On Saturday, 5th July, at 1pm, assuming the Home Secretary’s order to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist group has become law, a group of about 20 people, including a Priest, an Emeritus Professor and an emergency care worker, just back from Gaza, will sit down in front of the Gandhi statue in Parliament Square holding signs saying, “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.”

They will do so to show their dissent with the order, a direct action group against the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Palestine Action is being proscribed alongside Maniacs Murder Cult and the Russian Imperial Movement, two violent neo-Nazi militias. Thousands of people and organisations, including the Network for Police Monitoring and the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers, four UN special rapporteurs, and 266 solicitors, barristers and legal academics, have condemned this decision from the Home Office.

The group will create a dilemma for UK law enforcement. If they are arrested and charged with Terrorism Act offences, for a statement opposing the genocide of Palestinians, and supporting those who resist it, it will expose the end of democracy and free speech in the UK. If they do not get arrested, they demonstrate that you cannot, in practice, proscribe a popular organisation like Palestine Action and stop hundreds of thousands of people across the country from supporting them. The Home Secretary’s order will be seen to be unenforceable. Under the Terrorism Act, expressions of support for a proscribed organisation are punishable with up to 14 years imprisonment.

The act of dissent on the 5th July will be the first in a series. Every week, more people will show their support for freedom of expression and show that they are more concerned with the genocide in Palestine, than the Home Office lashing out against citizens with a conscience.

They have signed a letter to the Home Secretary which says:

“We do not wish to go to prison or to be branded with a terrorism conviction. But we refuse to be cowed into silence by your order. We refuse to surrender to you our humanity.”

Proscription of Palestine Action

Palestine Action is a direct action organisation founded in 2020 with the aim of disrupting government and corporate complicity in apartheid in Palestine. They typically use tactics such as the targeted destruction of arms and surveillance systems developed by companies such as Elbit Systems, which are known to supply the Israeli government.

In June 2025, Palestine Actionists entered RAF Brize Norton and sprayed red paint into the engines of two refuelling planes. They did so to denounce the UK’s continued provision of military equipment to Israel despite condemning their violence against civilians in Gaza. The same day, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced her decision to proscribe Palestine Action.

Current information is that the proscription will come into force on Saturday, 5 July, after being passed by the Houses of Parliament and the Lords. It’s possible, but unlikely, that there will be a delay arising from legal proceedings being brought on behalf of Palestine Action or other events. This will be the first action officially dissenting with the proscription, but many more are to come.

Judicial interference and corruption

The proscription of Palestine Action follows in the aftermath of years of corporations and foreign states interfering with British judicial independence and law-making.

The use of anti-terror measures against peaceful protesters and the proscription of Palestine Action were promoted by the disgraced ‘Lord’ Walney, a paid oil and arms industry lobbyist, who used to act as the independent advisor on political violence and disruption for the UK government. Prior to Lord Walney’s report in May 2024, jail sentences for peaceful protest in Britain remained extremely unusual.

Elbit Systems, an Israeli arms company and a major target of Palestine Action, has lobbied the Home Office to retry Palestine Actionists after their case had been dismissed by the courts. Subsequently, the Crown Prosecution Service ordered a retrial for the affected activists.

Further, documents obtained through a Freedom of Information request showed that the UK government had shared contact details of counter-terrorism police and prosecuting authorities with the Israeli embassy in September 2024 and shortly after, the Attorney General’s Office met with the Israeli ambassador to the UK. The Israeli authorities had previously attempted to pressure the UK government to intervene in judicial proceedings relating to UK protests.

Quotes from sign-holders:

Tim Crosland, Former Government Lawyer:

“There are already 18 Palestine Actionists held in UK prisons without a trial, following lobbying by the Israeli government and Elbit Systems, the leading supplier of the machinery of genocide. If we cannot speak freely about the genocide of Palestinians, if we cannot condemn those who enable it and praise those who resist it, then the right to freedom of expression has no meaning, and democracy in this country is dead.”

Leigh Evans, Emergency Support Worker:

“I’m joining the Palestine Action and Defend Our Juries action due to the fact that I’ve seen the genocide in Gaza, and the apartheid and genocide in the rest of Palestine, and it’s the most horrific thing I’ve ever seen in 30 years of emergency work worldwide.”

Anthony Harvey, Retired Telecommunications & Electrical Engineer:

"I just had to stand with Defend Our Juries against this Orwellian government actively aiding and abetting the Israeli government's genocide on the Palestinian people while attempting to ban the wonderful self-sacrificing group Palestine Action who are clearly too often successful for them in slowing this country's flow of arms to that genocide".

Melanie Griffith, Advanced Nurse Practitioner:

“I can no longer stand by as this government strips our democracy out from under us. Peaceful protest has to be the cornerstone of our society, as without it, we will be sliding into an authoritarian regime. I have much to lose, but willingly offer it up to defend our freedom to create the society in which we want to live.