Activists Without Borders stands in unwavering solidarity with direct action group Palestine Action, which the UK government has announced its intention to proscribe as a ‘terrorist organisation’. We condemn this outrageous and dangerous attack on anti-colonial and anti-imperialist organising, protest and dissent.

A Dangerous Escalation
On 20 June 2025, Palestine Action activists infiltrated RAF Brize Norton, the UK’s largest air base, using electric scooters to breach security. Red paint was sprayed onto two RAF Voyager aircraft, which are regularly used to transport military supplies to Israel. The aircraft were also reportedly damaged with crowbars. In response, four individuals were arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000, and the Ministry of Defence initiated a nationwide review of base security.

Rather than treating this as an act of civil disobedience or direct action protest, the state has escalated its response to a full terrorism investigation, invoking the counter-terror unit of Thames Valley Police. The Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, has announced plans to formally ban Palestine Action via a proscription order under the Terrorism Act, with a draft expected to be brought before Parliament on 30 June 2025.

If passed, this will make membership, support, or promotion of Palestine Action a criminal offence, punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

Repression Beyond Direct Action
This is not an isolated incident but the culmination of a long campaign to criminalise Palestine solidarity. In the past year alone:

  • The British state reportedly shared the contact details of counter-terror police and prosecutors with the Israeli embassy, related to an earlier Palestine Action investigation.
  • The Filton 18 activists who dismantled drone components at an Elbit factory remain imprisoned awaiting trial.
  • The Metropolitan Police issued blanket restrictions on Palestine protests near synagogues on Saturdays, implying peaceful protest constitutes a public threat.
  • The Crime and Policing Act has been further weaponised to curtail rights to assemble, a move challenged by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
  • The protest on 23 June 2025 against the planned proscription of Palestine Action was met with aggressive policing, as seen in widespread reports and footage of violent dispersal tactics.

The message from the British government is clear: to support the Palestinian struggle is to risk arrest, surveillance, and now, being branded a terrorist. This will only embolden the far-right, Zionists, and racists to further intimidate, harass, and attack pro-Palestine organisers and rallies.

Image: Nathan Neve

Global Criminalisation of Solidarity
The UK’s actions are mirrored by allied imperial states across the globe:

  • In the United States, Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian student activist at Columbia University, remains at risk of deportation after being detained during protests.
  • The Samidoun Prisoner Solidarity Network has been listed as a terrorist organisation in Germany, Canada, and the Netherlands.
  • Addameer Prisoner Support, with over 30 years of advocacy for detainees held by Israel without charge or trial, has been placed on the US Specially Designated Global Terrorist list.
  • In India, under the Modi regime, any form of pro-Palestine solidarity – online, in schools, or on the street – has been violently suppressed.

These cases are not disconnected – they are the collective face of imperial fear and authoritarianism, working to suppress growing global resistance to genocide and occupation.

Targeting the Movement, Not Just the Message
Let us be absolutely clear: the British state is not neutral. It does not merely enable Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza – it is deeply embedded in it. The UK exports arms to Israel, grants diplomatic and political cover, and harbours the arms companies fuelling the violence.

In a recent Declassified UK report, it was revealed that Elbit Systems, a key Israeli weapons manufacturer, lobbied the Home Office for a retrial after charges against Palestine Action’s co-founders were dismissed in 2023. This is not justice – it is collusion.

In Defence of Dissent
We know that direct action works. From factories shut down to weapons destroyed, Palestine Action has disrupted the machinery of occupation and war. That is why they are being targeted. The proscription of Palestine Action is not a sign of their failure—it is proof of their impact.

To be proscribed by an apartheid-supporting state is to be vindicated.
We, at Activists Without Borders, have long warned that the UK government’s complicity in genocide abroad goes hand in hand with the erosion of civil liberties at home. These bans, surveillance, arrests and smear campaigns are hallmarks of authoritarian decline – a descent into fascism masked by ‘national security.’

But we will not be silenced. We will not be intimidated.

Solidarity Is Not Terrorism
We call on civil society, trade unions, student groups, legal observers and international human rights organisations to:

  • Oppose the proscription of Palestine Action.
  • Resist the normalisation of protest repression.
  • Expose the British state’s ties to Israeli apartheid.
  • Stand in full solidarity with the Palestinian people and the movements that support them.

We are all Palestine Action. And we will not stop until Palestine is free.

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