Activists from the group painted “Gaza is not for sale” and dug up parts of the green at Mr Trump’s golf course in Scotland in March 2025, with the president writing on social media that the prime minister had assured him that “they caught the terrorists” involved.
The group was proscribed as a terror organisation in an unusual move four months later, after activists broke into RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire and sprayed two military planes with red paint.
Aberystwyth one of 10 UK locations to join Palestine Action protestCambrian News, 18 November 25
Devon and Cornwall Police overwhelmed by the number of protesters defying ban on Palestine ActionCobblestone Media, 18 November 25
‘Increased’ police presence at protest to lift ban on Palestine ActionGloucestershire Live, 17 November 25
Arrests at Palestine Action protest in LeedsBBC – West Yorkshire, 18 November 25
Nine arrests made at pro-Palestine Action protestBBC – Northamptonshire, 18 November 25
Hunger strike continues as protests planned in Aberystwyth and CardiffPembrokeshire Herald, 17 November 25
In November, Defend Our Juries will be escalating the campaign to Lift The Ban on Palestine Action ahead of the Judicial Review against the ban.
Locations for the November wave have now been announced, with actions to take place across the UK on two key dates (18th and 29th November), as well as four actions in London (20th, 22nd, 24th, 26th November) and one in the North of Ireland (22nd November). All actions will take place in central locations per town/city.
Read the all important Action Briefing Document here for full details as they emerge (this is a Live document, please check back regularly for info and changes) – taking action in Scotland? Please read the Scotland-specific Action Briefing Document as the law is slightly different there.
Locations:
Tuesday 18th – Gloucester, Truro, Nottingham, Northampton, Oxford, Leeds, Newcastle, Caerdydd (Cardiff), Aberystwyth, Edinburgh.
Thursday 20th – London.
Saturday 22nd – London, Belfast.
Monday 24th – London.
Wednesday 26th – London.
Saturday 29th – Bristol, Birmingham, Exeter, Cambridge, Sheffield, Lancaster, Manchester, Edinburgh, Caerdydd (Cardiff).
Each of the actions will take place at 1pm (unless specified otherwise), at a location which will be emailed out to those signed up a few days before the action date. All locations will be accessible with public transport in the city of action. More locations may be released at a later date.
• Defend Our Juries are hosting a series of Open Calls as we approach the November 2025 National wave of action.
• Open Calls will take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The next call will be on November 18th (the first day of action!). Calls go live at 6:30pm via the button below.
• (note: the button will only go live once the call is active – refresh this if the button appears greyed-out after 6:30pm on the dates specified.)
The individuals, aged between fifty and seventy-five, were arrested on the bridge on suspicion of encouraging support for a proscribed organisation contrary to Section 13 of the Terrorism Act 2000
At 12PM on Saturday 15th November, five protestors were arrested under the Terrorism Act for dropping a large banner from Westminster Bridge which read, ‘We Support The Hunger Strike. We Support Palestine Action.’
The action was taken not only in support of Palestine Action, who were proscribed as a ‘terrorist’ group, by the British government, on the 5th July 2025, but in support of the hunger-strike currently being undertaken by a number of Palestine Action prisoners. The prisoners, who have formed Prisoners For Palestine, launched an indefinite, rolling, national hunger-strike on the 2nd of November, the anniversary of the signing of the Balfour Declaration, in support of a list of demands communicated to the government 2 weeks earlier.
Locations for the November wave have now been announced, with actions to take place across the UK on two key dates (18th and 29th November), as well as four actions in London (20th, 22nd, 24th, 26th November) and one in the North of Ireland (22nd November). All actions will take place in central locations per town/city.
Read the all important Action Briefing Document here for full details as they emerge (this is a Live document, please check back regularly for info and changes) – taking action in Scotland? Please read the Scotland-specific Action Briefing Document as the law is slightly different there.
• Defend Our Juries are hosting a series of Open Calls as we approach the November 2025 National wave of action.
• Open Calls will take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays, starting on November 4th. Calls go live at 6:30pm via the button below.
• (note: the button will only go live once the call is active – refresh this if the button appears greyed-out after 6:30pm on the dates specified.)
