More than two dozen supporters of the activist group Palestine Action were arrested outside the U.K. Supreme Court on Wednesday as the country’s highest judges heard the group’s challenge to its designation as a terrorist organization, The Washington Post reported. Police moved to detain protesters gathered in central London during the two-day hearing, adding to a tally that has surpassed 3,000 arrests over the past year under the government’s ban.
The proscription, imposed under anti-terrorism laws after activists broke into a Royal Air Force base in June 2025 to protest British military support for Israel’s offensive in Gaza, places Palestine Action in the same legal category as al-Qaida and Hamas. Membership or support now carries a penalty of up to 14 years in prison.
Three of 385 actions: Defining terrorism in a courtroom
Inside the courtroom, the legal battle centered on whether property damage alone can constitute terrorism. Raza Husain, the lawyer representing Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori, told the five justices that only three of the group’s 385 actions over five years met the legal definition of terrorism—and only because they involved property damage. Husain argued the group has “never advocated for violence against… persons,” a point echoed in court filings that compare the group’s tactics to those of the suffragettes, whom The Guardian reported Husain described as having used methods “similar to or more extreme than Palestine Action” without being proscribed.
Government lawyer James Eadie countered that serious property damage could constitute terrorism even without violence against people, noting the Court of Appeal had rejected the characterization of Palestine Action as a “non-violent direct action protest group” when it overturned a lower court ruling in June. That lower court had found the ban unlawful and “disproportionate,” but the appellate judges concluded the group operated as “a covert organization operating with secret cells” that “overtly promotes unlawful violence amounting to terrorism.” The Supreme Court case, docketed as UKSC 2026-0099, is expected to conclude Thursday with judgment reserved for a later date.
From 3,000 to 4,000: The arrest tally keeps climbing
Outside the courthouse, the protest movement showed no sign of abating. The London Evening Standard reported that more than 300 people were arrested at a separate demonstration outside the U.S. Embassy over the weekend, bringing the total number of detentions for defying the ban to more than 4,000 since July 2025. The Independent put the embassy arrest figure at 139 by Saturday afternoon, with hundreds more warned they faced arrest for holding signs reading “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.”
Among those detained was Charles Allison, a 75-year-old retired lawyer who traveled nearly 300 miles from Cumbria to attend. “I fear for our civil liberties, which are being devalued and watered down, even by this new Labour Government,” he said. A spokesman for Defend Our Juries called the scale of arrests “truly dystopian,” noting that “over 4,000 arrests under terror laws” had been made “for peaceful vigils silently expressing opposition to genocide and support for the protest group Palestine Action.” Metropolitan Police Commander Adam Slonecki defended the operation, stating that “all those intending on coming to this event know that supporting a proscribed organisation is unlawful—they are essentially meeting to purposefully commit a crime.”
When solidarity becomes a criminal act
The crackdown now targets literary and intellectual spaces, not just street protests. After British booksellers were banned last month from selling works by Irish novelist Sally Rooney due to her financial support for Palestine Action, prominent authors rallied to her defense on social media. Among them was Sarah Helm, wife of U.K. national security adviser Jonathan Powell, who wrote on X: “God help us authors who support Palestine and Palestine Action.” The Metropolitan Police reviewed her post and determined it did not constitute a crime—a decision that protesters outside the Supreme Court sought to highlight by holding signs with similar wording, substituting “authors” with “normal people,” “students,” “professors,” and “sons of Holocaust survivors.”
The final protester arrested Wednesday held a placard reading: “God help us who are not married to the UK’s national security adviser who support Palestine and Palestine Action.” As she was led away, she shouted: “Sarah Helm had the same sign as me.”
Outside the Supreme Court, where the Palestine Action appeal hearing closed for the day, a man was arrested for saying, "In the UK, it's a crime to say, I support Palestine Action". Police reportedly said it was due to the length of the pause between "crime to say" and "I… pic.twitter.com/NFnPDhHJBO”
More on Palestine Action
The Supreme Court has granted permission to @CST_UK and Jewish Leadership Council to intervene in the appeal relating to the proscription of Palestine Action. Our intervention can be found in full here: https://t.co/YLdkwGUmHp pic.twitter.com/BNPsKGI2Qq
Today the Supreme Court is hearing the challenge to the UK government’s proscription of Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act 2000, R (Ammori) v Home Secretary. At stake is whether the state can use terrorism laws to criminalise solidarity with Palestine. Among the…
