Lawyers for Palestine Action have said the group can be compared to the suffragettes, in a challenge against the government’s ban.<\/p>\n
On the first day of a three day judicial review at the High Court, lawyers for the group’s co-founder Huda Ammori said the votes-for-women movement would have faced the same ban if today’s laws had been in place more than 100 years ago.<\/p>\n
Palestine Action was listed as a proscribed terrorist organisation after causing millions of pounds worth of damage to defence firms.<\/p>\n
The then Home Secretary Yvette Cooper proscribed the group after internal Home Office security assessments of its activity.<\/p>\n
Raza Husain KC, for Ms Ammori, told the court the ban was unprecedented.<\/p>\n
Around 200 people protested peacefully outside during the opening of the challenge – with scores of them silently holding up signs saying “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.”<\/p>\n
Several sign-holders were then arrested by police. Since the ban, more than 2,100 people have been arrested nationwide for taking part in similar protests.<\/p>\n
In court, Mr Husain KC told a panel of three senior judges that, in the entire history of home secretaries using exceptional powers to ban a group under terrorism legislation, no minister had ever proscribed a group for being a “direct action” organisation.<\/p>\n
He said that Palestine Action was followed by hundreds of thousands of people on social media before it was banned. <\/p>\n
Most of its “actionists” – meaning people who had taken part in protests and alleged vandalism at defence firms and associated companies – had been arrested or charged with standard offences such as criminal damage.<\/p>\n
Ministers say that a series of incidents organised by the group went further than minor vandalism, by causing millions of pounds in damage, justifying the decision to ban the group.<\/p>\n
“Palestine Action is the first direct action civil disobedience organisation that does not advocate for violence ever to be proscribed as terrorist,” Mr Husain KC said.<\/p>\n
“Ms Huda Ammori has explained that she was inspired by the long tradition in this country from suffragettes to anti-apartheid activists, to Iraq war activists.<\/p>\n
“The suffragettes had resorted to direct action, property damage and even attempted arson at Westminster Abbey.”<\/p>\n
His written submissions to the court added: “The suffragettes would have been liable to proscription if the Terrorism Act 2000 regime had been in force at the turn of the 20th century.”<\/p>\n
Ms Ammori’s lawyers argue that the ban is unlawful because it disproportionately interferes with the right to freedom of expression and assembly – and the then home secretary failed to consider that impact.<\/p>\n
They also argue that Cooper should have consulted the group before banning it and that she failed to take into account her own policy that such a decision had to be proportionate.<\/p>\n
Owen Greenhall, another of Ms Ammori’s lawyers, argued that the impact of the ban was so wide it had deterred legitimate protest outside a key defence firm that has been targeted by the group since its founding.<\/p>\n
Anyone who wanted to take part in such a disruptive protest, as had regularly happened before the ban, would risk being labelled a member of Palestine Action.<\/p>\n
The case continues on Thursday, when government lawyers will respond. <\/p>\n
In their written submissions to the court, made public on Wednesday, they argue that ministers acted lawfully in identifying incidents which they believed justified a ban under terrorism legislation – and that they did not have to take into account that the vast majority of Palestine Action’s activity had fallen short of that test.<\/p>\n
The case then returns to court next Tuesday for final submissions, including a secret “closed” hearing for national security reasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lawyers for Palestine Action have said the group can be compared to the suffragettes, in a challenge against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155306,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-155305","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}