Palestine Action ban clears U.K. parliament ahead of legal challenge

A U.K. government move to ban the Palestine Action campaign group under anti-terror laws cleared parliament on Thursday (July 4, 2025) but faces a court challenge to stop the proscription becoming law.

Peers in parliament’s House of Lords upper chamber backed the move to proscribe the group under the Terrorism Act of 2000 without a vote, a day after MPs approved the legislation.

The government announced it would ban Palestine Action after activists from the group broke into an air force base in southern England last week.

Two aircraft at the base were sprayed with red paint causing an estimated £7 million ($9.55 million) in damage.

The group has condemned the proposed proscription as an “unhinged reaction”. An urgent hearing to challenge the ban is set to be held at the High Court in London on Friday.

The legal challenge is backed by Amnesty International and other rights groups.

The proposed ban on Palestine Action would make it a criminal offence to belong to or support the group, punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

Announcing the clamp-down, Interior Minister Yvette Cooper listed other attacks by Palestine Action at the Thales defence factory in Glasgow in 2022, and two last year against Instro Precision in Kent, southeast England, and Israel-based Elbit Systems in Bristol, in the country’s southwest.

Thursday’s approval by the Lords came as four Palestine Action activists were remanded in custody over the break in.

Counter-terror police on Wednesday charged the four suspects with “conspiracy to enter a prohibited place knowingly for a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the United Kingdom, and conspiracy to commit criminal damage.”

Prosecutors will argue the offences were terror-linked.

Amy Gardiner-Gibson, 29, Daniel Jeronymides-Norie, 35, Jony Cink, 24, and Lewie Chiaramello, 22, appeared at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court.

They were remanded in custody until their next appearance at London’s Old Bailey criminal court on July 18.

A 41-year-old woman who was arrested “on suspicion of assisting an offender” has been released on bail.