Proscribing Palestine Action might seem like a win for law and order — and in many respects it is. But banning a group with such support in the UK exposes the fragility of our legal system, the limits of state authority and the deep divisions undermining social cohesion.
Through direct action and intimidation, Palestine Action targeted UK arms manufacturers linked to Israel — and in some cases, successfully shut them down. It also vandalised banks, attacked Jewish-owned businesses, and most infamously stormed RAF Brize Norton, the UK’s primary military airbase — an escalation that ultimately led to its classification as a terrorist group.
The state will move to target its organisers, freeze its funds and seize its assets. But the situation extends far beyond the group itself. On Saturday, police arrested more than 20 members of the public at a London protest opposing the ban — an indication that the proscription has already galvanised resistance.
Although hard to quantify exactly, estimates suggest tens of thousands of supporters in the UK. Before its accounts were shut down in July 2025, Palestine Action had a quarter of a million followers on X and regularly drew thousands to its protests. MP Richard Burgon said the legislation risked “criminalising thousands of volunteers and supporters”, including “students, nurses, retirees and professionals”, highlighting the diverse coalition backing the group and the potential for perceived overreach.
If these protests continue to grow, will the police attempt mass arrests of supporters? Both politically and practically, that seems unthinkable. The challenge now is not just about suppressing the group but about navigating the broader consequences for public dissent and civil liberties.
We’re entering dangerous territory: a law that exists on paper but is inconsistently enforced. Support of the group is now a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison. Yet inconsistent enforcement — harsh on some, lenient or non-existent on others — undermines the credibility of counter-terrorism legislation and the very principle of equal justice. This breeds cynicism and resentment, especially among those who feel protected or targeted based on political alignment.
The issue becomes even sharper when considering elected officials. Some MPs openly supported Palestine Action prior to its proscription. Last week, MP Zara Sultana spoke in the House of Commons, declaring: “We are all Palestine Action.” If they were to publicly support the group now, would they realistically face investigation or prosecution, as ordinary members of the public might? It’s hard to imagine. This kind of selective enforcement not only fails to restore order but deepens divisions and makes a mockery of justice itself.
Such an enforcement gap emboldens supporters, signalling that illegal actions may go unpunished, encouraging them to view their conduct not as criminal, but as justified resistance. For many in Palestine Action, this mindset reframes tactics like vandalism or intimidation as part of a moral struggle against what they perceive as a genocidal, apartheid state. Actions such as targeting arms factories or storming company offices are cast as virtuous responses to alleged complicity in war crimes.
Of course, extremists and terrorists always believe their cause is just. This is not an argument for cultural relativism, but an acknowledgment of an uncomfortable reality: the sense of righteousness motivating Palestine Action and its supporters is no longer a fringe phenomenon. The narrative that Israel is committing genocide and enforcing apartheid has gained traction — or at least tacit acceptance — across significant segments of the mainstream, including in academia, the media, NGOs and even Parliament. This belief is no longer confined to the fringes; it now shapes public debate and motivates direct action, with real consequences for social cohesion and public order.
Against this backdrop, the Government’s proscription targeted Palestine Action’s illegal tactics — not free speech or the right to protest. But it failed to control how this distinction was portrayed in the media and by activist groups. As a result, many people who oppose vandalism and intimidation nevertheless ended up conflating the group’s illegal actions with legitimate protest. This ultimately weakens public trust and complicates enforcement efforts.
When the shared legitimacy of law breaks down — when large parts of society reject who is labelled criminal — the law’s power to govern is weakened. This reflects a deep political and cultural fracture that offers no easy solutions and demands difficult reckoning.
Proscribing Palestine Action was justified, but in a deeply divided country, the Government faces a minefield: enforce the law selectively and lose trust or enforce it strictly and risk unrest. There’s no easy answer, and every step risks deepening the very divisions that threaten public order.
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Do not proscribe them but if they break into a military base, warn them once and then shoot them. Simple.
Shooting IS the warning.
You could wound them first…
“The narrative that Israel is committing genocide and enforcing apartheid has gained traction”. Goebbels was right. Repeat something often enough and people will believe it, no matter how absurd.
Some Jews thought it so without it having to be written even. How was that possible.
There’s no easy answer but plenty of stupid wrong ones and you can be sure 2TK and his team of catastrophic incompetents will find them all.
MP Richard Burgon said the legislation …….. anything at all that leaves this mans lips is pure drivel. Who votes for this imbecile?
