob Vylan. It's important to note – in these days of silencing – that the band did not chant "death to Israelis", but "death to the IDF". Accuracy matters, as does the deliberate elision. Perhaps musicians court controversy simply for controversy's sake, perhaps they speak out as they have deeply-held beliefs they wish to tell the world. Either way, the thoughts, words and deeds of minor celebrities should not be given greater importance in our news agenda that the reality of what is happening in Gaza. Reports about Bob Vylan jostled alongside reports of starving Palestinians shot at food distribution centres. There should be no such equivalence. At times, the average citizen must doubt their sanity. Why are we talking about punk bands when Francesca Albanese – who holds the post of United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories – is talking about the need for global corporations to be held accountable for 'profiting from genocide' in Gaza? Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, says Gaza is 'hell on Earth', and 'humanity is failing'. She added that 'the fact that we are watching a people entirely stripped of its human dignity, it should really shock our collective conscience.' In Britain, though, it seems we wish either silence or distraction. Our Government and our media have lost all sense of reality when it comes to Gaza. The public simply wants honest reporting, political and moral decency, and an open debate. These are not dangerous nor difficult requests. There is an historic duty on humanity right now. If we cannot find a moral and peaceable solution to what's happening in Gaza then we open the door to a monstrous future for ourselves and our children. If the rules of war can be rewritten in Gaza, they can be rewritten anywhere. If, in the future, some conflict should break out in Europe with Russia, or in the Pacific involving China, then what is happening now in Gaza becomes a template for the rules of engagement in years to come. Our behaviour today shapes tomorrow. Indeed, we are reminded of that truth this week, as we mark the 20th anniversary of the 7-7 London terror attacks. There have been calls for Bob Vylan to be arrested (Image: PA) At the time of the invasion of Iraq in 2003, anyone with a brain was predicting that this illegal war would bring terror to British streets. The 2005 attacks proved those fears valid. As the 20th anniversary rolled round, the former head of counter-terrorism with the Met Police, Neil Basu, said the Iraq war 'made extremists of people who might not have been radicalised'. Foreign policy and Iraq was a 'driver of the 7-7 attacks', he said. The act of silencing is itself radicalising. Anger and fear are bottled up and become channelled in dangerous ways. By telling people not to speak – on an issue as deeply felt as Gaza – the Government risks creating a pressure cooker of rage. It's notable that many now keen on silencing portrayed themselves as champions of free speech for years. They were never interested in the free speech of others, only themselves. Gaza is the greatest test our Government and media face. Trust is on life support in this country. If the Government and media cannot deal honestly with Gaza then trust will die. Once all trust is gone, then we have nothing to hold us together. Neil Mackay is The Herald's Writer-at-Large. He's a multi-award-winning investigative journalist, author of both fiction and non-fiction, and a filmmaker and broadcaster. He specialises in intelligence, security, crime, social affairs, cultural commentary, and foreign and domestic politics.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Campaigner Martin Cosser calls for renewed efforts on knife crime
Almost two years after the murder of his son, campaigner Martin Cosser says there was still "so much" that needs to be done to warn children of the dangers of knife Cosser, a member of a government taskforce, set up the charity Charlie's Promise following the death of his 17-year-old son, who was stabbed at a party in West Sussex in July has renewed calls for compulsory knife crime education, and told BBC South East that he's now spoken to over 40,000 pupils in the region since he started giving talks in schools last Home Office has been contacted by the BBC for comment. Mr Cosser, from Milford, Surrey, set up Charlie's Promise to educate young people about the dangers of carrying said his most important target was to get the discussion of knife crime onto the school syllabus - and particularly in primary schools. He has had two meetings with policing minister Dame Diana Johnson where he has called for this. Gun and knife crime is not mentioned specifically in the part of the school syllabus focusing on relationships, sex and the government says teaching does focus on situations which lead young people to carry weapons, such as involvement in gangs and county lines Department for Education says it allows schools discretion to tailor the content of the curriculum to suit the threats that face their pupils specifically. Mr Cosser has delivered more than 200 awareness talks in schools, and more than 10% of students reached have been at primary school."Children at that age are easily influenced," he said. "They are like sponges, they want to learn."He also told BBC South East how proud he is of the progress made so far."But there is so much more that we need to do," he added. While the feedback he received from pupils, parents and teachers was "encouraging", he said there was "a lot of things they didn't know about knife crime".Charlie Cosser's killer, Yura Varybrus, is currently serving a life sentence in prison. If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this story you can visit the BBC Action Line.
