But the repression didn’t stop—it just changed shape.
Yesterday, a High Court judge granted a full judicial review of the Terrorism Act proscription of Palestine Action, following an urgent legal challenge. That review will be heard over three days in November. And while the ban technically still stands, the UK government clearly had to take a step back in the face of public opposition.
The state blinked again.
It’s a move that mirrors what happened during the Julian Assange case: not a decision, but a delay. Not a ruling, but a hearing about a future hearing while the real meetings are held behind closed doors.
A classic tactic.
The problem with that is, while the political class saves face and the legal system tries to look impartial, hundreds of people are still criminalised, with no accountability and no apology.
Over 300 arrests have already taken place under the ban—some of them for holding signs. Yet at protests over the weekend, few were arrested. Not George Monbiot. Not the dozens who stood next to him in support. Not the activists elsewhere doing similar.
But the day after this legal challenge was granted, I got the call. The police will be interviewing me under caution next week, after handing myself in a few weeks ago. For saying publicly that, “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.” The state might be stepping back publicly, but it hasn’t stopped trying to intimidate people privately.
This isn’t de-escalation. It’s damage control.
A Ban Too Fragile to Defend
The court’s decision to hear the challenge is significant for several reasons. First, the government didn’t want this to happen. Yvette Cooper tried to argue that the case should be thrown out altogether, suggesting that Palestine Action could simply apply to be “de-proscribed” through a separate process. That process could take years. The court rejected this outright.
Instead, the judge recognised that the case had to be heard in full—and quickly. Not quickly enough, of course. The hearing has been scheduled for November. By that point, Keir Starmer will likely have made his grand declaration recognising a Palestinian state. How convenient. The courts kick the can just far enough to avoid interfering with the Labour Party’s PR calendar.
But a few things are now undeniable:
- The proscription is being legally challenged.
- The state tried to block that challenge.
- The judge decided it was too serious to ignore.
This Was Never Just About “Deproscription”
Let’s not lose the plot here. This fight isn’t about getting Palestine Action removed from some bureaucratic list. It’s about exposing a government that tried to ban peaceful, lawful protest in order to protect a foreign power committing genocide.
It’s about trying to instil fear — to make people terrified of saying anything too provocative for fear of criminal prosecution, however true.
And all the while, while these grey-suited men are having quiet lunches at the Savoy discussing “legal process”, people in Gaza are dying from starvation. This is what they’re trying to distract you from. This is what they’re trying to bury under meetings, court dates, and PR spin.
While They Talk, Gaza Starves
While the men in grey suits lunch and negotiate and schedule hearings months from now, Gaza doesn’t have that kind of time. Bureaucracy grinds slowly—but starvation doesn’t.
We are now at the point in this engineered famine where deaths won’t just trickle in—they’ll cascade. Aid agencies have warned that once the tipping point hits, it’s not a trickle of deaths, it’s one big wave. Children, parents, entire families—generations gone in a tsunami of starvation. The timeline of Gaza is no longer counted in days or weeks, but in calories and organ failure. And those numbers are terminal.
It’s not just the starvation either. While this legal and political theatre plays out, the people of Gaza are still being bombed, shot, displaced, and denied access to basic medical care. We’re watching what may be the most documented genocide in modern history—live-streamed, frame by frame—while British institutions argue over semantics and scheduling conflicts.
It’s obscene. But it’s also deliberate. Delay isn’t an accident of government. It’s a tactic. Every day wasted on process is a day Israel gets to keep killing civilians with no consequences—and a day closer to total societal collapse in Gaza. That’s the reality, and no court calendar can change it.
The Backroom Deal They Didn’t Want You to See
John McEvoy’s reporting at DeclassifiedUK and Consortium News shows exactly how this ban came about. It wasn’t a well-considered legal judgement. It wasn’t based on intelligence. It was a backroom political stitch-up that ignored the very advice the government was given — not to proceed.
The UK’s intelligence services advised caution. So did multiple legal experts. Even the Home Office’s own independent reviewer warned against it.
But the government went ahead anyway — and now they’ve been caught in the act. This challenge forces them to stand in court and explain themselves. Under oath. In public.
They never wanted that.
The Real Test Is Coming
Here’s what we now know: Over the weekend, they didn’t arrest the high-profile figures or disrupt the big PR-risk protests. George Monbiot stood holding a sign challenging the law — and walked away without cuffs. So did dozens of others. Have the police been told to change their approach?
Defend Our Juries has announced plans for a major national protest on August 9, with over 500 people expected to publicly defy the ban by holding signs in support of Palestine Action outside Crown Courts across the country.
They’re calling it a line in the sand — and it will be one.
The question is: will the police arrest hundreds of people again for peacefully expressing support for a now-disbanded group, or will they be told to back off? The state may be blinking—but it hasn’t stopped watching.
Let’s not pretend it’s all changed, though. The way this law is being applied is still bloody stupid.
They did arrest two men in Scotland for wearing T-Shirts similar in style to Palestine Action shirts, and they also arrested a disabled protester outside UAV Engines in Shenstone — someone in a wheelchair, wearing a Palestine Action T-shirt. That person was still treated as a threat.
So, let’s get this straight: T-Shirts showing support for Palestine Action this weekend were a sign of terrorist activity, but placards saying the same were not?
Somebody make it make sense, please!
The Crackdown Continues
While the state publicly tries to look reasonable, it continues to behave like an authoritarian regime behind the scenes.
Craig Murray has reported that three women in Scotland who took direct action against a weapons factory—by allegedly driving a van into its railings—have now been charged under the Terrorism Act. These are terrorism charges for property damage at a site producing weapons linked to mass civilian death. The very thing the government claimed wouldn’t happen. The same kind of action Palestine Action has been doing for years—without a single charge of actual terrorism—now reclassified to fit the narrative.
This isn’t a legal process. It’s a political one.
Criminalising Conscience
Let’s be clear why I’m being interviewed by the police next week. It’s not because I threw paint at a building. It’s not even for doing something as simple as holding a sign. It’s because I’ve repeatedly said, in public, that “I support Palestine action. I oppose genocide.” That I refuse to stay silent while this country protects an apartheid regime that is starving civilians to death.
That’s it. Seven words:
“I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.”
For that, I could be facing a terrorism charge.
I did it on purpose. That’s why I handed myself in. Because if standing against genocide, supporting Direct Action against the arms dealers fuelling it, and against a government that criminalises the people trying to stop it makes me a terrorist—then fine. I wanted to join the so-called “terrorists.” Because if they’re terrorists, so am I.
And judging by who’s being labelled a threat these days, I’m in good company.
I know that video is parody, but this isn’t abstract. The United Nations has explicitly called on the UK to stop arming Israel, to do everything in its power to halt the genocide unfolding in Gaza. And what has the British government done in response?
They doubled down. Not by stopping the flow of weapons. Not by cracking down on the companies raking in profit from this carnage. But by calling those whose actions have targeted property—factories, offices, military suppliers, “terrorists”.
And the government did it against the advice of their own legal experts.
Then they wrote the ban so broadly, so recklessly, that police officers felt empowered to harass and arrest disabled people in Palestine Action T-shirts. To target anyone holding a sign. To intimidate those who carry a Palestinian flag, or even utter the word “genocide” aloud.
Let’s not pretend this is about national security. It’s about political security.
It’s about criminalising the kind of resistance the UK is terrified of—resistance rooted in moral clarity.
It’s been a coordinated attack by the British State on those with a conscience. Which means someone somewhere is giving orders — and those orders are shifting.
This isn’t about Palestine Action. It’s about fear. And if there’s one thing they fear the most it’s this:
The truth.
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