Opposing the proscription of Palestine Action

Proscribing Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation is a deeply troubling threat to our democracy, and attacks the legitimate non-violent tools health and human rights groups have used for decades to win justice. As health and human rights organisations and activists we oppose this dangerous move by the government, and urge the Lords and courts to step in to defend our freedom to protest.

Statement opposing the proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation

3/7/25

As human rights, health, and AIDS organisations, activists, and allies we are united in our belief that the proposed proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation by the Home Office is a deeply dangerous and wholly unjustified attack on freedom of speech, political organising, and democracy itself. It sets an alarming precedent that risks criminalising the tools we have long used to hold governments and corporations to account - it endangers the lives of the weak and vulnerable to protect the interests of the powerful.

If Palestine Action spraying red paint is terrorism, were the people living with HIV who sprayed paint on the walls of pharmaceutical companies demanding fair access to livesaving treatment terrorists?

If Palestine Action spraying red paint is terrorism, were the women acquitted by a jury for disarming a British Aerospace Hawk Jet that would have been used by the Indonesian regime to commit atrocities in East Timor also terrorists?

If Palestine Action spraying red paint are terrorists, were the 15 people whose convictions were overturned after they stopped a deportation fight forcibly sending people to Ghana and Nigeria, where many of them faced the risk of persecution and death, also terrorists?

Civil disobedience is inherently an inconvenience to those in power. But the peaceful protesters who cause that inconvenience know there is much more at stake. History proves that these acts of civil disobedience have changed government policies, forced corporations to back down, and saved the lives of countless millions of people. The law has historically stood on the side of those who take this kind of action to save lives and prevent greater crimes.

The UK already has some of the most draconian legislation outlawing acts of peaceful protest in the western world, with activists spending years of their lives in prison for acts where the most serious effects were delayed journeys.

We fully support Palestine Action’s right to undertake peaceful organising and direct action that they have been condemned for. The legal power to respond is in place - their members have already been arrested and charged under existing legislation. Their actions are in direct opposition to terrorism. While one seeks to take innocent lives, the other explicitly seeks to save innocent lives - in the face of corporations maximising their profits and governments too immoral and cowardly to act.

This is no different to most non-violent health, human rights, and AIDS activism in all of history. Proscribing this group would be amongst the darkest days in the history of UK democracy. It risks condemning future generations of the poor, marginalised, or vulnerable to suffering and death as the few tools available to defend their right to health and other human rights have been taken from them, deemed to be terrorism, by a government embarrassed by the powerful light these actions have shone on their complicity with murder, war crimes, and genocide.

Organisations
Just Treatment
STOPAIDS
ACT-UP London
Asylum Matters
350.org
Green New Deal Rising
Keep Our NHS Public
Socialist Health Association
Campaign Against Arms Trade
Health Poverty Action
Supporting Abortions for Everyone - SAFE
Hamara Assra
Human Unity
Cosmos - The People’s Org

Individuals
Jake Atkinson, Health & Human Rights Campaigner
Jonathan Blake, Retired Pensioner
Jacob Levi, NHS and MSF Doctor
Catarina Inverso, Researcher/Consultant
Hassaan Zahid, MSF
Calum Dallas, Doctoral researcher, University of Bath
Grazia Caleo
Jordan Rivera, NHS worker and UNISON NEC member
Shlomo Dowen
Mara Clarke, Co-founder, Supporting Abortions for Everyone - SAFE
Todd Davies, PhD Candidate, University College London
Georgina Armstrong-Harris, Community Hub project coordinator, Community Hwb
Gabrielle Ashton, Counselling and well being mentor, Aberystwyth University and Area 43
Tansy Drake, Director, Trading Eyebrows
Cassian Lodge
Cllr Hau-Yu Tam, Charity worker and Councillor, Lewisham Green Party
Matthew Pearce, LLM by research candidate, University of Kent
Michel Grandjean, Retired
Carol Leach
Raissa Mattana, Legal Protection Coordinator, Helen Bamber Foundation
Morwenna Grey, Reflexology and foot health, Hypocrisy UK
Mary Doyle
Siana Bangura, Writer, Producer & Campaigner
Diana Swingler, Occupational Therapist and Unison rep, NHS
Laura Jacobs, Occupational Therapist, NHS
Eleanor Badcock, Occupational Therapist
Venice Shrier, Resident doctor, NHS
Angie, NHS worker
Kathryn White, Admin/Clerical, UHB
Di Bligh, Former local authority CEO