Palestine Action proscribed as terror group by Yvette Cooper amid angry clashes

Palestine Action has been proscribed as a terror organisation after activists damaged two RAF planes last week.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced the move as protesters clashed with police in Trafalgar Square. She said in a written statement that the group had "orchestrated a nationwide campaign of direct criminal action against businesses and institutions".

In a defiant message ahead of the announcement, Palestine Action said: "If they want to ban us, they ban us all." Critics have said the move sets a "dangerous precedent".

Actions taken by the pro-Palestinian network, which has targeted arms companies in the UK, included disrupting supplies to Ukraine, Ms Cooper said. She said three attacks - including the vandalism of two warplanes at Brize Norton in Oxfordshire - had caused damage worth millions of pounds.

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The Home Secretary went on: "In several attacks, Palestine Action has committed acts of serious damage to property with the aim of progressing its political cause and influencing the Government. These include attacks at Thales in Glasgow in 2022; and last year at Instro Precision in Kent and Elbit Systems UK in Bristol.

"The seriousness of these attacks includes the extent and nature of damage caused, including to targets affecting UK national security, and the impact on innocent members of the public fleeing for safety and subjected to violence. The extent of damage across these three attacks alone, spreading the length and breadth of the UK, runs into the millions of pounds."

She also pointed to an attack on a Jewish-owned business in North London, which was covered in red paint and where windows were smashed. The Home Secretary said: "Such incidents do not represent legitimate or peaceful protest. Regardless of whether this incident itself amounts to terrorism, such activity is clearly intimidatory and unacceptable. "

Ms Cooper said: "Through its media output, Palestine Action publicises and promotes its attacks involving serious property damage, as well as celebrating the perpetrators."

Met Police chief Sir Mark Rowley branded it an "organised extremist criminal group" and said he was "shocked and frustrated" ahead of the demonstration. But Labour backbencher Nadia Whittome accused the Government of wrongly applying anti-terror legislation.

She said: "Targeting non-violent protesters in this way is a misuse of terrorism-related powers. It sets a dangerous precedent, which governments in future could further use against their critics."

Veteran Labour MP Diane Abbott wrote: "The government seems confused between protest and terrorism. To clarify, what Israel is doing is terrorism. What Palestine Action is doing is protesting it."

And Baroness Shami Chakrabarti, a former Labour shadow attorney general, said: "They certainly committed acts of criminal trespass and criminal damage, painting planes at Brize Norton and so on, but I think that's not what most people would understand as terrorism, and to proscribe Palestine Action on the information that we have all seen, I think would be a new departure."