Challenge to Palestine Action ban can go ahead, appeal court judges rule

A legal challenge to the ban on Palestine Action can go ahead next month after the court of appeal rejected a Home Office attempt to block it.

- Haroon Siddique

In a blow to the government, three judges, led by the lady chief justice, Sue Carr, upheld Mr Justice Chamberlain’s decision to grant the Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori a judicial review of the group’s proscription under the Terrorism Act.

The ban, the first on a direct action group, came into effect on 5 July, categorising it alongside the likes of Islamic State and the neo-Nazi group National Action. Since then, more than 2,000 people have been arrested under the Terrorism Act for allegedly supporting Palestine Action, most for holding signs reading: “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.”

As well as dismissing the Home Office’s appeal yesterday, Carr said the court of appeal was granting two further grounds on which to challenge the ban, in addition to the two already granted by Chamberlain.

Ammori said: “The court of appeal has rightly rejected [the former home secretary] Yvette Cooper’s attempt to block a legal review of her absurdly authoritarian ban - while granting us additional grounds on which to challenge it.

“This is a landmark victory: not only against one of the most extreme attacks on civil liberties in recent British history, but for the fundamental principle that government ministers can and must be held accountable when they act unlawfully.