Official JVL Statement

Labour Affairs supports this official statement by Jewish Voice for Labour

Palestine Action is not a terrorist organisation

Sat 28 Jun 2025

Palestine Action is not a Terrorist Organisation

There is an overwhelming consensus that terrorism involves the use or threat of violence against civilians for a political purpose.

So says JUSTICE, the UK section of the International Commission of Jurists.

Jewish Voice for Labour sees no legitimate grounds for the UK government declaring Palestine Action a ‘terrorist organisation’.  There is no shred of evidence that Palestine Action has ever, or has ever intended to, endanger the lives of British civilians, or indeed anyone. But for political and deeply flawed reasons, the Government has decided to attempt to apply the law on charges of “serious damage to property…to advance a political cause”.

It seems that Palestine Action stands convicted, in the eyes of the government, of conspiring to save Palestinian lives.

The threat to  proscribe Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act 2000 is straight from the playbook of repressive regimes round the world. In Turkey Erdogan imprisons the opposition Presidential candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu charged with supporting terrorism. In 2021 Amnesty International called on Algeria to “stop using bogus terrorism charges to prosecute peaceful activists and journalists”. Two years later Amnesty, along with Human Rights Watch, called on India “to stop prosecuting, intimidating and harassing human rights defenders, activists and non-profit organisations” on the pretext that they were countering terrorist financing. The UK Home Secretary now wants the UK to join the regimes that clamp down on their citizens’ freedom using the ‘false flag’ of terrorism accusations.

There are a number of reasons why the Government is planning to designate Palestine Action as a ‘terrorist organisation’, none of them worthy.

The first is to deflect attention from the failure to protect expensive military assets at RAF Brize Norton and so avoid embarrassing the Ministry of Defence chiefs and their costly private sector security contractors. Embarrassing the government is not terrorism.

Secondly, Palestine Action is a group whose members have, even at the risk of lengthy prison sentences, been publicising how UK armed forces and arms manufacturers have actively assisted Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza. Opposing genocide is not terrorism; complicity in genocide, on the other hand, is a crime under international law.

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, juries have been acquitting Palestine Action members, seeing their actions as proportionate in relation to the more serious crimes they wished to prevent. The government apparently calculates that while juries may excuse criminal damage they will be more reluctant to acquit alleged terrorists.

If Palestine Action is designated as a terrorist group then not only do the risks to their members certainly escalate; the rights of many others to legitimate protest are also lost. Anyone who does any of the following:

• invites support for a proscribed organisation
• expresses an opinion or belief that is supportive of a proscribed organisation
• arranges, manages or assists in arranging or managing a meeting which they know is to be addressed by a person who belongs or professes to belong to a proscribed organisation
• addresses a meeting and the purpose of their address is to encourage support for a proscribed organisation

becomes liable for imprisonment for up to 14 years.  For additional examples and advice see this guidance.

The British state has been itching these past 20 months to cut the Palestine solidarity movement down to size. With these extra powers against public expressions of belief, support or opinions, against organising meetings or speaking at them, it will be open house for targeted high-profile prosecutions.

The danger, indeed the likelihood, is that this will achieve a much wider effect than the direct prison terms on those convicted. We have seen how the IHRA definition, despite having no legal teeth, generated a pervasive chilling effect on political discussion across UK campuses.  This occurred because students and staff could no longer be sure whether what they might want to say was or was not antisemitic. In a similar way, a terrorism designation for Palestine Action would have huge implications for thousands of people who campaign for Palestine. As Liberty says “this move from Home Secretary Yvette Cooper sets a dangerous precedent for protest groups and our democracy.”

Not all supporters of Palestine agree with Palestine Action’s strategy of physically disrupting activities in the UK that contribute to Israel’s ruthless and genocidal assault on the Palestinians. But there can be no question:

The Palestine solidarity movement needs to unite in opposition to the proscription of Palestine Action, a body that has never espoused or practised violence against individuals, as a terrorist organisation. This move is a direct attack on the whole movement.

JVL calls on those who do not support direct action, as well as those who do, to come together to fight this draconian assault on democracy.

Join the campaign against proscribing Palestine Action!