The UK’s High Court has ruled the Home Office’s decision to ban Palestine Action under anti-terrorism laws was unlawful following a legal challenge.
Dame Victoria Sharp said the proscription of Palestine Action “did result in a very significant interference with the right to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly”.
She added that “the Palestine Action was disproportionate, a few small of Palestine Action’s activities amounted to terrorism”.
Palestine Action’s co-founder Huda Ammori took action against the department over the then-home secretary Yvette Cooper’s decision to proscribe the group under the Terrorism Act 2000.
The group was banned by the government after several of its members were accused of breaking into an Oxfordshire RAF base to spray-paint military planes.
Speaking as she unveiled the ban in June, former home secretary Yvette Cooper said it was the latest in a “long history of unacceptable criminal damage committed by Palestine Action”.
But lawyers for Ms Ammori have argued that the decision to ban the group was unlawful and should be quashed.
More than 2,500 people have been arrested on suspicion of publicly showing support for Palestine Action since it was banned.
