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The home secretary has been granted permission to challenge the high court’s ruling that the decision to ban Palestine Action under anti-terrorism laws was unlawful.
An order issued by the high court on Wednesday said Shabana Mahmood could take the case to the court of appeal and that the ban would remain in place pending the outcome of the fresh hearing.
On 13 February, the president of the king’s bench division, Dame Victoria Sharp, Mrs Justice Steyn and Mr Justice Swift ruled that the ban was “disproportionate” and allowed the challenge to it on two out of the four grounds argued.
They found that most of the activities of the direct action group, which targets organisations it considers complicit in arming Israel, had not reached the level, scale and persistence to be defined as terrorism.
Immediately after the decision, Mahmood announced her intention to fight the judgment, saying she was “disappointed by the court’s decision and disagree with the notion that banning this terrorist organisation is disproportionate”.
Sharp, Steyn and Swift said on Wednesday that Mahmood could appeal against the decision and refused a cross-appeal by the successful claimant, Huda Ammori, which means that the co-founder of Palestine Action cannot argue grounds that were rejected at the high court.
The high court judgment said: “Subject to any further representations on relief, we propose to make an order quashing the home secretary’s decision to proscribe Palestine Action.”
Ammori had urged the court to quash the proscription order or at the very least suspend its effects pending any appeal. But the order issued on Wednesday said the quashing of the order “is stayed pending determination of the defendant’s appeal to the court of appeal, or further order”.
The maintenance of the ban and the appeal mean that the fate of more than 2,500 people arrested for allegedly supporting Palestine Action since proscription remains uncertain. More than 500 of those arrested have been charged, mostly for holding placards saying “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action”. They are charged under section 13 of the Terrorism Act, which carries a maximum sentence of six months in prison.
Last week the chief magistrate of England and Wales, Paul Goldspring, said people charged with supporting Palestine Action would not face court until any appeal against the ruling that the ban was unlawful was concluded. All of those who have appeared in court to date have pleaded not guilty but none have been tried.
After the high court’s decision, the Metropolitan police said they would stop arresting people immediately for showing support for Palestine Action but would gather evidence for potential future prosecutions.
The high court found that the ban was a “very significant interference” with the right to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly and that it was a breach of the home secretary’s own policy on proscription.
No date for the appeal has been set.
