What is Palestine Action, the group linked to hundreds of arrests in the UK?

By Kara Fox, CNN

London (CNN) — Large crowds of people protesting the British government’s decision to ban the activist group Palestine Action gathered in London’s Parliament Square on Saturday, in a show of continuing support since it was designated as a terror organization in July.

London’s Metropolitan Police Service told CNN it could not provide an official headcount for the demonstration but shared an estimate of 1,000 to 1,400 protesters, broadly in line with the numbers given by the organizers.

Later on Saturday, police said around 150 arrests had been made at the protest for a range of offenses, including assault on a police officer and expressing support for a proscribed organization.

Police arrested protesters to chants of “shame on you” from other demonstrators, with officers forcing their way through crowds to make the arrests. Video footage verified by CNN shows the moment an officer draws his baton amid a struggle with one demonstrator as other officers tussle with protesters on the ground.

Organizers accused the police of “deliberately trying to deflect from their (own) violence by blaming protesters.”

As public support for overturning the ban grows, fueling a wider debate on civil liberties and government overreach, here’s what to know about the group:

What is Palestine Action?

Palestine Action is a UK-based organization that aims to disrupt the operations of weapons manufacturers connected to the Israeli government.

It was founded by Huda Ammori and climate activist Richard Barnard in 2020, when the group took its first action to shut down the UK operations of Elbit Systems – Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer – and stated its commitment to “ending global participation in Israel’s genocidal and apartheid regime.”

Elbit Systems UK – which is currently bidding for a £2 billion ($2.7bn) British defense ministry contract – did not respond to CNN’s questions about Palestine Action, but said in a statement that “national security is our priority and we are proud to partner with the British armed forces.”

Since its founding, Palestine Action has also, among other actions, occupied, blockaded, spray painted and disrupted the Israeli-French drone company UAV Tactical Systems and the global arms giant Leonardo. It has slashed and spray-painted a portrait of former British foreign secretary Arthur Balfour – whose 1917 declaration expressed London’s support for establishing a “national home for the Jewish people” in British-mandate Palestine – at Trinity College, Cambridge, and “abducted” two busts of Israel’s first president, Chaim Weizmann, from the University of Manchester.

However, it was the group’s late June 2025 action – when activists broke into Britain’s largest airbase, RAF Brize Norton, and vandalized two Airbus Voyager refueling planes with paint and crowbars – that spurred serious government action.

Days later, then-UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper – who became foreign secretary on Friday in a cabinet reshuffle – designated Palestine Action as a terror group, placing it on equal footing with organizations such as Hamas, al Qaeda and ISIS – sparking condemnation from United Nations experts, human rights groups, and politicians.

Why did the British government ban the group?

The UK government, citing an assessment from the country’s Joint Terrorism Assessment Centre, said that Palestine Action had crossed the line from protest to sabotage. Cooper framed the move as necessary to safeguard national security, stating that Palestine Action is “not a non-violent organization” and has a history of “unacceptable criminal damage.”

But British authorities have had their eyes on the group for some time.

In May 2024, an independent government review on political violence and disruption compared Palestine Action and climate activists Just Stop Oil to “terror groups” and recommended their actions be banned.

“Banning terror groups has made it harder for their activists to plan crimes –- that approach should be extended to extreme protest groups too,” said John Woodcock, the review’s author, who sits in the United Kingdom’s upper legislative chamber as Lord Walney.

In an interview with CNN, Woodcock said that the designation was “justified and proportionate.”

“I take real exception to that idea of this being a peaceful protest,” he said. “The definition of terrorism absolutely encompasses the kind of economic damage for a political cause which Palestine Action have systematically carried out.”

Woodcock was a paid adviser to lobbying groups that represent arms manufacturers and fossil fuel companies. Also the former chair of Labour Friends of Israel, he has shrugged off any perceived conflict of interest, telling CNN that “we ought to be able to say it’s not okay to break the law and to terrorize working people.”

Palestine Action is believed to be the first direct-action group to be designated a terrorist organization in the UK. The ban means that showing support for the organization carries a maximum sentence of up to 14 years in prison.

While the group has promoted “disruptive tactics,” it has said their actions are targeted at properties, not people. The UK Home Office has not provided evidence for its claims that Palestine Action has used weapons and caused serious injury.

Who is criticizing the ban?

Civil liberties campaigners across Britain and beyond swiftly condemned the designation, warning that applying terrorism laws to such a group risks chilling free speech and assembly, while also setting a dangerous precedent for protest rights.

Amnesty UK has slammed the move as “a disturbing legal overreach,” arguing that existing criminal laws could address property damage without invoking terrorism.

Amnesty also argues that the ban suppresses expression across the wider pro-Palestinian movement, an assertion that the government rebukes.

In July, UN human rights chief Volker Turk called to lift the ban, saying that it raises concerns that UK counter-terrorism laws “are being applied to conduct that is not terrorist in nature and risks hindering the legitimate exercise of fundamental freedoms.”

How have protests and arrests unfolded since the proscription?

Since the terror designation, more than 700 individuals have been arrested at solidarity protests across the UK, where people carry signs that read: “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.”

On August 9, more than 500 people were arrested in London, the largest mass arrest in the British capital since the 1960s.

Nearly half of the 532 people arrested that day were 60 or older, police said. Almost 100 people arrested were in their 70s, and 15 more in their 80s.

While the majority of protesters arrested are unlikely to do jail time, Justice Minister Alex Davies-Jones told the BBC last month that “anyone showing support for that terrorist organization will feel the full force of the law.”

In London alone, 114 people had been charged for their support of the group as of September 1, according to the city’s Metropolitan Police force.

Ahead of Saturday’s demonstration, counter-terrorism officers in England and Scotland raided the homes of seven spokespeople from the activist group Defend Our Juries – which has been instrumental in organizing the protests – arresting and charging them all with terrorism offenses. The move came before a scheduled news conference about the protests.

Could the ban be overturned?

An upcoming judicial review, scheduled for November, could answer that question.

In granting the legal review, London High Court Judge Martin Chamberlain said in July that it was “reasonably arguable,” that the ban had disproportionately interfered with Palestine Action’s right to freedom of expression, assembly and association under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

Chamberlain added that Cooper, who brought forward the proscription order, could have consulted the group prior to the move.

Meanwhile, many rights organizations warn the decision marks a pivotal moment for the future of protest rights in the UK.

“If this unprecedented, authoritarian proscription is allowed to stand, there is a clear danger that it will be used against other groups the government of the day does not like – whether that be racial or climate justice groups, disability rights groups or trade unions,” a Defend Our Juries spokesperson said.

CNN’s Mick Krever, Isobel Yeung, Billy Stockwell and Jasmin Sykes contributed reporting.

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