We are outraged by the decision of the UK government to proscribe Palestine Action.
The British government is currently aiding and abetting Israel’s genocide. UK companies profit from genocide, when Palestinian children are killed by 2000lb bombs dropped from F-35 combat aircraft that the UK helps to keep operational with its supply of spare parts. There is a clear legal and moral path available – imposing a full two-way arms embargo. The government have not done this. But they have responded to activists who sprayed jets with red paint by declaring Palestine Action a terrorist organisation, an action which potentially criminalising all who express support for this type of direct action.
There is a long and proud history in the peace movement of direct action at nuclear bases, military bases and arms companies that has never been thought of as terrorism. Keir Starmer himself was part of the legal team defending the Fairford Five during the Iraq war. For generations, from Greenham, Faslane, Aldermaston, Fairford and others, the peace movement has taken action against military bases – actions that regularly involve breaching security, getting inside and causing damage.
Like the Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT), we are the proud of the actions used by the Seeds of Hope Ploughshares women who used hammers to smash up a hawk aircraft bound for Indonesia in 1996 and were eventually acquitted by a jury. We are also proud of Trident Ploughshares various actions at Faslane.
Our campaign is specifically directed against nuclear weapons and civil nuclear power which supports the nuclear weapons’ industry, while also adding to radioactive waste and harmful pollution. We abhor the constant threat of nuclear weapons made by nuclear-weapon states. Successive governments have failed us as citizens. The UK government have failed to honour their obligations under international law in their own conduct with respect to nuclear weapons, the arms trade and calling out Israel. Instead of joining the non-nuclear states seeking a
total abolition of nuclear weapons they have chosen to add to the nuclear threats that hang over the world and instead of imposing a full two-way arms embargo on trade with Israel, this Labour government has instead increased the UK’s arms trade with Israel – licensing £127m of arms in the last three months of 2024 – more than 2020-2023 combined. They fail the Palestinian people by standing aside while Israel, a secretive nuclear armed state remaining outside of the Non Proliferation Treaty, commits horrific war crimes.
We believe that proscribing Palestine Action is designed to intimidate our movements and to divide solidarity. It won’t work. The peace movement will continue its own forms of action because people care.