The problem is that whilst breaking into a military base is clearly a criminal offence and, in order to prevent similar actions, the government has to do something, at the same time the underlying “spirit of the times”, the current zeitgeist is very much in line with the ideology behind Palestine Action.
Let’s look around:
Weekly pro-Palestine / antisemitic demonstrations – check,
Glastonbury pro-Palestine chants – check,
Glastonbury anti-IDF chants – check
Biased BBC reporting -check,
Large Muslim population with antisemitic views – check
Politicized politics force – check.
So clearly the group enjoys a lot of sympathy and I fully expect the police and the courts will treat them very softly.
I’ll add heavily biased msn moderators/censors.
Yes, the situation is not helped by that bloody historian Avi Schlaim.
Unfortunately the damned turncoat is an Iraqi Jew who emigrated to Israel with his family and now goes around telling anyone who will listen that Israel is an apartheid state that has only ever been concerned with expansion and is now committing a genocide.
He thinks these Palestine action people heroes. All rather embarrassing..
I don’t agree it is a common sentiment. Anyone with half a brain can see what Israel is fighting, even if they often go too far. How nice it would have been if Israel could have delegated a response to the UN,
This is just grotesque. So anyone saying “I support Palestinian Action” can be sentenced to 14 years imprisonment? What does the Free Speech Union have to say to this?
And just today, Drop Site News reported the following:
Friends and relatives mourn the death of Indonesian Hospital director, Dr. Marwan al-Sultan, who was killed along with 7 members of his family following a targeted Israeli attack on an apartment in Gaza City on July 2, 2025 …
The director of the Indonesian Hospital in north Gaza, Dr. al-Sultan was also one of two remaining cardiologists in Gaza. According to a statement from Healthcare Workers Watch (HWW) dated July 2, his killing marks the 70th medical worker killed in the past 50 days …
Dr. al-Sultan, his wife, daughter, sister, and son-in-law were upstairs on the fifth floor when they were killed. Both Ahmed and his sister Lubna, who was in the building at the time and survived the airstrike, said the attack hit the room their father was in. The rest of the building was relatively intact …
Since October 7th, the Israeli military has repeatedly targeted hospitals and medical workers in Gaza in what the United Nations has described as a pattern of attacks that has “pushed the healthcare system to the brink of total collapse.” Daily killings at the U.S.- and Israeli-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites have also pushed the remaining partially functioning hospitals to their breaking points …
In May, the Indonesian Hospital, where Dr. al-Sultan worked, was forced out of service by the Israeli military after a brutal siegel. “Dr. Sultan was a very clear medical personnel and especially in the hospital as a medical director,” said Hadiki Habib, the chairman of MER-C Indonesia which helped build and support the hospital. “He was not a combatant.”
Attacks on medical workers have occurred everywhere: from hospitals to their homes, while driving or trying to go to an aid distribution site, or in their tents in camps. Last week at Nasser Hospital began and ended with the killing of two of its doctors: Dr. Shehada Asqoul, a pulmonologist, who was killed on Monday in his tent, and Dr. Mousa Hamdan Khafaja, an obstetrician, who was killed along with three of his children on Saturday.
And this is the regime that the UK government supports to such an extent that anyone challenging this support must fear imprisonment? A regime that is intentionally and repeatedly specifically targeting top medical workers – among, of course, continuing its genocide against all Palestinians. And the reason for killing precisely medical staff is clearly to accelerate the death of as many Palestinians as possible.
What can one say to such a monstrous regime? And what can one say to a government that actively supports that regime?
“ And the reason for killing precisely medical staff is clearly to accelerate the death of as many Palestinians as possible.”
To quote John McEnroe – “You cannot be serious”!
Do you have another explanation?
It’s more lies from Hamas and their supporters in a huge number of NGOs.
Medical staff are Hama. Does that explain?
Sorry but that only explains you have no knowledge of the matter.
I’m afraid Jewish control of the MSM/Hollywood etc. is on a par with that of the elites who control the narrative on Covid jabs, Lockdowns, climate change, Ukraine etc. And they are all in re bigpharma and of course the Banks.
The pity is that most on here have fallen hook, line and sinker for it.
One explanation may be that this control has been happening certainly since 1948 or even longer-1917, so to an extent there can maybe some forgiveness.
That said, one must also remember that many on here are simply overt racists eg how many have suggested and welcomed the total destruction of Palestine.
And continue to do so to this day …
If Jews control the MSM/Hollywood and the BBC (other people have said this) why are these organisations so anti Israel?