There are signs that the authoritarian powers are cracking, the police are struggling to enforce this absurd law, with some police forces outright refusing to make arrests. International and national human rights groups, politicians and United Nations representatives have condemned both the ban and the subsequent attacks on our civil liberties. Unions are declaring that they will not recognise the ban, while over 1600 people were arrested prior to our October 4th action.
We will be holding our signs around the UK in key cities and towns, as well as converging on London for the Judicial Review Itself (25-27 November). Book time off now, and sign the form to tell us where you’ll be taking action.
We will not comply with anti-democratic laws. We call on the UK Government to Lift The Ban on Palestine Action and to end UK complicity in Israel’s genocide.
In unity, not uniformity, we join together.
Police arrested nearly 500 more pro-Palestine demonstrators on Saturday—including many Jewish activists—who participated in a protest calling for the government to “Lift the Ban” on the protest group Palestine Action, which was outlawed under Britain’s anti-terrorism law in July.
Those arrested included an 83-year-old Anglican priest, the 79-year-old daughter of a Holocaust survivor, and a 79-year-old Jewish man with terminal illness, among hundreds of others who held signs in opposition to the ban as part of a “silent vigil.”
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“The right to protest is a fundamental freedom in our country. However, this freedom must be balanced with the freedom of their neighbours to live their lives without fear,” said Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood. “Large, repeated protests can leave sections of our country, particularly religious communities, feeling unsafe, intimidated, and scared to leave their homes. This has been particularly evident in relation to the considerable fear within the Jewish community, which has been expressed to me on many occasions in these recent difficult days.”
Watch this artful piece by talented filmmaker Jo Syz – a record of the ‘Lift The Ban’ protests which took place in Parliament Square last month on the 6th September.
Defend Our Juries are holding a mass action event in defiance of the ban against Palestine Action.
Over 1500 people so far have been arrested at Lift The Ban events for holding signs which read “I oppose genocide – I support Palestine Action”. 29 people were arrested at Parliament Square in London on July 5th, the day the ban came into effect. On the following Saturday, 46 arrests at Parliament Square took place for the same act, as well as dozens of actions in other locations across the UK.
On August 9th, over 500 people were arrested in what was reportedly the largest number of arrests for civil disobedience in recent memory. On September 6th, the number was 857 (although not all sitters were arrested on this occasion.) Almost all arrests have take place for allegedly breaching Section 13 of the Terrorism Act 2000, under accusation of supporting a proscribed organisation. All arrestees have been released on bail.
On August 9th, over 500 people were arrested for holding signs which said ‘I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action’ .
Around 1,500 people joined another peaceful sign-holding action on September 6th in London, with 857 arrests.
The next Lift The Ban action will take place on October 4th in London’s Trafalgar Square (relocated from Parliament Square).
(October 2, 2025)
First let us say that we utterly condemn the attack on the Jewish community in Manchester today.
This is what genuine terrorism looks like and we join with others in condemning it unreservedly.
As we have pointed out in our, sadly unacknowledged and unanswered, letters to Met Commissioner Mark Rowley, it has always been the choice of the Metropolitan Police whether or not to make arrests at our protests. Amnesty International has advised Mark Rowley that these arrests fall foul of international law and our fundamental rights.
As you know we are making two demands of the government: that it reverse the ban on a domestic protest group that poses no risk to the public; and secondly that the government take action in line with its obligations to prevent genocide.
It is unfortunate that the Home Office has not decided to rescind the ban in the wake of the ever-growing defiance and has chosen instead to put an increasing and unnecessary strain on police resources. According to your letter, it appears the political oversight in proscribing Palestine Action, which aimed to save lives in Palestine, is taking away from the police protecting the community from those who seek to take lives.
As I’m sure you will understand, the protection of our democracy and the prevention of countless deaths are critical issues. Therefore, our protest will go ahead as planned for this Saturday.
We urge you therefore to choose to prioritise protecting the community, rather than arresting those peacefully holding signs in opposition to the absurd and draconian ban of a domestic direct action group.
We hope you make the right choice to not arrest those taking part, and correctly deploy counter-terrorism resources this weekend.
Please understand that some 1,500 people have given deep consideration to committing to this nonviolent action which, as the Met has repeatedly pointed out, comes with serious risks. We hope you respect our fundamental right to peaceful protest and freedom of expression.
