LONDON: The UK government announced Monday it would ban campaign group Palestine Action under anti-terror laws following a “disgraceful attack” on Britain’s largest air force base last week. The move, announced by interior minister Yvette Cooper, angered the group — which called the proposed ban an “unhinged reaction” — and its supporters, who scuffled with police as they protested in central London.

Palestine Action activists broke into the RAF Brize Norton base in southern England on Friday, raising questions about security at the site and embarrassing Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government. A video posted by Palestine Action showed two activists spraying a plane with red paint while roaming the base on scooters. Counter-terror police are investigating the incident.

Cooper said the vandalism at the base was “disgraceful” and “the latest in a long history of unacceptable criminal damage” committed by the group since it formed in 2020. “In several attacks, Palestine Action has committed acts of serious damage to property with the aim of progressing its political cause and influencing the government,” Cooper said in a written statement.

She announced she would lay a draft order before parliament next Monday that, if passed, would proscribe the group under Britain’s Terrorism Act of 2000. Labour holds a massive majority in parliament, meaning the proposal should pass easily. Palestine Action condemned the proposed ban as an attack on free speech. “The real crime here is not red paint being sprayed on these war planes, but the war crimes that have been enabled with those planes because of the UK Government’s complicity in (the Zionist entity’s) genocide,” it said in a statement.

Cooper listed other attacks by Palestine Action at Thales defense factory in Glasgow in 2022, and two last year against Instro Precision in Kent, southeast England, and Elbit Systems UK in Bristol, in the country’s southwest. “Such incidents do not represent legitimate or peaceful protest,” Cooper said. “The UK’s defense enterprise is vital to the nation’s national security and this government will not tolerate those that put that security at risk,” she added.

The ban will make it a criminal offence to belong to or support the group, punishable by up to 14 years in prison. Cooper stressed that her decision “is specific to Palestine Action and does not affect lawful protest groups and other organizations campaigning on issues around Palestine or the Middle East”.

But Labour’s former spokesperson on legal matters Shami Chakrabarti, speaking ahead of the government’s announcement, said she shared concerns that a ban could be going “too far”. “From what I can tell, this is a militant protest group that engages in direct action and that includes criminality, no question, but to elevate that to terrorism... is a serious escalation I think,” she told BBC radio. Palestine Action describes itself as a direct action movement aimed at “ending global participation in (the Zionist entity’s) genocidal and apartheid regime”. It says it uses “disruption tactics” to target “corporate enablers” and seeks to “make it impossible for these companies to profit from the oppression of Palestinians”. 

In recent months, it has sprayed the London offices of Allianz Insurance with red paint over its alleged links to Zionist defense company Elbit, and vandalized US President Donald Trump’s Turnberry golf course in Scotland. Last month, Palestine Action claimed responsibility for vandalizing a US military aircraft in Ireland. In London Monday, protesters surged towards police when officers tried to detain someone, while onlookers chanted “let them go”. “It’s an attack on civil rights,” 45-year-old demonstrator Joe Dawson, who works in advertising, said of the proposed ban. “At most it’s criminal damage, not terrorism,” he told AFP.

Starmer’s Labour government suspended around 30 out of 350 arms export licenses to the Zionist entity last September, citing a “risk” they could be used in violations of international law. But the UK continues to supply components for F-35 fighter jets to a global pool that the Zionist entity is able to access. The Zionist entity has repeatedly denied allegations it is committing genocide in Gaza during its 20-month-long military campaign following Hamas’ attack on Oct 7, 2023. Some 80 organizations are banned under the UK’s Terrorism Act, including Al-Qaeda and Hamas, as well as Russia’s Wagner paramilitary group. — AFP