Activists report Palestine Action police raids at dawn
Campaigners say counter-terror officers visited homes after calls to lift Palestine Action’s ban.
People campaigning to lift the ban on Palestine Action say counter-terrorism officers came to their homes at dawn, taking flags, posters, phones and other personal items.
Defend Our Juries said on 31 August that “dozens” of campaigners had been visited or raided in the Palestine Action police raids. The group said the operation followed campaigning against the organisation’s proscription, and that a circulated video showed officers referring to a summons under section 12 of the Terrorism Act 2000.
No police force has yet published a statement confirming the number of addresses attended, whether warrants were used, what was seized, or whether anyone was arrested or charged. The people affected have not been reliably named, and there is no public evidence that they are members of Palestine Action.
What the Palestine Action police raids mean
That uncertainty matters because a summons is not an arrest, and a reported home visit is not proof of an offence. But for those woken by officers and left without their devices, the practical burden is already real: privacy gone, communications removed and the weight of a terrorism investigation brought into the home.
The reported operation follows the proscription of Palestine Action on 5 July 2025, after activists damaged aircraft at RAF Brize Norton. The government said the group’s actions at arms and military sites involved serious criminal damage and, in some cases, injury. It chose proscription rather than relying only on existing criminal charges.
The High Court quashed that decision in February on policy and proportionality grounds, including rights to free expression and assembly. The Court of Appeal restored the ban in June, holding that the home secretary had acted lawfully; co-founder Huda Ammori is pursuing a Supreme Court appeal.
A law with a widening reach
The government says violence and serious criminal damage have no place in legitimate protest. That is the strongest case for the ban, and the Court of Appeal recorded evidence of both peaceful and non-peaceful activity connected to Palestine Action.
Yet the present reports concern people said to have campaigned for the ban’s repeal or circulated political material, not people publicly accused of damage at an arms site. Section 12 allegations can carry up to 14 years depending on the conduct alleged, far beyond the six-month maximum in section 13 sign-holder cases.
Home Office figures recorded 2,779 arrests linked to alleged support for Palestine Action in 2025, 92% of all terrorism-related arrests that year. Their average age was 59. A law made after attacks on military and arms sites is now reaching into the homes of people campaigning over whether that law should exist.
