{"id":24178,"date":"2026-04-28T15:11:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T15:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/24178\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T15:11:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T15:11:15","slug":"britain-challenges-court-decision-that-palestine-action-ban-was-unlawful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/24178\/","title":{"rendered":"Britain Challenges Court Decision That Palestine Action Ban Was Unlawful"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>LONDON, April 28 (Reuters) &#8211; Britain on Tuesday sought \u2060to \u2060uphold a ban on pro-Palestinian \u2060group Palestine Action, which it has designated a terrorist organisation, \u200bafter a court ruling that the move unlawfully interfered with freedom of expression.<\/p>\n<p>Palestine Action, \u200cwhich had increasingly targeted Israel\u2011linked \u200cdefence companies in Britain with a particular focus on Israel&#8217;s largest defence firm \u2060Elbit \u2060Systems, was proscribed under terrorism laws last year.<\/p>\n<p>London&#8217;s High Court ruled \u200bin February that the ban was unlawful, although it remains in force pending the outcome of the government&#8217;s appeal, which began on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>Lawyers for Britain&#8217;s interior minister, Shabana Mahmood, \u200btold the Court of Appeal that the finding that the ban had a \u2060significant \u2060impact on freedom of expression \u2060was &#8220;overstated \u200band wrong&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Huda Ammori, who co-founded Palestine Action in 2020 and brought the successful challenge, \u200bargues proscription has imposed &#8220;severe \u2060restrictions on the fundamental free speech and assembly rights of vast numbers of people&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>UK APPEAL COMES DURING CRIMINAL TRIAL<\/p>\n<p>Palestine Action was banned shortly after a June break-in at the Royal Air Force&#8217;s Brize Norton air base, in which activists damaged \u2060two military planes.<\/p>\n<p>The ban placed the group on a par with Islamic \u2060State or al Qaeda, making membership a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.<\/p>\n<p>More than 2,700 people have since been arrested for holding signs in support of Palestine Action, though charges could be dropped if the High Court&#8217;s ruling is upheld.<\/p>\n<p>After February&#8217;s decision, London&#8217;s Metropolitan Police said it would pause arrests while reviewing its position, but resumed enforcement earlier this month, arresting over 500 people.<\/p>\n<p>The High Court&#8217;s decision \u2060was announced shortly after six people charged over the 2024 raid on Elbit were all acquitted of aggravated burglary.<\/p>\n<p>Those six are currently on trial for criminal damage, with one defendant also accused of assaulting a police \u200bofficer with a sledgehammer. All have pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n<p>(Reporting \u200bby Sam TobinEditing by Ros Russell)<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 Thomson Reuters.<\/p>\n<p>Photos You Should See \u2013 April 2026<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/april-21-pyss-x01.jpg\" alt=\"SHREVEPORT, LOUISIANA - APRIL 20: Children huddle to pray during a memorial gathering on April 20, 2026 in Shreveport, Louisiana. Eight children were killed and two women were wounded during a domestic violence incident in the early morning hours of April 19th, according to local authorities. (Photo by Brandon Bell\/Getty Images)\" class=\"Image__PictureImage-sc-412cjc-1 bBgODV Image-sc-412cjc-2 SlideshowEmbed__Picture-fkpjfn-0 kQDDcT bUlaJL\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON, April 28 (Reuters) &#8211; Britain on Tuesday sought \u2060to \u2060uphold a ban on pro-Palestinian \u2060group Palestine Action,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1659,13,10872,252,30,42,10871,6,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-24178","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"tag-asia","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-collections-world","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-middle-east","14":"tag-reuters","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116482977836814079","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}