GGEC/EGGEC Statement on UK bid to ban Palestine Action

Statement by Gaza Genocide Emergency Committee and Edinburgh Gaza Genocide Emergency Committee, of which SACC is part.

Gaza Genocide Emergency Committee and Edinburgh Gaza Genocide Emergency Committee deplore the UK Government’s imminent plan to proscribe Palestine Action as a ‘terrorist’ grouping. 

At a time when Israel is engaged in a clear genocide in Gaza and mass extermination of the Palestinian people, any attempt to demonise and render illegal a humanitarian group dedicated to stopping that illegal killing and suffering would constitute, in itself, an act of unconscionable support for that genocidal, terrorist regime.

Whatever one may think of the strategies and methods deployed by PA, their intention is not to terrorise others. Their task is specifically to stop the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the further commissioning of UK war crimes. It is to break the supply of weaponry to the regime. Their ultimate purpose is to save lives.

The proposal to proscribe Palestine Action has been widely condemned by all major human rights groups, including Amnesty International, as a blatant assault on our most basic civil liberties. The right to protest and act against a genocide should be held as sacrosanct. And where action is taken against such groups, it should be conducted under the provisions of existing law. Any use or extension of terrorism legislation to proscribe Palestine Action and prosecute such people under such a pretext would be a draconian manipulation and abuse of the law.

It is horrifying to think that this UK Government would castigate and ban Palestine Action as a terrorist entity while Israel is waging outright terror on the Palestinian people. Indeed, in doing so, the UK, already a direct party to the genocide through its military and political support for the regime, would become even further enmeshed in Israel’s campaign of genocidal terror. 

We reaffirm our unequivocal support for Palestine Action in its honourable, courageous and direct efforts to prevent terrorist acts of aggression against the people of Palestine, and in its endeavours to stop the UK’s participation in further illegal wars.

We condemn Keir Starmer and his government in the strongest terms, and warn of the truly dangerous and reactionary measures they are now undertaking.

We demand that the UK, as signatories to the Genocide Convention, uphold their obligations in imposing meaningful sanctions against Israel and an immediate end to all forms of military assistance to the terrorist regime. 

GGEC and EGGEC

Note (4 July 2025). This statement sets out SACC's position (as an affiliate of EGGEC and GGEC) on the date the statement was published on this website (23 June 2025). Palestine Action was subsequently banned in the UK, with effect from midnight 4 July 2025. SACC remains strongly opposed to the ban and to the powers of proscription set out in the Terrorism Act 2000. We continue to believe that non-violent direct action is a justifiable response to grave violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law such as those currently being enacted by Israel. Beyond this, nothing may be inferred from anything on this page about SACC's current views on the organisation Palestine Action.