We are all Palestine Action!

South Asia Solidarity Group stands firmly in 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 attack on anti-colonial and anti-imperialist organising, protest and dissent.

This is not the first time in recent months that the British state has clamped down on Palestine solidarity organising. The government has previously reportedly shared contact details of counter-terrorism police and prosecutors with the Israeli embassy during an investigation into a previous action by Palestine Action, as well as using terror laws to enable surveillance and detainment of Palestine activists such as the Filton 18. This group of activists are currently incarcerated while awaiting trial for their action targeting weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems, in which they destroyed weapons including drones being used to commit genocide in Gaza.

The restrictions on organising extend well beyond direct action. Earlier this year, the Metropolitan Police announced that it is not acceptable to protest over Palestine anywhere in the general vicinity of a synagogue at any time on a Saturday, claiming that it presents a threat to the Jewish community. In April, the government introduced amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill restricting rights to protest which was challenged by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. The proscription of Palestine Action will be used to justify further repressive policing of protests. The acute violence of the Met Police at the protest against the proscription on 23 June 2025 shows that this impact is already starting to take effect. The message that protests and action in solidarity with the Palestinian people are ‘terrorism’ will also embolden Zionists, the far-right and racists to intensify their physical attacks on  pro-Palestine protests and actions.

The UK is far from unique in such legislation. Cases like that of protestor Mahmoud Khalil in the US – a Palestinian student at Columbia University who was detained in March and is still facing the threat of deportation – are part of the same collective silencing by imperialist states in the Global North of any pro-Palestine resistance.

The proscribing of organisations supporting Palestine and providing solidarity includes the listing of Samidoun Prisoner Solidarity Network as a terrorist entity by the governments of Germany, the Netherlands and Canada. Addameer Prisoner Support – which has advocated for Palestinians imprisoned without evidence in Israeli prisons for over 30 years – was also recently placed on the US’ Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SGDT) list.

The persecution of those who speak or take action against the Gaza genocide is also being pursued by Zionist allies like the Modi government in India, where expressions of solidarity with Palestine of all kinds have been violently suppressed.

Of course, the British state not only hosts but is intimately tied to the weapons manufacturers whose weapons it exports to be used in Israel’s genocide. Declassified recently reported that Elbit Systems lobbied the Home Office for a retrial after criminal charges against Palestine Action’s co-founders were dismissed in December 2023.

It is clear by now that the UK establishment – along with those of other European countries and the US – are deeply threatened by the power of all pro-Palestine organising, from supporting Palestinian prisoners to directly disrupting the supply chains fuelling Israel’s genocide. Direct action works. Solidarity and advocacy further resistance. In the current climate, being proscribed means you are having an impact.

As activists focused on solidarity with people’s movements in South Asia, we recognise all too well the clampdown on the right to protest as a key aspect of a descent into fascism. We have long been exposing and highlighting the British state’s complicity in Israeli apartheid and genocide and the proscription of Palestine Action is another reminder of this. We must not let these fearmongering laws deter us but must come out stronger than ever in solidarity with Palestinians and all those fighting for a free Palestine.