Government 'manufactured consent' for Palestine Action ban, source tells MEE

The group was targeting the landlords of an arms company that supplies military equipment to Israel and not 'Jewish businesses' as claimed by the government

Police arrest a protestor challenging the British government's proscription of 'Palestine Action' in Parliament Square, London, 9 August (Reuters)

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Amid mounting public outcry over its ban of protest group Palestine Action under terrorism legislation, the UK government has issued multiple statements citing the group's "violent" methods and targeting of “Jewish businesses” as justification for their proscription.

On 11 August, Justice Minister Alex Davies-Jones said in an interview with the BBC that the group’s “actions have not been peaceful” and that the government has “credible reports of them targeting Jewish-owned businesses”.

Instead, the source says activists only targeted companies complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide, including a landlord for a subsidiary of Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest military supply company, and an Israeli lobby group.

The British government proscribed Palestine Action under anti-terror laws on 4 July, following an incident in which members broke into RAF Brize Norton and attacked two planes with paint and crowbars, which they said were “used for military operations in Gaza and across the Middle East".

The designation puts Palestine Action on par with al-Qaeda and the Islamic State under British law.

It is now a criminal offence to show support for or invite support for the group, punishable by up to 14 years in prison under the Terrorism Act 2000.

More than 500 people were arrested on 11 August, most of them over the age of 50, for alleged support of the group while attending a protest demanding the government lift the ban.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper subsequently mounted a fresh defence of the decision, stating that Palestine Action is “not a non-violent organisation”.

She told the BBC that "There may be people who are objecting to proscription who don't know the full nature of this organisation, because of court restrictions on reporting while serious prosecutions are underway.

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"But it's really important that no-one is in any doubt that this is not a non-violent organisation."

On 6 August, Prime Minister Keir Starmer reportedly told Labour’s national executive committee (NEC) that Palestine Action had been banned as “they’ve planned and attacked Jewish-owned businesses”, adding that there were “some incidents that were well known, and others that were not”.

The government’s Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) assessment does not mention these attacks, but notes that the group “has also conducted direct action against other targets in the UK which are not linked to the Israeli defence trade, but are considered symbolic to its wider pro-Palestinian cause”.

It found that the basis for Palestine Action’s proscription rests primarily on “incidents that have resulted in serious property damage with the aim of progressing its political cause”, noting that it assessed that the group is not otherwise concerned with terrorism.

“It’s a smear campaign to try and distract people from the outrage of Palestine Action’s proscription, and trying to make it about something it isn’t”, a source familiar with the group before its proscription told Middle East Eye.

“Ultimately it was based on serious damage to property. It’s a desperate attempt to manufacture consent for the proscription."

Landlords were always a target

Cooper’s statement announcing her decision to proscribe Palestine Action on 23 June cited the group’s “long history of unacceptable criminal damage” as the primary motivation for the ban.

But she also alluded to an “attack against a Jewish-owned business in north London, where the glass-front of the building was smashed and the building and floor defaced with red-paint including the slogan “drop Elbit”.

In May, the Guardian reported that Palestine Action had targeted an unnamed “Jewish-owned business” in Stamford Hill, an area with a large Jewish population in North London.

Palestine Action claimed responsibility for the incident, stating that its activists had targeted the registered London address of Discovery Park Ltd, which it said is the landlord to a factory run by Instro Precision, which is a subsidiary of Elbit Systems.

Photos posted by the group revealed the office front with its windows smashed and “Drop Elbit” daubed across it in red paint.

The report cited a spokesperson for the company, which it said requested anonymity for fear of further attacks, who denied the firm had any links with Elbit.

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The company is headquartered at Discovery Park in Kent, which has long been the target of local campaigns demanding the company’s eviction.

Discovery Park Ltd, which owns the business park, is registered at 147 Stamford Hill.

While the police would not share information with Middle East Eye about the name of the targeted firm, photos of the action’s aftermath reveal the office door number as being 147.

The office frontage of the firm targeted by Palestine Action in Stamford Hill (Supplied)

While not naming the firm, a report in the Times of Israel mentions “a spokesperson for Discovery Park” quoted in the Standard as denying connections with the “Elbit subsidiary factory located within its Kent business park”.

The Standard report cited the “Hackney-based firm” as saying “that despite being close to the business park it does not have a contract with Elbit Systems”.

Middle East Eye contacted Discovery Park Ltd for clarification but the company declined to comment.

“Throughout Palestine Action’s campaign, there were hundreds of actions against companies linked to Elbit, companies which enable Elbit to operate,” a source familiar with Palestine Action's activities prior to the ban told MEE.

