The Home Office can appeal against the High Court’s decision that banning Palestine Action as a terror group was unlawful, judges have ruled.
Three judges dealt a humiliating blow to the government on February 13 when they ruled that the proscription of Palestine Action under terror laws was “disproportionate”, and that it “did result in a very significant interference with the right of freedom of speech and the right to freedom of assembly”.
Now they have allowed the home secretary Shabana Mahmood to challenge their decision in the Court of Appeal.
Dame Victoria Sharp, Mr Justice Swift and Ms Justice Steyn concluded at the High Court that only a very small number of Palestine Action’s activities amounted to terrorism, and that the group’s acts had not crossed the high bar to make it a terrorist organisation.
The ruling prompted the Metropolitan Police to announce that officers would no longer arrest people simply for showing support for Palestine Action. As the group’s terror ban remains in force it is still a criminal offence to support or be a member of Palestine Action, punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
Since the proscription last July, thousands of people have been arrested for holding up placards in support of the group. The same three judges issued a judgement on Wednesday allowing the case to proceed to the Court of Appeal and continuing the group’s ban until the outcome or until a further order is made.
In their earlier ruling, the High Court found that then home secretary Yvette Cooper failed to consider whether imposing a terror ban on Palestine Action was “proportionate” to the threat posed by the organisation.
Justice Sharp wrote that, by doing this, Ms Cooper had made a “significant” error by failing to follow the Home Office’s own policy on proscription.
The senior judges also found that the “nature and scale of Palestine Action’s activities falling within the definition of terrorism had not yet reached the level, scale and persistence to warrant proscription.”
The government will seek to persuade the Court of Appeal that the High Court judges were wrong on these points.
The Independent revealed this month that the Home Office has spent nearly £700,000 so far on fighting the legal battle against co-founder of Palestine Action Huda Ammori.
Government data shows that in the year up to September 2025 there were 1,630 arrests linked to supporting Palestine Action.
But activists who have organised protests against the proscription believe this is much higher, with at least 2,787 people arrested for holding signs in support of Palestine Action.
Nearly 700 people have been charged with a terrorism offence involving Palestine Action, although none have yet been convicted.
No date for the appeal has been set.
