Labour can appeal against the High Court's ruling that banning Palestine Action as a terror group was unlawful, judges have ruled.
Three judges ruled on February 13 that the Government’s move to proscribe the group was unlawful, and said that they “propose to make an order quashing” the decision.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said after the decision that she would fight to prevent the proscription being lifted.
In an order today, the Home Office was given the green light to challenge the decision at the Court of Appeal.
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"The defendant’s application for permission to appeal is allowed," the order read.
“The claimant’s application for permission to cross-appeal is refused.”
No date for the appeal has been set.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper proscribed Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act 2000 in July last year when she was serving as home secretary.
Palestine Action’s co-founder, Huda Ammori, took legal action against the Home Office over the decision last June
| GETTYProscription makes it a criminal offence to belong to or support the group, punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
Palestine Action’s co-founder, Huda Ammori, took legal action against the Home Office over the decision last June.
The decision was announced in the wake of the group claiming responsibility for causing an estimated £7million of damage to military tanker planes at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire.
Ms Ammori's barristers told the High Court last year that the ban was an “ill-considered, discriminatory, due process-lacking, authoritarian abuse of statutory power”.
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The Home Office has been given the green light to challenge the High Court's decision at the Court of Appeal
|PA
Thousands of people have been arrested since the ban came into force for expressing support for Palestine Action, with their prosecutions since thrown into doubt by the High Court ruling.
In the wake of the High Court decision, the Metropolitan Police said expressing support for Palestine Action “is still a criminal offence”, but indicated officers were unlikely to arrest people at protests for backing the group.
Palestine Action has undertaken 385 direct actions in protest at the situation in Palestine and the actions of the Israeli government since 2020, according to earlier police figures.
The High Court previously said a “very small number” of those actions amounted to terrorism.
In a 46-page ruling earlier this month, Dame Victoria Sharp, sitting with Mr Justice Swift and Mrs Justice Steyn, said: “We are satisfied that the decision to proscribe Palestine Action was disproportionate.
“At its core, Palestine Action is an organisation that promotes its political cause through criminality and encouragement of criminality. A very small number of its actions have amounted to terrorist action.”
Shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel said at the time she was “appalled” by the High Court ruling.
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