Donald Trump has stated Palestine Action against a global terrorist organization.
The US president added the British-based group to a list that already includes: HamasAl-Qaeda and Islamic State – with adherents now potentially banned from entering the US for life.
The organization’s assets will also be frozen, including property and bank accounts, while US citizens would no longer be able to do business with them.
LondonThe Court of Appeal ruled in June that the British government‘s decision to ban the group last year under the Terrorism Act 2000 was lawful.
This overturned a Supreme Court decision in February that was supposed to overturn the ban.
Court records show that 1,855 people were charged with carrying a sign in Parliament Square in support of Palestine Action.
The defendants, many in their 60s and 70s, have been told the cases have been adjourned until October 26, pending the outcome of the appeal against the group’s ban.
More than 2,700 arrests have been made under the Terrorism Act 2000 created since the ban on Palestine Action.
British citizens Richard Barnard and Huda Ammori co-founded Palestine Action in July 2020.
The US Treasury Department said it had “taken action” against the British organization, which it accused of supporting “numerous acts of terror since July 2020.”
Protesters are seen outside Westminster court on July 30 in support of activist group Palestine Action
All of the group’s properties in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. citizens have been blocked, the report said.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said: “Far-left extremists, their fronts and their enablers must be on alert: we will deploy the full weight of our economic tools.
“Political terrorism has no place in our society, and we will continue to cut the financial lifelines of these groups until they are eliminated.”
In June, judges at the Court of Appeal ruled that the British government’s ban on the organization as a terrorist group was a “justified and proportionate” interference with freedom of expression.
But the co-founder of Palestine Action can still take her case to the Supreme Court.
In announcing the sanctions, the Trump administration said Palestine Action “has promoted its violent, criminal, and terrorist acts on social media and encouraged the use of similar tactics internationally, including within the United States and along the U.S.-Mexico border.”
The group was sanctioned for “materially aiding, sponsoring, providing financial, material, or technological support for, or providing goods and services to, or in support of, an act of terrorism,” the U.S. Treasury Department said.
It means U.S. citizens will be banned from doing business with the group or contributing money.
British citizens Richard Barnard and Huda Ammori co-founded Palestine Action in July 2022 – they are pictured here outside Westminster Magistrates’ Court in September 2024
Commenting on the action against X, co-founder Huda Ammori said: “Trump just labeled Palestine Action a terrorist group.
“As a Palestinian and an Iraqi, the fact that the country that destroyed both my homelands calls me a terrorist is beyond hypocritical.
“Trump is the antithesis of everything Palestine Action stands for.”
The UK ban on Palestine Action, which came into effect on July 5 last year, made membership or support of the direct action group a criminal offense punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
Police have since made mass arrests at several demonstrations, with demonstrators holding banners, wearing T-shirts and wearing badges declaring ‘I am against genocide, I support Palestine Action’, leading to arrests under anti-terrorism legislation.
Earlier this year, four Palestine Action activists who carried out a ‘terrorist’ attack on the British factory of Israeli defense company Elbit Systems were jailed.
Charlotte Head, 30, Samuel Corner, 23, Leona Kamio, 30, and Fatema Rajwani, 21, used sledgehammers and crowbars to destroy computers, drones and other equipment before police and security intervened.
Corner, a former Oxford student, struck police officer Kate Evans twice in the back with a seven-pound sledgehammer, leaving her with a broken spine.
Mr Justice Johnson imposed the four prison sentences of between seven years and eight months and four years and eight months, with each defendant also required to spend an additional year on probation.
During the hearing, the judge ruled that the raid amounted to a ‘terrorist act’ because it was carried out in an attempt to influence the British government and intimidate a section of the public.
Ms Ammori was given the green light to go to the Supreme Court and challenge a Home office decision banning the group as a terrorist organization.
The Court of Appeal ruled in June that the decision to ban the group last year under the Terrorism Act 2000 was lawful, overturning a High Court decision in February that the ban should be quashed.
However, Ms. Ammori tried to take the case to the Supreme Court based on that of the then Home Minister Yvette Kuiper had incorrectly applied its own policy and that this was contrary to freedom of expression and freedom of association.
The High Court website revealed that judges – Lord Sales, Lord Leggatt and Lady Simler – had given Ms Ammori the green light to challenge the ban on the grounds that Ms Cooper had misapplied her own policy.
Permission to challenge the decision on the basis of interference with freedom of expression and freedom of association was refused.
The hearing is expected to take place between October 1 and December 21.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Andy Valentine said in response to the latest Supreme Court update last month: “The law is clear. Expressing support for banned organizations is a criminal offense and anyone who does so can be arrested.
“There are countless ways to express views on the humanitarian situation in Gaza or on Israeli military actions that do not involve criminality.
“To do otherwise is a deliberate decision and one that will have a damaging impact on the public, court staff, the victims and witnesses attending court, and those attempting to conduct their legal business in the local area.
‘It also affects Londoners more broadly, whose local police officers are being withdrawn from communities to oversee this operation.
“The fact that there will be no hearings on Palestine Action in court tomorrow makes the decision to go ahead with this event all the more nonsensical.”
