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Judgment follows judicial review challenging ban brought by Palestine Action’s co-founder Huda Ammori
A protestor shouts through a megaphone outside The Royal Courts of Justice, Britain’s High Court, in London on 13 February 2026 (Ben Stansall/AFP)
By Areeb Ullah
MEE, 13 February 2026 10:09 GMT
England’s High Court has ruled that the UK government’s ban on Palestine Action is “unlawful” after a months long legal battle with the British government.
Justice Victoria Sharp has told the court that the proscription of Palestine Action “did result in a very significant interference with the right of freedom of speech and freedom of assembly”.
The ruling found that the decision to proscribe the group was discriminatory, however the ban remains in force until a further order by the court.
The judgement ruled that “a very small number of Palestine Action’s activities amounted to acts of terrorism” as defined by terror legislation.
Friday’s judgment follows a judicial review challenging the July 2025 ban brought by Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori.
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Ammori hailed the landmark ruling as a “monumental victory both for our fundamental freedoms here in Britain and in the struggle for freedom for the Palestinian people, striking down a decision that will forever be remembered as one of the most extreme attacks on free speech in recent British history”.
Ammori added that the ban resulted in “unlawful” arrests of “nearly 3,000 people – among them priests, vicars, former magistrates and retired doctors” under terrorism laws for holding signs in support of the direct action group.
“It would be profoundly unjust for the government to try to delay or stop the High Court’s proposed order quashing this ban while the futures of these thousands of people hang in the balance,” she said.
Responding to the ruling, UK director of Human Rights Watch Yasmine Ahmed said it was a “shot in the arm for British democracy at a time when it is facing a barrage of attacks by this government to undermine our rights to freedom of assembly, expression, and speech”.
“Palestine Action is not a terrorist organisation and should never have been designated a terrorist organisation,” she said.
“Today’s verdict reinforces what many of us having been saying all along – that the government’s misuse of terrorism legislation was a brazen and gross abuse of power that served to stifle legitimate criticism of Israel and those profiting from its atrocities.”
The ban, introduced in July 2025, made membership of the group, public expressions of support for it, or the display of its symbols criminal offences punishable by up to 14 years in prison under Britain’s terrorism laws.
Since the ban on Palestine Action, hundreds of people protesting the proscription and Israel’s genocide in Gaza have been arrested and charged with terror charges.
The government outlawed the group days after activists, protesting the genocide in Gaza, broke into an air force base in southern England and targeted aircraft with paint and crowbars that Palestine Action alleged were used to support the war. The British government alleged that the incident caused an estimated £7m ($9.3m) of damage to two aircraft.
In written court submissions, the Home Office argued that actions “can constitute terrorism if they involve serious property damage even if it does not involve violence against any person or endanger life”.
“Proscribed organisations are deprived of the oxygen of publicity as well as financial support,” the government submissions noted.
Meanwhile, the Home Office’s lawyer Natasha Barnes argued the ban “has not prevented people from protesting in favour of the Palestinian people or against Israel’s action in Gaza”.
This is a developing story…
Peace and Justice Post 
All aboard the atheist bus campaign
October 22, 2008It’s real, it’s happening: you can sponsor the first atheist advert on a bus – and Richard Dawkins will match your money
The godless move in mysterious ways: what the atheist bus campaign’s advert will look like.
The atheist bus campaign launches today thanks to Comment is free readers. Because of your enthusiastic response to the idea of a reassuring God-free advert being used to counter religious advertising, the slogan “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life” could now become an ad campaign on London buses – and leading secularists have jumped on board to help us raise the money.
The British Humanist Association will be administering all donations to the campaign, and Professor Richard Dawkins, bestselling author of The God Delusion, has generously agreed to match all contributions up to a maximum of £5,500, giving us a total of £11,000 if we raise the full amount. This will be enough to fund two sets of atheist adverts on 30 London buses for four weeks.
If the buses hit the road, this will be the UK’s first ever atheist advertising campaign. It’s an exciting development, which I never expected when I first proposed the idea on Cif in June. Back then, I was just keen to counter the religious ads running on public transport, which featured a URL to a website telling non-Christians they would spend “all eternity in torment in hell”, burning in “a lake of fire”. When I suggested the atheist counter-slogan (now shortened for readability), the response was extremely positive, and hundreds of you pledged your support after the follow-up article.
As you read this, a new advertising campaign for Alpha Courses is running on London buses. If you attend an Alpha Course, you will again be told that failing to believe in Jesus will condemn you to hell. There’s no doubt that advertising can be effective, and religious advertising works particularly well on those who are vulnerable, frightening them into believing. Religious organisations’ jobs are made easier because there’s no publicly visible counter-view to refute their threats of eternal damnation.
The atheist bus campaign aims to change this. In addition to the slogan, the adverts will feature the URLs of secular, humanist and atheist websites, so that readers can find out more about atheism as a positive and liberating alternative to religion. We’ve also set up an interactive campaign website and Facebook group, so that questions raised by the adverts can be publicly debated.
CBS Outdoor, the bus advertising company, will run the atheist adverts in January if the funds are raised – but we need your help to make this happen.
Your donations will give atheism a more visible presence in the UK, generate debate, brighten people’s day on the way to work, and hopefully encourage more people to come out as atheists. As Richard Dawkins says: “This campaign to put alternative slogans on London buses will make people think – and thinking is anathema to religion.”
To donate to the atheist bus campaign, please visit here.
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