Last week, two members of the group Palestine Action broke into the UK's largest air force base and vandalized a couple of RAF jets with red paint. The pair were able to escape the base without notice but the group posted video of the attack online.
BREAKING: Palestine Action break into RAF Brize Norton and damage two military aircrafts.
— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) June 20, 2025
Flights depart daily from the base to RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus.
From Cyprus, British planes collect intelligence, refuel fighter jets and transport weapons to commit genocide in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/zzmFqGKW8N
Prime Minister Starmer condemned the attack.
The act of vandalism committed at RAF Brize Norton is disgraceful.
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) June 20, 2025
Our Armed Forces represent the very best of Britain and put their lives on the line for us every day.
It is our responsibility to support those who defend us.
Palestine Action was initially bold about claiming this attack had taken the planes out of service.
Ordinary people can take military planes out of service, destroy weapons inside arms factories and pressure companies to end their complicity.
— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) June 20, 2025
We are not powerless. Through direct action, we can break the global genocidal supply chain.
But the same day the UK announced plans to ban the group, which would make it illegal for anyone to be a member or to encourage others to join.
The home secretary will move to proscribe the Palestine Action group in the coming weeks, effectively branding them as a terrorist organisation, the BBC understands.
Yvette Cooper is preparing a written statement to put before Parliament on Monday...
Under UK law, the home secretary has the power to proscribe an organisation under the Terrorism Act 2000 if they believe it is "concerned with terrorism".
If the group is proscribed it would become illegal to be a member or invite support for it.
Obviously, there is a lot of concern about free speech in Britain these days but vandalism of military aircraft isn't speech, it's criminal behavior. Still, some groups like Amnesty are condemning the effort to ban Palestine Action.
🚨BREAKING: We’re deeply concerned at the use of counter terrorism powers to target protest groups.
— Amnesty UK (@AmnestyUK) June 20, 2025
This is the latest in a succession of measures taken by the UK government to clamp down on protest in the UK. pic.twitter.com/NJHFiT9yee
Again, vandalism of military jets isn't just protest it's a crime. Amnesty seems to be saying that clamping down on criminal behavior will chill legitimate protest, which is nonsense. However, the question is whether the UK should be able to ban the group as, essentially, terrorists on the basis of this attack and others like it. Palestine Action has repeatedly vandalized various sites and really doesn't focus on peaceful protests. Vandalism is what they do.
BREAKING: Palestine Action target the University of Liverpool's Vice Chancellor's office, over links with weapons manufacturers which arm the Israeli genocide of Gaza. pic.twitter.com/k7lEiLTFKe
— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) June 20, 2025
BREAKING: Palestine Action target the Manchester office of CDW, tech suppliers for Israel's biggest weapons producer, Elbit Systems. pic.twitter.com/vSzdTbIlt5
— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) June 20, 2025
There's also some question about whether the jets targeted have anything to do with bombing in Gaza. These are cargo planes:
In its statement on Friday, Palestine Action claimed that the targeted planes “can carry military cargo and are used to refuel” military aircraft, including fighter jets, from the British, Israeli and militaries.
But Greg Bagwell, a former senior R.A.F. commander and a fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, said the planes damaged by the group were incompatible with Israeli fighter aircraft and could not be used to refuel them.
“They couldn’t have gotten a more wrong aircraft,” he said in an interview. “They have targeted aircraft that are not the aircraft they think they are.”
The Israeli Air Force flies American-built fighter planes such as the F-15, the F-16 and the F-35A, Mr. Bagwell said, all of which can only be fueled with a boom-style method that is not used by the planes that were damaged on Friday.
In any case, the group was planning a big protest outside Parliament today.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper says she will lay out her plans to proscribe Palestine Action in a statement to parliament on Monday.
— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) June 21, 2025
Mobilise on mass and show that the public stand with Palestine Action. pic.twitter.com/K6M3hmnqiV
But police said they wouldn't be allowed to protest near Parliament.
Palestine Action has been banned from protesting outside Parliament.
The decision comes after Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, said he was “shocked and frustrated” that the group was planning the demonstration for Monday.
The force has now imposed an exclusion zone around Parliament, with protesters facing arrest if they enter the area. Police have also said any demonstrations in central London by the group cannot begin before 12pm and must end by 3pm.
So they had to move the protest and it seems that didn't go well either.
Oh dear. Palestine Action have relocated their being proscribed rally as they were banned from Parliament,/ Whitehall. They moved their rally to Trafalgar Square which,alas is sealed off as workers are dismantling from the weekend. pic.twitter.com/E4FV5jOi6E
— Chris Hobbs (@obbsie) June 23, 2025
almost all of Trafalgar Square is cordoned off so the emergency Palestine Action solidarity demo all around the perimeter pic.twitter.com/b3Jyr8lBmI
— michael (@Sisyphusa) June 23, 2025
They are claiming 500 people showed up. That's not a huge turnout in a city as big as London.
At least 500 people have joined the Palestine Action demo in London chanting: "We are all Palestine Action." pic.twitter.com/v8JRbntbGm
— 5Pillars (@5Pillarsuk) June 23, 2025
Police attempted to make some arrests.
Draconian response by the police at the protest in solidarity with Palestine Action.
— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) June 23, 2025
They want to ban us, they banned our protest at parliament and now they attack us.
The people will not be intimidated.
WE ARE ALL PALESTINE ACTION. pic.twitter.com/CsmebIriek
Meanwhile, the London Times is reporting that a member of the group (apparently the branch in Scotland) just posted an image of himself gripping a pistol and vowing to stop the war in Gaza by any means necessary.
A leading Palestine Action activist has posed with a handgun on a social media post in which he states “resistance is not terrorism”, it has been revealed...
Paul Shortt was among Palestine Action campaigners who received suspended 23-month jail sentences last year after being convicted of burglary and damaging property at Elbit Systems, a British firm it claims supplies equipment to the Israeli army...
In the post he wrote: “Resistance is not terrorism! Resistance is justified. When people are occupied. Resist! By any means necessary.”
Finally, here a very different take on the group's actions last week.
Palestine Action has been banned from protesting outside Parliament today, following their RAF base break-in.
— Talk (@TalkTV) June 23, 2025
Sam Armstrong: "Nothing gets me as angry as this, if you stand with enemies of this country... you are a traitor, you have committed treason!"@JuliaHB1 pic.twitter.com/J7aUslMeEg
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