Anti-terror bar on group risks looking like an assault on its cause rather than its methods

The crackdown on protest in England and Wales has been ringing alarm bells for years, but the decision to ban Palestine Action under anti-terrorism laws raises the stakes dramatically.

- Haroon Siddique

As the group itself has said, it is the first time the government has attempted to proscribe a direct action protest organisation under the Terrorism Act, placing it alongside the likes of Islamic State, al-Qaeda and National Action.

The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said the proposed ban was evidence-based and had been assessed by a range of experts. "In several attacks, Palestine Action has committed acts of serious damage to property with the aim of progressing its political cause and influencing the government," she said.

Proscribing the group, which uses direct action mainly to target Israeli weapons factories in the UK, would make it illegal not only to be a member of Palestine Action but also to show support for it. Given that neither its methods nor its targets are unprecedented, a ban is likely to make every group that has an aim of "progressing its political cause and influencing the government" through protest think twice.

Greenpeace UK's co-executive director, Areeba Hamid, said a ban would "mark a dark turn for our democracy and a new low for a government already intent on stamping out the right to protest. The police already have laws to prosecute any individuals found guilty of a crime."