Supreme Court Hears Challenge to Palestine Action Ban

Lawyers for Huda Ammori told the UK Supreme Court only three of 385 Palestine Action actions over five years met the terrorism definition as a two-day hearing on the July 2025 ban began Nov. 4, 2026. Membership or support risks up to 14 years in prison. Over 3,600 support-linked arrests through June and past 4,000 after later protests, with about 25 arrested outside court as the hearing opened. Ammori’s lawyers call the ban disproportionate. Raza Husain said the suffragettes used tactics similar or more extreme than Palestine Action. The Home Office cites a RAF Brize Norton raid damaging two planes and a 2024 Elbit raid with £1 million damage and an officer’s spinal injury from a sledgehammer; it says the ban does not block broader Palestinian support. Jewish community organisations intervened to keep the ban. Amnesty’s Tom Southerden said the arrests showed misuse of terrorism powers, that people were held for placard wording Sarah Helm used without arrest, and urged ending the proscription. The US designated the group in August. The High Court ruled the ban unlawful before the Court of Appeal overturned it in June. A UN expert raised rights-compatibility concerns. The Supreme Court decision is pending.