LONDON: Lawyers for the British state argued at London\u2019s High Court on Tuesday that a ruling by UK judges lifting a government ban on pro-Palestinian group Palestine Action should be scrapped.<\/p>\n
Appealing the court ruling, the lawyers said the judges\u2019 earlier description of the impact of the ban on human rights had been \u201coverstated and wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
The government banned Palestine Action in July last year, days after activists protesting against Israel\u2019s military assault on Gaza broke into an air force base in southern England and caused millions of pounds worth of damage to two aircraft.<\/p>\n
The UK government is now appealing against the High Court\u2019s ruling from February that the ban on Palestine Action was \u201cdisproportionate\u201d to the risk it posed and should be lifted.<\/p>\n
James Eadie, for the government\u2019s Home Office said the court had failed to consider that parliament had deemed the ban \u201cboth effective and appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe protection of national security and of the public from terrorism was central (to the ban),\u201d he said in written submissions to the court.<\/p>\n
The 2025 ban by the Labour government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer put Palestine Action on a blacklist that also includes Palestinian militants Hamas and the Lebanese Iran-backed group Hezbollah, and sparked a severe backlash.<\/p>\n
The ban made it a criminal offense to be a member of the group or to demonstrate support for it \u2014 punishable by up to 14 years in prison under terror legislation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe line between criminality, sometimes violent criminality, and terrorism is not a bright one,\u201d Eadie said, adding that the criminal law had \u201cdemonstrably failed\u201d to prevent the escalation of the group\u2019s activities.<\/p>\n
Speaking in court, he added that Palestine Action was \u201cnot engaged in what can be properly described as merely civil disobedience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Palestine Action met the \u201cstatutory definition of being concerned in terrorism\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The ban has led to the arrest of thousands of supporters.<\/p>\n
The High Court, however, ruled against the government at the February hearing following a legal challenge by co-founder Huda Ammori.<\/p>\n
A three-judge panel found that the ban had resulted in a \u201cvery significant interference with the right to freedom of speech and free assembly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Set up in 2020, Palestine Action\u2019s stated goal on its now-blocked website is to end \u201cglobal participation in Israel\u2019s genocidal and apartheid regime.\u201d<\/p>\n
It has mainly targeted weapons factories, especially those belonging to the Israeli defense group Elbit Systems.<\/p>\n
The hearing was due to conclude on Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON: Lawyers for the British state argued at London\u2019s High Court on Tuesday that a ruling by UK judges lifting a government ban on pro-Palestinian group Palestine Action should be scrapped. Appealing the court ruling, the lawyers said the judges\u2019 earlier description of the impact of the ban on human rights had been \u201coverstated and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":96993,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96974"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96994,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96974\/revisions\/96994"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}