Yours sincerely,
Defend Our Juries
Organisers of a pro-Palestine protest planned in central London have insisted it will go ahead despite calls from police and the Home Secretary to delay or cancel.
Protest group Defend Our Juries has organised a demonstration on Saturday in Trafalgar Square, and claimed on Friday: “Cancelling peaceful protests lets terror win”.
The next Lift The Ban action will take place at Parliament Square in London on October 4th at 1pm. Sign up here to make a commitment to standing with 1,500 others to demand the de-proscription of Palestine Action, and an end to UK complicity in genocide.
Please read the Action Briefing Document in full before committing to this action. There is a significant risk of arrest for those who take part. The action will only go ahead if 1,500 people make a commitment.
500+ people committed to action on August 9th, over 1,000 people committed in September – Defend Our Juries made clear our intention to continue to oppose this absurd ban until it is overturned. A Judicial Review is pending in November, but the Home Office can, and should, overturn this ban before that time.
Police made a number of arrests on suspicion of supporting the banned group Palestine Action at a protest outside the Labour party conference in Liverpool on Sunday
On Tuesday morning pro-Palestine campaign group Friends of Al-Aqsa (FOA) instructed a legal team to apply for an arrest warrant to be issued for Herzog on „charges of aiding, abetting or procuring direct and indiscriminate attacks on civilians and civilian objects“.
The Met responded to FOA that afternoon in an email seen by MEE.
In the email, officers confirmed that „the Counter Terrorism Division received the papers relating to your request in respect of Mr Herzog.
More than 60 parliamentarians have written to the prime minister expressing their grave concern at reports that the Labour Party government is to welcome Israeli President Isaac Herzog on a visit to London from Tuesday 9 September.
In the letter, they stated that the UK, as a state party to the 1948 Genocide Convention, has a binding responsibility not only to refrain from committing genocide itself, but:
also to take active steps to prevent and punish genocide and incitement to it wherever it occurs. This obligation includes ensuring that individuals credibly implicated in the commission or incitement of such crimes are not afforded political legitimacy or hospitality by our government.
(September 6, 2025)
500+ people committed to action in August, over 1,500 people committed in September – Defend Our Juries made clear our intention to continue to oppose this absurd ban until it is overturned by Judicial Review in November.
The next action is set to take place in October, date and location to be confirmed.
Sign up using the form on this page if you’d like to take part in a simple sign-holding action in October 2025 as part of the Lift The Ban campaign.
Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, introduced the ban after Palestine Action entered the RAF base at Brize Norton and spray painted two military planes red, shining a spotlight on the role of the British military in partnering Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people.
It is vital that our campaign succeeds – not just for Palestine Action but for democracy. Once the meaning of ‘terrorism’ is separated from campaigns of violence against a civilian population, and extended to include those causing economic damage or embarrassment to the rich, the powerful and the criminal, then the right to freedom of expression has no meaning and democracy is dead. If we let this go, the unions, and climate and racial justice movements will be next.
But the Government has overreached itself. Our groups and movements are coming together like never before, finding unity under repression. By refusing to give into fear and by standing together, we will face down this assault on us all.
The objective of this campaign is to Lift the Ban on Palestine Action, i.e. for Palestine Action to be de-proscribed as a ‘terrorist organisation’.
On June 4, Corbyn tabled a bill in the House of Commons calling for an independent inquiry into the UK’s involvement in Israeli military operations in Gaza, including the supply of weapons, surveillance aircraft and the use of Royal Air Force bases. That bill, backed by dozens of MPs and supported by more than 20 aid groups, was ultimately blocked by the ruling Labour Party.
“If the government won’t organise a public open inquiry, if Parliament won’t effectively inquire into what’s going on, it remains for us to do it,” said Corbyn. “This [event] will strengthen our arguments both in Parliament and outside … An awful lot of what’s going on is completely illegal and shouldn’t be hidden from.”
Find out more about the inquiry into Britain‘s role in Israeli war crimes in Gaza.
We have now confirmed that over 1000 people will join a simple sign-holding action on September 6th in London. Sign up below to get involved:
(…)
It is vital that our campaign succeeds – not just for Palestine Action but for democracy. Once the meaning of ‘terrorism’ is separated from campaigns of violence against a civilian population, and extended to include those causing economic damage or embarrassment to the rich, the powerful and the criminal, then the right to freedom of expression has no meaning and democracy is dead. If we let this go, the unions, and climate and racial justice movements will be next.