Other than a tiny minority of ultra Zionists no one is suggesting or welcoming the total destruction of Palestine. Most sensible/rational people are hoping for the total destruction of Hamas as they are committed to the total destruction of Israel and therefore one of the biggest obstacles to a lasting peace.
I never watch BBC nor read their website but the claim that the BBC is anti-Israel is certainly not supported by this video.
This second video, showing a BBC interview with a paediatrician recently returned from Gaza, also shows a strong bias. The doctor reports that healthcare workers and their families are being intentionally and deliberately killed and is simply interrupted by the BBC moderator, maintaining that the IDF “evacuated civilians from this area for their own safety and they are now reviewing the claim, as they put it, regarding harm to uninvolved civilians”.
The doctor’s subsequent reply questioning why, under the circumstances, that such IDF reports are given given air time, was again interrupted to cite Israeli arguments.
Sorry, but no way was the BBC moderator’s position anti-Israel.
Here’s your answer, since you ask: So anyone saying “I support Extermination of the Jews” can be sentenced to 14 years imprisonment? What does the Free Speech Union have to say to this?
I don’t know what the FSU says, but I say hang them.
Who has said such a thing? Certainly nobody here. And we are supposed to be civilized and not support indiscriminate killing, especially not just for speech.
Yet those on here who cheer the extermination of Palestinians get cheered by some on on here. Oh and by the way it is happening but the MSM in the West turn a blind eye. You’ve been brainwashed, or you’re simply a racist or both.
‘We’re entering dangerous territory: a law that exists on paper but is inconsistently enforced.’ I agree it’s dangerous territory, in that it is wrong – but there are plenty of other examples, so it is hardly new. I believe it is still illegal to use electric scooters on the public highway, but they are so common I have even seen white people using them. Dealing drugs is still against the law too, unless I have missed something, but it happens openly on our street. And don’t even mention immigration law!
The State has plenty of authority when it jails people for words with no trial. It’s not so keen to take on left wing violent thugs.
I don’t understand the criticism that Israel is an apartheid state when Jews, Arabs, and non-Jews are all present as citizens. Am I missing something?
There is a Law of Return which applies to Jews, which allows Jews from anywhere to immigrate to Israel, and the Basic Law of Israel defines Israel as a Jewish state. I think the intention is for Israel to remain majority Jewish forever. I would have liked England to remain majority English forever, but it won’t happen. What obviously complicates what seems to me a fairly natural and reasonable desire, to live among your own kind, is that fairly recent history has seen many changes in who governed the land Israel is on, and who lived there.
I know the word “apartheid” has a general meaning but I think its use in this context is somewhat disingenuous as it evokes South Africa which was a different case, where a majority black country was ruled by whites.
Non Jews who want to live peacefully in Israel have the same rights as Jews. There’s been Arab members of the Knesset since it was formed in 1949, there’s currently 10 which is lower than the historical average.
Israelis want Israel to remain majority Jewish forever but not to the exclusion of minorities (apart from a minority of ultra orthodox Jews/extreme Zionists.
Avi Schlaim , a Jewish Israeli historian born in Iraq thinks you are wrong.
I didn’t think there was complete freedom of movement between certain parts of the State of Israel. Anyway there is an overtly racial element to some of their policies which is unusual these days – though as I have said I don’t think it’s unreasonable.
Ask Avi Schlaim.
I don’t know much about Palestine Action. Assuming what I have read is true, some of their activity is clearly illegal under existing laws. I am not overly sympathetic to what I understand their cause to be. However I am uneasy about the state banning things and threatening to imprison people for long periods for “supporting” them.
I don’t like the direction this country has taken, where many here seem to hate it, but we are where we are and applauding things being banned seems to play into the hands of those who may be employing a divide and conquer or “problem, reaction, solution” strategy.
If Palestine Action are acting against the UK state, and it seems they are, then merely saying you support them is in fact aiding and abetting treason. I am afraid that the state must lance the boil that it has allowed to fester .
So it’s not just words it words which are aiding and affirming real action/violence against the state.
Words are word, actions are actions. Funding or other concrete support is different.
I really don’t know – I certainly don’t have much time for these people, as far as I understand them, or their cause, as far as I understand it, but I have become wary of the state banning things. I don’t trust the state. But I am open to arguments.
Maybe. Certainly some of the actions they are meant/claim to have taken seem to be acting against the state. But those activities are already illegal. Do people who claim to “support” them actually support illegal actions or do they support the “cause”?
