Palestine Action ruling celebrated by anti-genocide protesters

We reported earlier today on the High Court’s decision taken this morning, in which the Judge declared the government’s proscription on Palestine Action was ‘disproportionate’.

The judge even went as far to point out that the ban infringes on the human rights of people in the UK.

The government’s choice to proscribe Palestine Action has been met by widespread public condemnation both at home and abroad. It has been viewed as an attempt to shut down solidarity that British people have shown with Palestinians through their legal right to protest.

Israel’s ongoing, horrific genocide against Palestine has been met with absolute impunity by Western leaders, resulting in mass protest and civil disobedience across the UK since October 2023. This proscription of direct-action group Palestine Action in the UK has widely been declared as an authoritarian and draconian overreach into the hard-fought civil liberties of British citizens.

Today’s ruling marks a positive step in the right direction. Nevertheless, as our own Skwawkbox pointed out:

However, the ‘proscription’ remains in place for at least another week while the government has a chance to prepare submissions on the court’s finding. It remains a criminal offence, for the time being, to express support for Palestine Action. Police should, of course, weigh whether it’s worth arresting people when no prosecutions are likely, but their record suggests they won’t.

Palestine Action – anti-genocide protesters stand firm

We wrote recently about the fate of 2,787 people arrested on terrorism charges for holding up paper signs saying ‘I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.’ Notably, acts of protest which are in line with our legal duty as citizens in response to the widely recognised genocide of Palestinians. As we wrote:

Evidence of UK complicity in crimes against genocide continues to mount. In October 2025 the UN issued its draft report Gaza Genocide: A Collective Crime detailing the complicity of states including the UK in the destruction of Gaza. Amongst other things, the UK continued to supply arms including components for F-35 stealth bombers, undertook daily surveillance flights over Gaza for Israel, maintained normal trade relations, and allowed Israel to undertake international crimes with impunity.

In December Declassified UK released its film Britain’s Gaza Spy Flight Scandal, investigating the hundreds of RAF intelligence flights conducted on behalf of Israel.

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MP Zarah Sultana has welcomed the court’s decision, rightfully calling out how the government has abused its power to silence valid dissent from its own people:

Sultana’s statement in full:

The High Court has confirmed what we all knew: proscribing Palestine Action was unlawful.

The state must stop using “counter-terror” powers to criminalise solidarity and intimidate working-class people out of protest.

The Labour government must lift the proscription now and drop every case NOW.

We will not stop until Palestine is free, from the river to the sea

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No more blurring right and wrong

We have all had to sit by whilst we learn more seemingly every day that make clear our own leaders cannot distinguish right from wrong. Whether it’s supporting mass murder in Gaza or working alongside crooks who have willingly mixed with convicted paedophiles, a corrupt and sinister pattern speaks for itself.

In fact, our own Skwawkbox reported on how Starmer’s apology for working with a paedo came armed with a propaganda-like attack at pro-Palestine protesters. All of this reinforces one point: the challenges we face are linked, bound together by a system of elite power and control.

Skwawkbox wrote:

Starmer said he was sorry for believing Mandelson’s lies — ‘Peter’ was never added as Starmer tried desperately to distance himself. Distance himself from the man he took on as his senior adviser when Mandelson’s closeness to child-rapist Jeffrey Epstein was already well known. From the man he then appointed as ambassador to the US, despite knowing the same.

Then added:

And then, out of nowhere, Starmer began attacking the hundreds of thousands of people who march against Israel’s genocide. He repeated the Israel lobby’s lie that marching against genocide makes UK Jews scared. Nonsense. UK Jews are front and centre of every march and rally — so much so, that the BBC and others have to hide them. Leaving them in would expose that lie and the lie that all Jews support Israel, you see.

Ordinary people see clearly what leaders do not

Those with power clearly have a real problem deciphering their moral compass. On the other hand, protesters have shown unwavering moral clarity, refusing to cower in the face of police intimidation and draconian penalties as they speak out over the tens of thousands of babies and children killed by Israel.

However, the fate of those nearly 3,000 protesters is still confusing. This follows the government being granted the right to appeal today’s High Court decision. As a result, there is an arguably deliberate grey area now as to whether support for the ‘unlawfully’ proscribed group would still result in police arrest.

Human rights lawyer Shoaib Khan broke down the absurdities of the case against Palestine Action:

Since the High Court handed down its judgment, supporters have flooded in with reactions to its legal stance:

Time to go for the guilty

This judgement today has also renewed and re-energised calls for Western leaders to face accountability. Amongst many others, there are calls for David Lammy and Keir Starmer to face the International Criminal Court. Western leaders must be made to answer for their deplorable, ongoing complicity in the mass murder and oppression of Palestinians in Palestine.

Peter Oborne wrote on this issue in depth in his book ‘Complicit’, which provide a chronological insight into the UK’s long-term complicity in Israel’s crimes. Even from its very own inception. Oborne signposts the legal duties that can be enforced against our leadership, as the Canary reported:

The author outlines legal avenues for accountability, identifying both mechanisms and barriers. Under the Rome Statute and the UK’s International Criminal Court Act 2001, individuals who aid, abet, or facilitate genocide, crimes against humanity, or war crimes can be held criminally liable.

However, UK prosecutions require consent from the Attorney General, a political appointee, which acts as a major obstacle:

“The Attorney General is appointed, and can be dismissed, by the prime minister. The Attorney General is therefore a creature of the government who would be unlikely to prosecute misconduct by their colleagues and party – even if that misconduct reaches the pitch of the facilitation of genocide.”

Owen Jones reminds UK PM Keir Starmer and others like him, with today’s judgement as evidence, that justice will come because the law ultimately is on our side:

Lowkey and Double Down News shared their investigative piece outlining how Israel actually managed to get a UK protest group to be designated as terrorists:

Collective power is the only real solution

This is a very welcome court judgement. Nevertheless, subsequent tactics by the government simply show we must start to change the way power is organised. This includes the way that our governments and political parties operate; no more dodgy, secretive donations and backhanders.

No more politicians chasing those with the deepest pockets wherever they come from, whilst shafting its own tax-paying citizens.

That requires a radical change to the system our world operates within and urgently demands bottom-up change to our democracy. No more single leaders who make political decisions based on their ‘superior moral conscience’. Instead, we need a deliberative, collective leadership. The very people who experience the real harms in our society and around the world should build it.

After all, more people raise their voices against Israel’s actions every day, signalling that moral clarity increasingly lies with ordinary people.

Featured image via the Canary