Our Statement in Support of Palestine Action

25/06/25

We unequivocally condemn the UK government's shameful decision to proscribe Palestine Action. Criminalising those who take principled, urgent action to stop a genocide is an act of complicity, not justice.

As members of the Indian diaspora, we know all too well how states weaponise "proscription" to silence resistance. Anti-colonial movements in the Indian subcontinent were consistently branded as terrorism. Today, that same playbook is used against those confronting the brutal arms trade fueling Israel’s genocide on Palestinians.

The hypocrisy is staggering. In 2003, Prime Minister Keir Starmer defended civil disobedience against the Iraq War and represented the "Fairford Five" case, where anti-war protesters broke into RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire to sabotage US bombers before the Iraq War. Now he supports criminalising it in defence of genocide. The UK establishment is torching its credibility, exposing its so-called human rights values as hollow.

This proscription is not just about Palestine Action; it is a dangerous attack on civil liberties. The right to protest, to resist injustice, and to hold power to account is being systematically eroded. If we cede ground here, we open the door to further crackdowns on all forms of dissent. It is a slippery slope we must not allow.

Britain cannot separate itself from the events unfolding in Palestine. From the Balfour Declaration to its colonial administration and to the present day aiding and abetting of the genocide, Britain’s legacy is one of dispossession and apartheid. If anyone needs to be held to account, it is the British state, not Palestine Action. In standing up to Elbit and the arms trade, Palestine Action is doing what the government refuses to: taking responsibility.

Elbit Systems, the target of Palestine Action’s campaign, supplies "battle-tested" weapons not only to Israel but also to the Indian state via the Adani Group to: wage war on Adivasi communities in Bastar, against Kashmiris and National Minorities struggling for their democratic rights. The same tools of oppression cross borders, and so must our solidarity.

History will judge this moment. The UK government will be remembered not for upholding the law, but for defending the machinery of ethnic cleansing and genocide. Meanwhile, Palestine Action embodies the best of Britain, ordinary people taking extraordinary risks to stop extraordinary violence. This is not terrorism.

They should be celebrated, not criminalised.

We are all Palestine Action.

Support their fundraiser to fight the proscription https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/palestine-action/