Christ, these people are such bloody phonies. As transparent as clingfilm. There is no other ‘genocide’ going on anywhere else in the world right now. No systematic and continuous slaughter of Christians and other minority religions. No human rights abuses such as old men marrying little girls and women being treated like literal slaves, on a par with animals, and Jews were never ethnically cleansed from several Middle Eastern countries. That’s just more Zionist propaganda, like the Holocaust. What these people are is Israel, Jew, Zionist and West-haters. They are terrorist supporters and denialists, to boot. Look at their identical placards. Why are they never protesting anything else that’s going on in any other part of the world other than ‘Palestine’? Because ”No Jews, no news”, that’s why;
”Gaza’s Young Are the Most Radicalised on Earth – And the West Helps Keep It That Way
Senator Lindsey Graham was mocked and howled at by the usual suspects for saying what any clear-eyed observer has known for decades: the most radicalised population on the planet is Gaza’s youth. From cradle to grave, they are fed hate, taught martyrdom, and raised to believe their highest calling is the death of Jews.
It isn’t rhetoric. It’s fact.
Hamas doesn’t just rule Gaza; it owns the minds of an entire generation. Every textbook, every school assembly, every summer camp in the Strip is poisoned with one message: Israel must be destroyed, Jews must be killed, and “resistance” – code for terrorism – is a holy duty.
And here’s the sickening part: much of this happens with Western money. Billions pumped into Gaza under the guise of humanitarian aid have propped up an education system run by Hamas or their sympathisers. UNRWA, the so-called neutral agency tasked with helping Palestinian refugees, has been repeatedly exposed as complicit – employing teachers who glorify terrorism and using materials that deny Israel’s right to exist.
This isn’t some fringe problem. It’s systematic, state-sponsored brainwashing. A child in Gaza learns to hate Jews before they learn to read properly. By their teens, they know how to wield a weapon. By adulthood, many are cannon fodder for terror groups, strapped with explosives or manning rocket launchers aimed at Israeli civilians.
Let’s cut through the excuses. Poverty doesn’t justify this. Blockades don’t justify this. Israel’s existence doesn’t justify this. Other warzones exist; none mass-produce child soldiers and suicide bombers with such industrial efficiency.
And don’t be fooled by the moral contortions of the Left, who parade “Free Palestine” banners while ignoring that the first victims of this system are Palestinian children themselves. They are robbed of futures, used as shields, marched into death by a leadership that thrives on their suffering.
Graham’s words, for all the media outrage, carry a stark warning: unless this conveyor belt of radicalisation is dismantled, there will never be peace. You can replace Hamas, rebuild Gaza, pour in aid – but if the schools and summer camps keep teaching death, the cycle rolls on.
The only path to real peace starts with breaking that machinery of hate. That means defunding @UNRWA
until it’s gutted of extremists. It means conditioning every penny of Western aid on curriculum reform and de-radicalisation. And it means finally admitting the truth the cowards in Brussels and Whitehall refuse to face: this isn’t just a political conflict, it’s a generational war on young minds.
As long as Gaza’s children are raised to die as martyrs, the rockets will keep flying, the graves will keep filling, and the West’s naive hand-wringing will count for nothing.
It’s time to face reality. The radicalisation of Gaza’s youth isn’t accidental – it’s designed. And until we tear that design apart, we’re complicit.”
https://x.com/JChimirie66677/status/1940112786933092395
Lindsey Graham, Trump’s golf partner, senator for South Carolina and US’s most vociferous warmonger; famous for saying Ukraine was a great investment (implying because Russians are dying at zero cost to US lives) and pushing hard for action against Iran. A very sick man.
What other genocides are you referring to?
And Gaza’s young are the most radicalised? They are the most slaughtered. But I confess, with all the death and destruction meted out by Israel, how can there ever be anything other than hatred of all Israelis in their future lives?
Child soldiers and suicide bombers? We are not talking about ISIS here (that Trump has just taken off the list of most wanted terrorists), we are talking about children that know nothing about free life, that have grown up behind barbed wire and concrete walls punctuated by towers with remote-controlled machine-guns, under constant surveillance and threat of arrest for any arbitrary reason, children whose relatives and friends are often enough shot or bombed, children that are starving.
But you know all this. You know all this very well.
I can’t think of any genocides that are currently taking place. However the Rohinga Muslims were ethnically cleansed from Myanmar/Burma about 7-8 years ago amidst claims of mass rape and other crimes against humanity. Morocco has illegally occupied Western Sahara since 1975, there’s at least 200,000 people in displaced person camps in Mauritania, and has been accused by the UN and others of human rights abuses. These are just 2 examples of current/recent injustices that the woke virtue signallers who claim their heart is bleeding for the Palestinians could show even the slightest shred of interest in.
