From Palestine Action to Ghassan Abu Sittah, inside Britain’s legal crackdown on pro-Palestine activists
Police detain a demonstrator following a Court of Appeal ruling on the lawfulness of proscribing Palestine Action under terrorism laws, outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, 15 June 2026
Amer Sultan reports in The New Arab on 7 July 2026:
Less than a year after the UK formally recognised the State of Palestine, a Court of Appeal ruling has laid bare the scale of criminal proceedings linked to pro-Palestine activism, revealing hundreds of active cases connected to the banned campaign group Palestine Action as a series of other high-profile prosecutions continue through the courts.
In a judgment issued on 15 June, the Court of Appeal upheld the Home Office’s decision to proscribe Palestine Action as a “terrorist organisation”. In doing so, the court disclosed there were “more than 700 cases before the criminal courts in England and Wales, as well as many others still at the pre-charge stage” relating to the group.
The figures provide the clearest indication yet of the scale of criminal proceedings arising from support for Palestine Action since the organisation was banned in July 2025.
According to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), 138 people have so far been charged with terrorism offences after expressing support for the proscribed group. Frank Ferguson, head of the CPS Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, has previously said prosecutors were continuing to make charging decisions following arrests and expect further charges in the coming weeks.
The group’s founder, Huda Ammori, alongside several international human rights organisations, is seeking permission to challenge the Court of Appeal’s ruling before the UK’s highest court after her bid to overturn the ban was rejected.