LONDON — London’s Appeals Court on Monday upheld a UK government ban on activist group Palestine Action that has seen thousands of people — from students to an 83-year-old retired vicar — arrested and carried away from protests by police.

The ban, which came into force on July 5, 2025, was imposed under the country’s Terrorism Act. It made membership of or support for the protest group a criminal offense punishable by up to 14 years in prison under the terrorism legislation.

The proscription came after activists raided a facility belonging to the Israeli Elbit defense contractor, breaking a police officer’s spine with a sledgehammer and causing millions of pounds of property damage.

The banning of the group had been challenged by Palestine Action’s co-founder Huda Ammori, but the Appeals Court ruled “the proscription decision was not unlawful.”

Palestine Action “is not, as it claims, a direct action civil disobedience protest group like the suffragettes operating transparently in the open,” said judge Sue Carr, reading the decision.

“It is a covert organization operating with secret cells to avoid the detection and prosecution of those using violence to destroy the property of third parties.”

BREAKING: The government's decision to ban Palestine Action as a terror organisation was lawful, the Court of Appeal has ruled. Live updates: https://t.co/6Y7qY7ZWUN Advertisement if(typeof rgb_remove_toi_dfp_banner != "function" || !rgb_remove_toi_dfp_banner("#Article_Incontent1")){ window.tude = window.tude || { cmd: [] }; tude.cmd.push(function() { if(navigator.userAgent.indexOf("rgbmedia-app") > -1){ tude.setDeviceType("mobile"); } tude.refreshAdsViaDivMappings([ { divId:........

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