The government’s barrister Sir James Eadie KC has this morning told the Court of Appeal that the government’s ‘proscription’ (terrorism ban) on Palestine Action does not mean that people are not free to show support for the group.
Palestine Action appeal
The Home Office is trying to overturn the High Court’s decision that the ban is unlawful:
Against all of that, I agree it’s not entirely clear what that that means, but go back to 32 to 34, the point is that there’s nothing that would prevent those who want to express support for Palestine Action or for the Palestinian cause from doing so.
This is untrue. The Terrorism Act 2000 makes support for a proscribed organisation a criminal offence with sentences of up to 14 years. Some 3,300 people have so far been arrested for showing support for Palestine Action, mostly older and disabled people. The Metropolitan Police recently re-started arrested people for showing support for the group, even though the High Court ruled the ban was unlawful.
The hearing continues. Let’s hope the judges know enough to ignore the false claim and look at what Keir Starmer’s police state is actually doing.
Featured image via the Canary













I think the government did not understand the difference between terror and irritation.
Proscribing organisations cannot ‘proscribe’ what’s in a person’s heart, mind and moral conscience.
It beggars belief that this shyster Sir James Eadie KC so blatantly lies in court
“Government KC claims proscription doesn’t prevent showing support for Palestine Action”
Glad the UK government agrees they’re in the wrong by jailing all those protestors who showed support for Palestine Action then.
Besides, this argument is disingenuous, proscription attempts to conflate terrorism – involving the kind of indiscriminate bombing campaigns the UK government regularly engages in E.G aiding bombing Iranian school children – and the kind of activity going on here, which even if we take the so-called ‘worst’ actions of Palestinian Action – which is motived by altruistic goals, not some bent domination – amounts barely to criminal damage.
If protestors are able to destroy public statues and lob them into the river without consequence, then why are we drawing the line at public protests against manufacturers with known ties to known genociders, E.G. Elbit? The proscription essentially compells people by force to adopt the State’s unlawful and genocidal ways, it coerces political agreement simply because Parliament claims to have put the opinion inside a bill.
There’s vocal IRA supporters within the UK. The UK has historically classified them as terrorists, but support for them isn’t proscribed. If someone had a shirt saying ‘I support the IRA’, British Police would hardly bat an eye. But because the shirt says ‘I support Palestine Action’, a position which the UK government itself is politically opposed to, suddenly it is illegal.
It encroaches upon our freedom of speech, our rights to be hear, on the political freedom of those within and outside Parliament. The UK government might as well be proscribing political parties next if we cannot endorse protest movements. If the court sets the precedent here that protests equate to terrorism, then all protests are forever banned, no dissent allowed, a slide into draconian tyranny is the last thing our country needs.
Protest has been a historic right. It has been used to advance rights for millennia. The Civil Rights movement held protests. Were those proscribed? Were the Brixton riots proscribed? Were Greenpeace and the anti-war protestors of the 60s and 70s proscribed? Even when they broke into a nuclear base, they still were not proscribed.
Lets keep the rulebreakers. Without it, we cannot advance society or have a healthy political system. The inability to protest is the very definition of tyranny.