Activists scaled the UAV Tactical Systems building in an industrial area of Leicester and brought operations to a halt on May 19, 2021. (Credit: Palestine Action)
LONDON — British lawmakers voted to ban pro-Palestinian campaign group Palestine Action as a terrorist organization, after its activists broke into a military base and damaged two planes in protest of Britain's support for Israel.
Palestine Action, which describes itself as a direct action movement that uses disruptive methods, has routinely targeted companies in Britain with links to Israel, including Israeli defence firm Elbit Systems.
Britain's Labour government accused the group of causing millions of pounds of damage through action at one of Elbit's factories in Thales in 2022 and at the Royal Air Force base in southern England last month, which was the trigger for the decision to ban, or proscribe, the group.
Proscription would officially designate Palestine Action as a terrorist organization on a par with Islamic State group or al-Qaeda under British law, making it a crime to support or belong to the groups.
Britain's proscription order will reach parliament's upper chamber, the House of Lords, on Thursday. If approved by lawmakers there, Palestine Action's ban would become effective in the following days.
The group, which has called its proscription unjustified and an "abuse of power," has challenged the decision in court and an urgent hearing is expected on Friday.
In addition to Palestine Action, the proscription order approved by Britain's parliament includes neo-Nazi group Maniacs Murder Cult and the Russian Imperial Movement, a white supremacist group which seeks to create a new Russian imperial state.
The vote on the three groups was taken together, meaning all three had to be banned or none of them.
United Nations experts appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council have urged Britain to reconsider its ban on Palestine Action, arguing that acts of property damage without the intention to endanger life should not be considered terrorism.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, Britain's interior minister, says that violence and criminal damage have no place in legitimate protest, and that a zero-tolerance approach is necessary for national security.
On Tuesday, the group said its activists had blocked the entrance to an Elbit site in Bristol, southwestern England, and that other members had occupied the rooftop of a subcontracting firm in Suffolk, eastern England, which it said had links to Elbit.
Israel has killed more than 57,000 people in its military onslaught against Gaza, ongoing since the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
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