United Kingdom¶
The British cases show a law written for terrorist organisations being used against a direct-action protest group. A minister can ban a group by order, and once it is banned, showing support for it becomes a crime, so a person holding a sign can be arrested for nothing more than that. The police then decide on the street where support for a banned group ends and an opinion about its cause begins. The courts disagree about whether the ban is lawful, and it stays in force while they argue.
The clerk’s briefs¶
From the clerks, for the Patrician’s eyes
Read these. Thousands of people have been arrested for showing support, many of them for holding a sign, and others now think twice before joining a protest on the same cause. Other protest groups that damage property know they could be banned the same way, and their supporters cannot be sure what is still allowed. The Supreme Court’s ruling will settle the question for the future: if it upholds the ban, ministers can ban protest groups; if it does not, the power is narrowed. Either way the next government inherits the result, including a government that takes the country out of the European Convention on Human Rights.
July 2026: To the Supreme Court¶
In July 2026 the Supreme Court granted Huda Ammori permission to appeal on one of two grounds and refused it on the other, and listed the hearing for 4 and 5 November 2026. Permission was granted, Scottish Legal News reported, because it is “arguable that the ban represented a disproportionate interference with Articles 10 and 11” of the Convention; the outcome could affect “more than 3,500 people arrested for alleged support of Palestine Action”. The clerks note that the ban stays in force while the last court considers it.
June 2026: The ban upheld on appeal¶
On 15 June 2026 the Court of Appeal upheld the proscription of Palestine Action, finding it “lawful and proportionate” and setting aside the High Court’s decision. The judgment records that the decision followed the break-in at RAF Brize Norton on 20 June 2025, when activists “damaged two military planes with spray paint”, and that the order took effect “after approval by positive resolutions of both Houses of Parliament”. The ban had remained in force throughout. The clerks note that the government’s case rested on property damage, and the arrests that followed it rested on signs.
February 2026: The High Court quashes it¶
On 13 February 2026 the High Court ruled the proscription unlawful and “disproportionate”, upholding the challenge that the ban interfered with freedom of expression and assembly under Articles 10 and 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
July 2025: The cardboard offence¶
After the proscription took effect on 5 July 2025, 29 people were arrested in the first week, held for twelve hours and released without charge, for holding signs reading “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action”. The Home Office distinguishes the offences: displaying an article “in such a way or in such circumstances as to arouse reasonable suspicion” of support, under section 13, carries up to six months; expressing support while “reckless as to whether a person to whom the expression is directed will be encouraged to support” the group, under section 12, carries up to fourteen years. The clerks observe that a sign is the smallest membership register there is, filled in by the member.