{"id":424159,"date":"2026-02-13T20:09:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T20:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/424159\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T20:09:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T20:09:11","slug":"palestine-action-cofounder-ammori-after-high-court-win-uk-ban-backfired-israel-palestine-conflict-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/424159\/","title":{"rendered":"Palestine Action cofounder Ammori after High Court win: UK ban \u2018backfired\u2019 | Israel-Palestine conflict News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Listen to this article\u00a0|\u00a05 mins<\/p>\n

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London, United Kingdom \u2013 The United Kingdom\u2019s ban on Palestine Action has \u201cbackfired\u201d, its cofounder said, after the High Court ruled<\/a> that proscribing the group as a \u201cterror\u201d organisation was unlawful.<\/p>\n

Critics from the United Nations human rights chief to the Irish author Sally Rooney<\/a> decried the UK\u2019s ban last June as an illiberal overreach, since it put Palestine Action on par with ISIL (ISIS), al-Qaeda and dangerous far-right organisations.<\/p>\n

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On Friday, High Court judges dealt a massive blow to the government of Labour leader Keir Starmer, saying, \u201cThe decision to proscribe Palestine Action was disproportionate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cToday is a victory for Palestine,\u201d Palestine Action cofounder Huda Ammori told Al Jazeera. The ban has \u201cbackfired on [the government] massively. They\u2019ve made Palestine Action a household name.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have spread the message and the power that ordinary people have to shut down weapons factories across the country and across the world. So for that, I thank them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HudaThe group\u2019s cofounder Huda Ammori said Friday\u2019s High Court ruling marked a \u2018victory for Palestine\u2019<\/p>\n

Founded in 2020, Palestine Action\u2019s stated objective has been to counter Israeli war crimes \u2013 and what it says is British complicity in them \u2013 by targeting weapons manufacturers and associated companies.<\/p>\n

Its main target is Elbit Systems, Israel\u2019s largest arms company, which has several sites in the UK.<\/p>\n

\u201cRather than ask somebody else to stop those weapons going and being used to commit genocide, we go to the source, and we stop those weapons ourselves,\u201d said Ammori, a 31-year-old Briton of Iraqi and Palestinian heritage.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is what direct action is about. If you saw a building burning down with children inside, you wouldn\u2019t hesitate to bang down the door to save those children\u2019s lives. It is exactly the same principle. You don\u2019t care about the value of the door. It is about those lives. It is about the liberation of Palestine. And so we do our bit to shut down the Israeli weapons trades from Britain.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group has been a thorn in Starmer\u2019s side since Israel began its genocidal onslaught in Gaza.<\/p>\n

Palestine Action-linked activists have carried out several raids, often leaving their mark in red spray paint intended to symbolise blood.<\/p>\n

Dozens are currently being held on remand in relation to two actions.<\/p>\n

Some prisoners, known as part of the \u201cFilton 24\u201d, are alleged to have participated in a break-in at a UK subsidiary of Elbit Systems in Bristol.<\/p>\n

Others are accused of involvement in a break-in at the UK\u2019s largest air base in Oxfordshire, where they were alleged to have spray-painted two Voyager refuelling and transport planes. It was after this raid that the government banned Palestine Action.<\/p>\n

They all deny the charges against them, such as burglary and criminal damage.<\/p>\n

Six of the \u201cFilton 24\u201d were recently acquitted<\/a> of aggravated burglary; five of them were bailed.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt its core, Palestine Action is an organisation that promotes its political cause through criminality and encouragement of criminality. A very small number of its actions have amounted to terrorist action,\u201d the High Court judges said.<\/p>\n

Tens of thousands of people have protested against the ban. Almost 3,000 of them have been arrested for raising placards with slogans such as: \u201cI oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government committed a huge crime against its own population,\u201d said Ammori. \u201cIt was unlawful for them to ban Palestine Action, and when they banned Palestine Action, they subsequently did thousands of unlawful arrests against their own citizens and tried to prosecute them through the courts for terrorism offences, for holding up signs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite Friday\u2019s ruling, the ban remains in place pending appeal.<\/p>\n

The UK\u2019s Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said she was \u201cdisappointed\u201d by Friday\u2019s ruling and intends to appeal \u2013 earning further criticism from rights groups and some fellow Labour politicians.<\/p>\n

John McDonnell, an MP who voted against the proscription, said on X, \u201cI thought it was unjust. We have a right to protest, to assemble, and to speak freely in this country \u2013 that has been secured largely by direct action over centuries. I am urging the government to abide by that tradition and not to appeal this judgement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShabana Mahmood needs to take a step back,\u201d said Ammori. \u201cShe\u2019s completely betrayed the Palestinian people since she\u2019s become minister \u2026 it\u2019s only going to backfire on her.<\/p>\n

\u201cPalestine Action\u2019s ban will be lifted \u2026 We won today in the High Court \u2026 If they try and appeal, we\u2019ll beat them again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article\u00a0|\u00a05 mins info London, United Kingdom \u2013 The United Kingdom\u2019s ban on Palestine Action has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[591,59,57,58,590,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-424159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-europe","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-israel-palestine-conflict","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}