Palestine Action ban could increase support for group, ministers were told

Ministers banned Palestine Action despite being told by their advisers it could “inadvertently enhance” the group’s profile, an official government document shows.

- Vikram Dodd Luke Butterly

The briefing paper was written three months before the proscription of the group, which was set up to take direct action to halt UK arms supplies to Israel.

It was prepared in March by officials at the Home Office and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, helped by experts in counter-terrorism policing.

Its contents were obtained by the investigative website the Detail, and shared with the Guardian. Under the headline “How would the proscription of the organisation be viewed by British people”, one section of the document warned that a ban could be a divisive issue.

It described Palestine Action as a “small single-issue group with lower mainstream media exposure” than other direct action groups such as Just Stop Oil. But it noted the organisation’s direct actions, and arrests of its activists, won media attention.