Please feel free to criticize past and any other current atrocities (like 14 years for saying something while our very own RAF flies reconnaissance flights for a genocidal regime).
USA, under Trump’s orders, recently bombed Yemen, Somalia and Iran, killing hundreds of civilians: war crimes. We do not need to go back many years to when our own forces were killing civilians in, for example, Iraq and Belgrade. Our own RAF reportedly bombed sheep and shepherds in Iraq, just to offload their warheads before landing.
There are so many cases of injustice and war crimes carried out by our own, past governments. This does not excuse today’s crimes which you are very welcome to also criticize.
I object to children (and adults) being subjected to one war crime after the other in Gaza. If you do not, so be it.
The formation of Israel was a mistake as General C Marshall observed. It would would be the cause of endless strife.
The perversity of Israel has been paraded for the world to see by the Israelis themselves, whether it be in their snipers targeting the knees of paraplegics in wheelchairs in 2018 or filming themselves wearing Palestinian women’s lingerie while war crimes are committed behind them as a backdrop.
The regular mowing of the grass has fueled a generation of hatred. Now the loathing has spread to a large part of non Muslim western youth who are idealistic because they are young. This loathing is based on evidence.
Moshe Dayan (Israeli war hero)
“What cause have we to complain about their fierce hatred to us? For eight years now, they sit in their refugee camps in Gaza, and before their eyes we turn into our homestead the land and villages in which they and their forefathers have lived.”
The Israelis were hoping the Palestinians would ‘forget’ the appalling treatment meted out to them; and let fall into abeyance the legal documents of ownership to land and property.
I presume you think respect for property law a necessary condition of a civilised society, but I might be wrong.
Have you ever read the following:
Israeli general Rafael Eitan, promised in 1983 that after the land was settled: “All the Arabs will be able to do about it will be to scurry around like drugged cockroaches in a bottle.”
Now you know why hatred for Israel was caused by Israel.
Excellent comment
If only the terrorist organisations Irgun et al had never been given the green light to form Israel the world would have been a better place. General George C Marshall was right.
Round up all the banner wavers, bus then to an airfield somewhere (Brize just for the giggles), keep them all in a hanger sitting on the floor while they are processed, photographed, ID’s proved etc. Then let them go,
it would bring a dose of reality to the low level banner waving ‘cos it’s trendy brigade. Then go after the hard core of the group.
The government and courts have taken a soft line on direct action, but when it came to military aircraft, that was a step too far. They should have harsh penalties for all direct action vandalism, and some kind of limit to the number of protests. We don’t all agree with anti-Israel sentiment, although the death and destruction in Gaza has been horrific. Not as horrific as Hamas atrocities in intent and brutality, but way over the top. Ideal from Hamas’ point of view. And what does everybody expect Israel to do ?
Death and destruction continues to be horrific in Gaza. Not as horrific as Hamas atrocities? I am afraid Israel’s atrocities since 7th October 2023 far outweigh any disgraceful act (many of which were fabricated) committed on that day. UK Column recently reported 377,000 Palestinians are “unaccounted for”.
The Electronic Intifada provides weekly reports on the situation. From 3rd July:
Israel has bombarded areas across Gaza this week, killing 630 Palestinians and wounding more than 2,300 between 25 June and 2 July in airstrikes, tank shellings and by snipers – in attacks on residential buildings, tent shelters, cafes, and, at US-run so-called aid distribution sites.
That is just one week! One week of the past 90 or so.
And there are many other sources of information, none of which makes happy reading.
IDF at its intended finest.
But it’s not genocide.
Call it what you will- how on God’s earth can anyone support Israel.
Within a couple of years the Gaza Strip will be bereft of Palestinians- and also the West Bank.
Most of Israel a country of murderers,
Pandoras Box wax opened decades ago when “Protest” became an active Right, and ceased to be free verbal or graphic expression of dissent and becamenphysical action.
It was opened when Common Law principle of free to exercise one’s Rights but not at the expense of other’s Rights ended: “My Right to swing my fist, stops where your nose starts.”
Now everybody’s Rights can be trampled, prevented from going about their lawful activities, public and private property smashed up, people threatened, frightened, caused nuisance, hurt, because it’s “Protest” innit? And I have a Right.
Bring back flogging, the stocks, and hanging.