Key facts
- Huda Ammori's lawyer Raza Husain argued the suffragettes used tactics similar or more extreme than Palestine Action.
- The Home Office says the 2024 Elbit Systems raid caused an estimated £1 million ($1.35 million) of damage.
- Lawyers for Ammori said officials assessed just three of 385 actions over five years met the definition of terrorism.
- The Home Office says the Elbit attack involved violence and weapons against security staff and police, one of whom suffered a spinal injury.
- The United States designated Palestine Action as a terrorist group in August.
A co-founder of Palestine Action, Huda Ammori, challenged Britain's decision to ban the campaign group as a terrorist organization at the UK Supreme Court on November 4, arguing the move was disproportionate and undermined counter-terrorism laws. Her lawyer, Raza Husain, told the court that the suffragettes and other groups used tactics similar or more extreme than Palestine Action, citing the suffragettes' early 20th-century bombing campaign.
The British government proscribed Palestine Action in July 2025 after a series of high-profile incidents mostly targeting defense firms, culminating in a break-in at the Royal Air Force's Brize Norton air base in which two planes were damaged. The Home Office argues the group's escalating actions, causing serious property damage, particularly a 2024 raid targeting Elbit Systems, amounted to terrorism and justified the ban. The Home Office says the Elbit attack involved the use of violence and weapons against security staff and police officers, one of whom suffered a spinal injury when she was hit with a sledgehammer, and that the raid caused an estimated £1 million ($1.35 million) of damage.
Lawyers representing Ammori said that, at the time the group was proscribed, government officials had assessed that just three of 385 actions carried out over five years had met the definition of terrorism. London's High Court initially ruled that the ban was unlawful, but the Court of Appeal overturned that decision in June, rejecting comparisons with historical groups such as the suffragettes.
The move has drawn criticism from civil liberties groups and prominent supporters including Irish novelist Sally Rooney, whose books can no longer be sold in Britain over her plans to provide royalties to the group. There have been more than 3,600 arrests linked to support for Palestine Action between proscription in July 2025 and June, representing more than one-third of all terrorism arrests in Britain since 9/11, according to Home Office statistics. With the arrest of over 300 people the previous weekend outside the US embassy in London, plus about two dozen outside the Supreme Court on November 4, the figure is now more than 4,000, though any resulting charges could be dropped if the ban is overturned.
The United States in August also designated Palestine Action as a terrorist group. President Donald Trump has described activists who targeted his Turnberry golf resort in Scotland last year as terrorists.