UK Supreme Court hears Palestine Action appeal as protesters are arrested outside

A two-day hearing opens

The UK Supreme Court began a two-day hearing in London on Wednesday, 4 November 2026, on an appeal by Huda Ammori, a co-founder of Palestine Action. She is challenging the decision to proscribe the direct action group as a terrorist organisation, a designation that places it alongside groups such as al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS). The UK government proscribed the group under then-Prime Minister Keir Starmer in July 2025. Anyone found guilty of belonging to or supporting the group risks up to 14 years in prison. Rights groups including Amnesty International and Liberty have denounced the decision.

Lawyers argue the ban is disproportionate

Raza Husain KC, representing Ammori before the five judges, said the group never backed violence against people, and that the home secretary had never argued otherwise.

“Palestine Action never advocated for violence against the person”

Husain said the suffragettes, anti-war, environmental and animal rights groups had used tactics similar to or more extreme than those of Palestine Action without being proscribed. He said the suffragettes' campaign included arson and bombing attacks, yet they are now venerated, and he accused the Court of Appeal of error in finding that the group's tactics had little or nothing in common with the suffragettes. In written submissions, Husain said only three of 385 actions carried out over five years were assessed as meeting the definition of terrorism under part of the Terrorism Act, solely because they involved serious damage to property. He added that the advisers' assessment put less than 1% of the group's direct action over that period within the definition. Husain also said the ban had affected the entire Palestinian solidarity movement and chilled the expression of journalists, academics and artists.

Actions assessed as meeting the terrorism definition3

Actions carried out over five years385

Actions assessed as meeting the terrorism definition

3

Actions carried out over five years

385

Data from the article text

The government's defence

Sir James Eadie KC, writing in submissions for the home secretary, argued that the Court of Appeal decision, which Ammori is appealing, was lawful and proportionate. He said that decision had been reinforced in two ways: the convictions of four people, one of them for grievous bodily harm, and a finding of a 'terrorist connection' in a raid on a factory owned by the Israeli arms company Elbit Systems in Filton, near Bristol. US sanctions imposed on the group as a global terrorist organisation also reinforced the decision, he said. Eadie argued that the proscription does not stop public support for the Palestinian cause, opposition to Israel or the Israel Defence Forces, or demonstrations aimed at Elbit. The court was told that more than 3,000 people have been arrested since the ban, and that showing support for the group now counts as an offence under that law.

Protests outside the court

Protesters gathered outside the court as the hearing began, and police carried several people away into vans. The Evening Standard counted more than 20 demonstrators, while the Press Association put the number of arrests at about 25. Several placards copied a line that Sarah Helm, a journalist and author married to the UK national security adviser, had posted on X in October: 'God help us authors who support Palestine and Palestine Action.' Other signs replaced 'authors' with 'normal people', 'students' and 'sons of Holocaust survivors'. Helm did not face prosecution over her earlier post. Actor Alfred Enoch held a sign reading 'this is democracy not terrorism' and told the Press Association that he hoped the ban would be dropped.

“I think it's part of a wider erosion of rights of protest, which is fundamental to a democracy.”

Amnesty's response

Tom Southerden, Amnesty International's UK Law and Human Rights Director, issued a statement after the arrests on 4 November that criticised the government's use of terrorism powers.

“Today was another demonstration of the chaos wrought by the Government's grave misuse of terrorism powers to proscribe Palestine Action.”

Southerden said that seeing musicians, politicians and celebrities arrested for peacefully holding placards showed how dangerously vague the terrorism laws are. He pointed out that the placard wording was the same as Helm's post, which did not lead to an arrest.