A further 60 people are to be prosecuted in the UK for showing support for the proscribed terrorist group Palestine Action, the UK’s Metropolitan Police announced on Friday.
More than 700 people have been arrested in relation to the group since it was proscribed on 5 July. The ban came into force due to Palestine Action’s extensive history of criminal damage, including damage to jets at RAF Brize Norton, as well as intimidation, violence, and weapons.
The Metropolitan Police, Counter Terrorism Policing, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), and the Attorney General’s Office said they have been working closely together to process the 60 case files, with more prosecutions expected in the coming weeks.
“Palestine Action is now a proscribed terrorist organisation and those who have chosen to break the law will be subject to criminal proceedings under the Terrorism Act,” said Stephen Parkinson, director of public prosecutions.
“The decisions that we have announced today are the first significant numbers to come out of the recent protests, and many more can be expected in the next few weeks,” he added. “We are ready to make swift decisions in all cases where arrests have been made.”
The Met reassured the public that they are still entitled to protest within the law, but that this does not include active support for a proscribed group. It cited a protest in central London last weekend in which 15,000 people demonstrated “peacefully” in support of the Palestinian cause, with only one arrest taking place. However, 522 were arrested for an illegal show of support for Palestine Action on the same day, the Met added.
An additional 13 were arrested at a protest in Norfolk this Saturday after they held placards referencing Palestine Action, according to Norfolk police.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said that the police can investigate and quickly charge significant numbers of people each week “if people want the potentially life-changing consequences of a terrorist conviction.”
The consequences of being charged with terrorism
The consequences for those charged with offences under the Terrorism Act include a maximum sentence of six months’ imprisonment, and the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) will have a record of the person’s TACT conviction, potentially impacting their future employment, study, or membership of a professional body.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper doubled down on her decision to proscribe the group in an article in The Observer on Sunday.
“Demonstrating is vital to free speech but this right does not extend to violence, intimidation, and inflicting injuries,” she wrote. “Over the last 18 months, hundreds of thousands of people have joined pro-Palestinian protests, while only a tiny minority have been arrested for breaking the law.”
“The recent proscription of the group Palestine Action does not prevent those protests, and to claim otherwise is nonsense.”
“The clear advice and intelligence given to me earlier this year from the UK’s world-leading counter-terrorism system, based on a robust assessment process, was that Palestine Action satisfies the relevant tests in the Terrorism Act 2000 and should be proscribed,” she added.
The founder of Palestine Action – Huda Ammori – also penned an op-ed in The Observer on Sunday. In it, she claimed the proscription has curtailed her free speech, saying, “I’m given less latitude to counter the home secretary’s claims than she is afforded to advance them.
Ammori added that she believes Palestine Action was only proscribed because it was effective, pushing “weapons firms and the Israeli embassy” to lobby for its ban.
She called the arrest of 700 people for “holding signs” in support of a “domestic direct action group” an “outrage.”
“The proscription has had a chilling effect on thousands of people across the country,” said Ammori.
On Sunday, well-known author Sally Rooney announced she would “go on supporting Palestine Action and direct action against genocide.”
“If this makes me a supporter of terror under UK law, so be it,” she wrote in the Irish Times.