'They are Jewish-owned. But the implication is that they were targeted because they were Jewish [is] deliberately misleading'

- informed source

“And throughout this five year campaign, landlords were always a big target."

“From our perspective, it’s really quite clear why Discovery Park Ltd were targeted by Palestine Action - because they were the landlords to an Elbit Systems subsidiary company,” the source said.

“They are Jewish-owned. But the implication is that they were targeted because they were Jewish, it's deliberately misleading,” they added.

“If the landlords were somebody else, they would also have been targeted, regardless of whether or not they were Jewish or based in a predominantly Jewish area."

Separately n 15 May, the Jewish Chronicle reported that a "building housing Jewish-owned businesses 'in the heart' of of the north Manchester Jewish community" was splattered with red paint by Palestine Action to coincide with Nakba ("catastrophe") Day, which refers to the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by Zionist militias to make way for the creation of Israel in 1948.

The targeted building was Rico House in Prestwich, the registered address of Aztec West, landlords of Elbit's Bristol headquarters.

Somerset council, the previous landlords, sold the building to Aztec West following a prolonged campaign by Palestine Action.

Highlighting complicity

The source said that the allegations of antisemitism could also stem from a series of actions by the group to mark the 107th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration - which set out Westminster’s support for a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine - on 2 November 2024.

The actions aimed to highlight British complicity in Israel’s Gaza genocide, and involved spray painting the London headquarters of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) and the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre (Bicom).

“The vast majority of the group's actions were aimed at interrupting the production of weapons on Balfour Day. It was an opportunity to do something which is also going to raise awareness about Britain's role in the colonisation,” the source familiar with Palestine Action said.

Activists seized a bust of Chaim Weizman - Israel’s first president, who is considered central to securing the Balfour Declaration - from the University of Manchester.

The UK branch of the Jewish National Fund is a registered charity, and the British arm of Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund, which was established in 1901 and has since been involved in the displacement of Palestinians and destruction of the natural environment in the occupied Palestinian Territories.

Last year, the International Centre for Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) wrote to the UK attorney general calling on him to revoke the JNF’s charitable status over its role in funding illegal Israeli settlements and the Israeli military.

Bicom, which was set up after the Second Intifada in 2001, describes itself as aiming “to increase understanding of Israel in the UK”. The organisation has attempted to shape perceptions of Israel by providing journalists with access to senior Israeli officials and even flying reporters out to Tel Aviv.

The JTAC assessment noted that the group “has also conducted direct action against other targets in the UK which are not linked to the Israeli defence trade, but are considered symbolic to its wider pro-Palestinian cause”, adding that the actions on Balfour Day were “investigated by the Metropolitan Police as hate crimes against the Jewish community”.

Sparking a renewed discussion

The actions on Balfour Day sparked uproar amongst pro-Israel groups and prompted a flurry of opinion pieces in the right-wing press demanding the group’s proscription.

According to the source, this marked the beginning of the process of the group’s proscription, which they said was prompted largely by anger from pro-Israel groups, rather than concerns around criminal damage outlined in the JTAC assessment and by Cooper.

On 5 November North West Friends of Israel circulated a petition calling for the group’s proscription, and on 6 November, Jewish News reported that discussions were “taking place within the Home Office over the possible steps to proscribe” Palestine Action.

The report cited “images of smashed windows and red-paint splattered over offices used by a Jewish business and pro-Israel advocacy, and the word "Palestine" partially sprayed on walls at the offices on Hampstead High Street, north London”, in reference to the actions targeting JNF and Bicom’s offices, as “sparking renewed discussion on building a possible case for proscribing Palestine Action under existing terror laws”.

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Also on 6 November, the Jewish Board of Deputies met with Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley.

Phil Rosenberg, the Board of Deputies president, described the meeting as an “important opportunity to discuss the Jewish community’s deep concerns about rising antisemitism in the UK, including the appalling incidents of the last weekend”.

“From the evidence in the judicial review, I can see that the first time it was suggested to proscribe Palestine action was in December, and right in the weeks ahead of that, there was a lot of pressure after Balfour Day to proscribe Palestine action,” the source told MEE.

They added that the pressure subsided in December when the government initiated the proscription process, resurfacing again in May when the decision was paused in anticipation of a request by Cooper for further information from JTAC regarding the group’s activities.

In June, the campaign kicked into gear again, with We Believe in Israel issuing two reports calling for Palestine Action's proscription on 9 June, and Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) writing to the home secretary urging her to ban the group on 12 and 16 June.

“It seems they were aware of the process, because the timings of the public interventions just coincided with when the home secretary paused the proscription process,” the source said.

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