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New PM Andy Burnham will be challenged on Thursday to drop the Government’s efforts to keep the ban on Palestine Action which has so far seen thousands arrested – at a time when prison space is extremely limited.
Campaign group Defend Our Juries (DOJ) is staging a protest outside Westminster Magistrates’ Court from 12pm on Thursday, in an action dubbed ‘Graduation Day’, which could see hundreds more arrested for defying the ban on the outlawed pro-Palestine organisation.
The demonstration is deliberately timed to coincide with a date that was set aside for dealing with Section 13 Terrorism Act prosecutions affecting around 1,500 arrested Defend Our Juries supporters, who are accused of holding signs bearing the words: “I Oppose Genocide. I Support Palestine Action.”
Those hearings now look likely to be postponed, but around 200 people are still expected to gather in Westminster where they will be invited to escalate from Section 13 offences (displaying a ‘supportive’ item backing the banned group, such as a placard) to Sections 11 and 12 (promoting membership and inviting support) – which carry potential jail terms of up to 14 years.
Participants will queue to take the stage individually and recite a fixed script declaring support for Palestine Action and encouraging others to do the same, with an optional additional clause professing membership of the direct action group.
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A parallel strand to the protest, dubbed ‘The Escalation’, asks people to post videos online declaring support and/or membership of Palestine Action.
More than 2,100 people were arrested for holding placards within months of the July 2025 ban, with the early tranche of charges relating to a low-level terrorism offence carrying a sentence of up to six months in prison. The group says the figure has now risen to more than 3,500 arrests.
This latest wave is more likely to jam up the justice system as it relates to more severe offences, at a time when the Government has just paused plans for early prisoner releases that were meant to deal with over-flowing prisons.
Defend Our Juries wants to highlight what it believes is the absurdity of the ban, saying backers will be professing membership of a group that no longer exists. DOJ asserts Palestine Action disbanded the night before proscription took effect and never had a membership structure, so declaring membership is factually meaningless.
However, the Court of Appeal treated the organisation as a live proscribed entity.
DOJ also argues that the stricter Section 12 offence – against promoting the organisation – was designed to catch recruitment and material support to terror groups, not symbolic declarations.
Charging under s11 or s12 of the Terrorism Act requires the consent of the new Attorney General, Ellie Reeves KC MP. That means conversations around the arrests could reach Cabinet.
The Legal Battle
After a High Court ruling in February, Senior District Judge Paul Goldspring put Section 13 cases on hold, saying there was no merit in hearing them until the situation regarding the Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s appeal position was clear.
Following the Court of Appeal ruling in the Home Secretary’s favour in June, Judge Goldspring was due to hold a review hearing on 30 June to consider whether prosecutions would proceed, though that has now been delayed.
The Court of Appeal allowed the Home Secretary’s appeal, with the Lady Chief Justice saying the proscription decision against Palestine Action struck a fair balance. The Government and its lawyers have argued that supporters of Palestine are free to support any other pro-Palestine organisation that is not banned.
Backing the Government, the court’s reasoning in June argued Palestine Action had caused serious damage to property, using weapons including sledgehammers against weapons firms, and presented a real risk of injury to the public.
Founder Huda Ammori has said she will now pursue an appeal to the Supreme Court and, if necessary, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
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Pressure on Burnham
A spokesperson for Defend Our Juries told Byline Times: “The consequences for the criminal justice system if Burnham doesn’t follow through on his apology [over Gaza] are pretty significant. It’s a real test.”
“Words are not enough. You’re going to have to show where you really stand.”
The spokesperson added: “I think he knows that the arrest of thousands of people on Labour’s watch under the Terrorism Act is not a good look.”
“Far from being intimidated by the terrorism charges, people are just not going to be silenced.”
Andy Burnham apologised for Labour’s early response to the war on Gaza before becoming PM, saying the party “didn’t get it right”.
However, he has stopped short of calling it genocide, saying a formal determination should be left to international courts. He has kept Shabana Mahmood at the Home Office, the minister who defended the proscription through both courts.
Eighty MPs and peers wrote to Burnham this month urging more sanctions against Israel and for human rights to be secured for Palestinians.
The Government said when banning the group last July that the move was due to the “orchestration and enaction of aggressive and intimidatory attacks against businesses, institutions and the public, which has crossed the thresholds established in the Terrorism Act 2000…Such acts do not represent legitimate acts of protest.”
A Home Office spokesperson added at the time: “The government has carefully considered the nature and scale of Palestine Action’s activities to ensure legitimate protest is not affected.” Opponents of the ban claim it has had a chilling effect on wider pro-Palestine campaigning.
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