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LONDON: UK campaign group Palestine Action on Monday said it would challenge its planned proscription as a terrorist group, as the British government said it could be banned by the end of the week.
The government announced last week plans to designate the pro-Palestinian group as a “terrorist” organization after its activists broke into a British air force base and vandalized two planes.
The group, which has condemned the move as an attack on free speech, said an urgent hearing to challenge the proscription will be held at the High Court in London on Friday.
The challenge was backed by Amnesty International and other rights groups.
Huda Ammori, co-founder of Palestine Action, said in a statement the proposed ban would have “far-reaching implications” on “fundamental freedoms of speech, expression and assembly in Britain.”
After announcing the measure last week, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper launched the process to ban the group on Monday in parliament.
The ban is set to be debated in parliament on Wednesday and Thursday, and could take effect from Friday.
Labour holds a massive majority in the House of Commons, meaning the proposal should pass easily.
Palestine Action said it was seeking an injunction or interim relief from the courts “because of the Home Secretary’s decision to try to steamroll this through Parliament.”
Earlier this month, two of its activists broke into the RAF Brize Norton base in southern England and sprayed two planes with red paint.
Cooper last week said the vandalism was “the latest in a long history of unacceptable criminal damage” committed by the group since it formed in 2020.
The government cites previous damage claimed by the group in actions at a Thales defense factory in Glasgow in 2022 and on Israeli defense tech firm Elbit Systems UK last year in Bristol, in the country’s southwest.
“Such acts do not represent legitimate acts of protest and the level of seriousness of Palestine Action’s activity has met the test for proscription under the Terrorism Act 2000,” the government said in a statement.
Palestine Action says it is a “direct action and civil disobedience protest movement” seeking “to prevent serious violations of international law by Israel.”
“Spraying red paint on war planes is not terrorism. Causing disruption to the UK-based arms factories used by Israel’s largest weapons firm, Elbit Systems, is not terrorism,” co-founder Ammori said.
“The terrorism and war crimes are being committed in Palestine by Israel, which is being armed by Britain, and benefitting from British military support.”