BBC News in central London
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has said she will proscribe Palestine Action under anti-terror law.
It comes days after activists from the group broke into RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire and spray-painted two military planes red – an incident Cooper called “disgraceful”.
The move effectively brands the group a terrorist organisation and, if passed in Parliament, would make membership of and support of the group illegal.
Palestine Action called the government’s action “unhinged”.
Cooper’s announcement came as Palestine Action held a protest in central London, with hundreds in attendance and 13 arrested as scuffles with police broke out.
Announcing her intention to ban the group, Cooper said Palestine Action had a “long history of unacceptable criminal damage”.
“The UK’s defence enterprise is vital to the nation’s national security and this government will not tolerate those that put that security at risk,” she added.
Counter-terrorism police are leading the investigation into Friday’s incident at Brize Norton.
In a statement, Palestine Action said: “The real crime here is not red paint being sprayed on these war planes, but the war crimes that have been enabled with those planes because of the UK government’s complicity in Israel’s genocide.
“We are teachers, nurses, students and parents who take part in actions disrupting the private companies who are arming Israel’s genocide, by spray painting or entering their factory premises.
“It is plainly preposterous to rank us with terrorist groups like ISIS, National Action and Boko Haram.
“We have instructed lawyers who are pursuing all avenues for legal challenge.”
Israel has strongly denied allegations of genocide relating to the ongoing war in Gaza.
Cooper will lay the draft order before Parliament next week.
If passed, the ban would make it a criminal offence to belong to or support the group, punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
Cooper said in a written statement: “This decision is specific to Palestine Action and does not affect lawful protest groups and other organisations campaigning on issues around Palestine or the Middle East.
“It is vitally important that those seeking to protest peacefully, including pro-Palestinian groups, those opposing the actions of the Israeli government, and those demanding changes in the UK’s foreign policy, can continue to do so.”
She added that the group had committed several acts of serious damage since it was created in 2020.
In 2022, the group broke into Thales defence factory in Glasgow, setting off pyrotechnics and throwing a smoke bomb into an area where staff were being evacuated.
The damage at the site was estimated at £1,130,783.
Cooper also referenced two incidents last year, when seven Palestine Action members were arrested for aggravated burglary at the Instro Precision factory in Kent, while several others broke into the Bristol HQ of Elbit Systems UK.
“I have considered carefully the nature and scale of Palestine Action’s activity. Proscription represents a legitimate response to the threat posed by Palestine Action,” Cooper added.
Later on Monday, armed forces minister Luke Pollard said Palestine Action’s break-in to Brize Norton was “not only epically stupid, but it was also a direct attack on our national security.”
In a statement on the protection of UK military bases following the break-in, Pollard told MPs: “I can confirm two RAF Voyager aircraft were damaged by paint, but there was no further damage to infrastructure or assets, nor has there been any impact on planned operations from Brize Norton”.
He said a similar incident “must never happen again” and added that “enhanced security measures across the whole of defence have been put in place since Friday”.
Shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge said the incident was “not vandalism, this was sabotage”.
He called for those responsible to face “consequences” and asked how it had been allowed to happen.
Former Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf told the BBC’s Scotcast podcast that Cooper’s action to ban Palestine Action was a “shameful abuse of anti-terror legislation”.
He said it was an “utterly ludicrous overreaction” in an attempt “to intimidate and ultimately silence protestors and pro-Palestinian protesters”.
Nadia Whittome, Labour MP for Nottingham East, said the move set a “dangerous precedent, which governments in future could further use against their critics.”
Chancellor Rachel Reeves condemned Palestine Action’s behaviour as “totally unacceptable”.
“To cause damage to military assets, but also to cause such damage to privately owned assets, it is unacceptable whatever your views are on what’s happening in the Middle East,” she said ahead of Cooper’s statement.
Hundreds of people met at Trafalgar Square after police banned them from protesting outside of Parliament.
Organisers made the last-minute venue change after Scotland Yard enforced an exclusion zone across much of Westminster.
Metropolitan Police chief Sir Mark Rowley said while the force had no legal power to stop the protest, they would impose conditions “robustly”.
Charing Cross, next to Trafalgar Square, was blocked for a time as the protesters gathered.
Some supporters of the group waved Palestinian flags and carried placards, with other protesters chanting: “We will not be silenced.”
The protest was required to end at 15:00 BST, when police moved in to disperse the crowd.
The Met Police said it made 13 arrests at the protest.
Six of these were for assaulting an emergency worker, one for a racially aggravated public order offence, four for refusing to disperse, and two were for obstructing a constable in the execution of their duty, the Met said.
