Credit: Direct Action Images

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper yesterday confirmed in a written statement to MPs that she intends to proscribe the protest group under section 3 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

A draft proscription order will be laid in Westminster on Monday 30 June and will, if passed, make it illegal to be a member of or to invite support for Palestine Action, punishable by up to 14 years’ imprisonment.

The announcement comes days after members of the group damaged two British military planes at RAF Brize Norton by spraying them with red paint in protest of the UK’s military support for Israel.

Ms Cooper said the group had “orchestrated a nationwide campaign of direct criminal action against businesses and institutions, including key national infrastructure and defence firms” since it was founded in 2020.

However, Amnesty International UK’s chief executive Sacha Deshmukh said the government’s “embarrassment at security breaches is no proper basis for excessive and disproportionate interferences with human rights”.

“It is precisely this kind of unlawful government action that critics of the UK’s terrorism laws warned would come one day,” he added.

Amnesty has criticised the UK’s definition of terrorism as “overly broad” and says “proscribing a direct-action protest group like Palestine Action risks an unlawful interference with the fundamental rights of freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly”.

“Terrorism legislation must always be treated with the highest degree of caution and restraint, as it allows the state to curtail due process and interfere with other human rights in ways that would violate international human rights law,” Mr Deshmukh said.

“Given the enormous consequences of proscription, such an interference with fundamental rights will only be lawful when it is provided by a clear law and is strictly necessary and proportionate in the sense that it is the only step capable of securing a legitimate aim.

“Clearly that is not the case when it comes to Palestine Action; the ordinary criminal law, accompanied by appropriate human rights protections, is more than capable of responding to direct action protesters of their kind.

“It should be remembered that proscribing Palestine Action not only makes membership of the organisation a criminal offence, through broadly worded speech offences such as ‘glorification’ it puts at risk the free speech rights of many other activists who are deeply concerned about the plight of Palestinians in the context of Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.”

Akiko Hart, director of human rights organisation Liberty, described the proscription plan as a “concerning escalation of how the government treats protest groups and uses terrorism powers”.

Ms Hart said: “Proscribing a direct-action protest group in this way potentially sets a new precedent for what we do and do not treat as terrorism.

“We’re worried about the chilling effect this would have on the thousands of people who campaign for Palestine, and their ability to express themselves and take part in protests.

“Proscribing Palestine Action would mean that showing support for them in any way – for example, sharing a post on social media or wearing a logo – could carry a prison sentence.”

She urged MPs to “strongly consider the necessity and proportionality of this move by the home secretary when they debate the matter in Parliament – as well as the precedent this worrying expansion of terrorism powers would set for our democracy”.