UK government urged to end ban on Palestine Action group

Scottish Greens on Thursday urged the British government to reverse the ban on the Palestine Action group after Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said “we hear” the millions of people who have been moved and outraged by the plight of the Palestinian people.

“The people who have marched, organised and spoken out against Israel’s genocide have helped force Palestine onto the political agenda. They deserve to be heard and their rights respected,” Maggie Chapman, Scottish Greens spokesperson, was quoted by Scottish daily The National as saying.

Her comment came after Miliband said earlier this week that they hear the millions of people in this country and indeed elsewhere who have been moved and outraged by the plight of the Palestinian people.

“You were right. And under (Prime Minister) Andy’s (Burnham) leadership, we have reset our approach.”

Chapman said Miliband is right to acknowledge the outrage felt by millions of people who have watched the devastation of Gaza and demanded that their government act.

However, she underlined that the UK government needs to reverse the ban on the Palestine Action group if it is “serious” about the change in its political stance on Palestine.

“That acknowledgement will ring hollow as long as Labour maintains a ban that has criminalised hundreds of people for calling out genocide and other war crimes, waving banners and wearing t-shirts.”

She added: “If the Labour Government is remotely serious about changing course, it must end the proscription of Palestine Action and defend our fundamental rights to freedom of expression and peaceful protest.”

Chapman called on the UK government to ban all arms sales to Israel and ensure that the UK is “no longer complicit in the oppression of the Palestinian people.”

The decision to ban Palestine Action has led to thousands of arrests of people accused of supporting the direct-action protest group.

Palestine Action was banned on July 5, 2025 under the Terrorism Act after members of the group entered a Royal Air Force base and spray-painted two aircraft, causing £7 million ($9.4 million) in damage, according to police.

The High Court ruled in February that the ban was disproportionate and unlawful, but its decision was overturned last month by the Court of Appeal.

In July, however, the UK’s highest court granted permission for Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori to challenge a Court of Appeal ruling upholding the ban on the group.

Human rights groups, along with UN experts, have criticized the escalating crackdown on peaceful protests in the UK, urging the government to lift its designation of Palestine Action as a terrorist group.

ANEWS wp:paragraph