But the Government has overreached itself. Our groups and movements are coming together like never before, finding unity under repression. By refusing to give into fear and by standing together, we will face down this assault on us all.
The objective of this campaign is to Lift the Ban on Palestine Action, i.e. for Palestine Action to be de-proscribed as a ‘terrorist organisation’.
We will not comply with anti-democratic laws. We call on the UK Government to Lift The Ban on Palestine Action.
In unity, not uniformity, we join together.
Campaign group Defend Our Juries said five of its spokespeople were arrested as it prepared to announce further mass protest against the ban on Palestine Action.
The organisation said more than 1,000 people are set to take action on September 6 in Parliament Square, holding signs saying “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action”.
This follows a number of demonstrations over the summer that have seen more than 700 people arrested and 114 charged.
(August 27, 2025)
As the descendant of a Jewish family from Poland, the words “never again” have significant meaning for me. In the aftermath of the Second World War, humankind vowed to never again allow such atrocities to occur. The Holocaust, the mass extermination of the Jewish people, plumbed the very depths of tyrannical evil. Precisely because of this heritage, I view “never again” as a universal imperative.
In 1948, the international community adopted the universal declaration of human rights and the convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide. In the decades since, we have failed globally many times to safeguard this invaluable truth: that people must not perish in flames, and such heinous crimes must not be perpetrated while outsiders stand idly by. But never in recent times have people around the world started into the abyss of annihilation as we are doing today in Gaza. As such, “never again” is not merely a moral reminder but an ethical decree to act.
Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me, as the saying goes. It seems that Netanyahu manages to fool western leaders time and time again. On Friday, in response to the IPC declaration of famine, the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, said it was an “utterly horrifying and wholly preventable man-made catastrophe”. May I ask Lammy and the rest of the British cabinet – are you among the people responsible for this catastrophe?
Albanese‘s involvement was confirmed by Corbyn during an appearance by the veteran politician at a fringe event at the Edinburgh festival on Saturday.
The UN special rapporteur will be asked for comment on the use of RAF bases in Cyprus to help Israel‘s military.
Set to take place in September, the tribunal follows Corbyn‘s unsuccessful attempts to pass legislation in parliament for an independent public tribunal.
Those attempts were blocked by the ruling Labour party.
We add our voices to those already demanding the following actions:
1. The full and unrestricted entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, at scale, and with urgency, by qualified aid agencies.
2. The cessation of all UK arms transfers — including parts — to Israel in line with the UK’s legal obligations under the Arms Trade Treaty (which prohibits transfers where they could be ‘used to commit acts of genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes’).
3. The introduction of targeted sanctions against all individuals and entities credibly accused of violating international law, including war crimes.
4. Support for international legal mechanisms, including investigations by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and International Criminal Court (ICC), and full UK diplomatic support to secure the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.
As business leaders, we also call on the UK Government to:
– Suspend ALL export licences for goods that could be directly or indirectly implicated in military operations in Gaza – without exception.
– Partial measures are not enough to prevent UK complicity in breaches of international law.
– Broaden financial sanctions and investment screening to stop UK financing of companies complicit in violations of international law.
– Current efforts must go further to close gaps in enforcement.
– Enforce the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights across all UK-linked supply chains and financial systems.
The UK must ensure that no business – whether through products, services, or supply chains – is contributing to these atrocities, directly or indirectly.
(August 18, 2025)
Sir Keir Starmer has been urged to recall Parliament to “impose immediate sanctions” on Israel in a joint letter signed by politicians in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
The letter urges the Prime Minister to “act now” to exert pressure on Israel to end the war in Gaza.
It has been signed by Northern Ireland’s First Minister Michelle O’Neill, Alliance Party leader Naomi Long, SDLP leader Claire Hanna, the SNP’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn and the convener of the party’s Holyrood group Stuart McMillan.
(August 19, 2025)
Parties joining in the SDLP-led letter include Sinn Féin, Alliance, the SNP, Plaid Cymru, the Green Party and People Before Profit.
The letter calls for Parliament to be recalled as well as urgent diplomatic intervention and an end to arms sales to Israel.
It is understood Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer will respond to the letter in due course.