In a victory for the right to protest, the British High Court overturned former home secretary Yvette Cooper’s 2025 order banning protest group Palestine Action under the draconian Terrorism Act 2000. The order was approved by both houses of Parliament and came into effect in July last year.
The court ruled on February 13 that the ban resulted “in a very significant interference with the right to freedom of speech and the right to freedom of assembly”.
Asa Winstanley, reporting for Electronic Intifada, wrote that activists were “jubilant” following the decision.
Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori led the legal challenge, supported by a team of lawyers, EI reported. Ammori called the ruling a “monumental victory” and said the ban would be remembered as “one of the most extreme attacks on free speech in recent British history”.
Activists linked to Palestine Action targeted British sites of Israeli weapons company Elbit Systems in a series of direct actions, EI reported, shutting down four of its 10 sites.
The ruling keeps the ban in place temporarily, pending further court proceedings to settle how Palestine Action will be removed from the proscribed list. Home secretary Shabana Mahmood has said the government will appeal the decision.
The ban also made expressing support for Palestine Action a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison. However, thousands of supporters defied the ban, organising civil disobedience campaigns and holding up signs reading “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action”. Almost 3000 people were arrested during these protests.
The court’s decision prompted campaign group Defend Our Juries to assert that such arrests “are now unlawful”, EI reported.
Winstanley wrote: “Today’s victory for Palestine Action is the latest blow to the government’s attempts to eliminate the group — a policy pursued in collusion with Israel.
“Successive British governments have conspired with the Israeli embassy to attack, smear and repress the group.
“Recently, the Labour government has even fabricated insinuations of Iranian funding for Palestine Action — which employs few resources beyond a small budget for sledgehammers and paint raised by volunteers.
“But the government’s own terrorism advisor Jonathan Hall told Channel 4’s Dispatches program this week that the government’s insinuations about a supposed Iran link were ‘wrong’ and that he regretted hints about supposedly secret intelligence.”
The decision came just days after a jury freed five out of six pro-Palestine activists linked to the group, EI reported, finding all six not guilty of aggravated burglary, a charge carrying a potential life sentence.
The Free the Filton 24 website wrote: “Five of our six loved ones walked free at the end of the long and gruelling trial at Woolwich Crown Court on Wednesday 4 February, acquitted of the most serious charge of aggravated burglary, with acquittals or hung juries on all other charges. Only Sam Corner was refused bail and remains in HMP Belmarsh, even though he too was acquitted of aggravated burglary and was not convicted of grievous bodily harm.”
Known as the “Filton 6”, the activists carried out direct action in 2024 against an arms factory in Filton, near Bristol, owned by a subsidiary of Elbit Systems.
They are the first of the 24 defendants to face trials relating to the action. Free the Filton 24 reported that the six activists “drove a repurposed prison van into a multi-million pound research, development, and manufacturing hub in Filton, Bristol — belonging to Elbit Systems” and “dismantled equipment, including several quadcopter ‘killer’ drones commonly used by the Israeli military to kill Palestinian civilians, including children. The action allegedly cost Elbit over £1 million [A$1.93 million] in damage.
“The response was brutal. The Filton activists were the first members of a direct action group to face counter terror powers by UK police, nearly a year before the proscription of Palestine Action.
“After the six were arrested at the scene, four more were rounded up by armed counter-terrorism police, in different parts of the country. All were remanded in prison.
“Whilst under arrest, each of the 10 were detained without charge for approximately a week and interrogated repeatedly under the Terrorism Act. Displaying the clear abuse of such powers, each was eventually charged with non-terror offences.
“In November 2024 and July 2025, further violent pre-dawn raids by police resulted in 14 more people charged with the same action and remanded to prison. They are now the Filton 24.
“All of them were refused bail, a draconian measure criticised by UN experts and human rights lawyers.”
In Britain, a defendant must be brought to trial no longer than six months after being held in custody, but some trials are due to take place “up to two years after the activists were first imprisoned”, the website said.
Some of the 24 went on hunger strike in December, demanding immediate bail, the right to a fair trial and against the withholding of their mail, phone calls and books by prison authorities. They also demanded that Palestine Action be de-proscribed and Elbit Systems shut down.
Amnesty International said the High Court ruling “is a vital affirmation of the right to protest at a time when it has been under sustained and deliberate attack”, saying the decision “sends a clear message: the Government cannot simply reach for sweeping counter-terrorism powers to silence critics or suppress dissent”.
As reported in the British Guardian, Ammori said following the ruling: “We’ve used the same tactics as direct action organisations throughout history, including anti-war groups Keir Starmer defended in court, and the government acknowledged in these legal proceedings that this ban was based on property damage, not violence against people.
“Banning Palestine Action was always about appeasing pro-Israel lobby groups and weapons manufacturers, and nothing to do with terrorism … Today’s landmark ruling is a victory for freedom for all, and I urge the government to respect the court’s decision and bring this injustice to an end without further delay.”