UK Appeals Court Upholds Palestine Action Terror Designation
The Court of Appeal has ruled that the UK government lawfully designated Palestine Action a terrorist organization.
Then-Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced the move in June after two aircraft at an RAF base in Oxfordshire were damaged with red paint. Following a challenge by co-founder Huda Ammori, the High Court ruled in February that the decision was unlawful.
The Court of Appeal has now overturned that ruling, with five judges finding the government had “struck a fair balance.”
Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr said the court recognized the designation was highly controversial and that many otherwise law-abiding citizens support Palestine Action. However, she said it was a “fundamental mistake” to ignore that the group openly promotes unlawful violence amounting to terrorism.
She rejected comparisons to historic women’s voting-rights activists, saying Palestine Action is not a transparent civil disobedience movement but a covert organization that operates through secret cells to avoid detection and prosecution while using violence to destroy property and cause injury.
Ammori said she will appeal to the UK Supreme Court and, if necessary, the European Court of Human Rights.
Dozens of protesters were arrested outside the Royal Courts of Justice following the ruling.
