Following UK’s lead, US designates Palestine Action as a terrorist organization

WASHINGTON — The United States designated the UK-based Palestine Action on Wednesday as a foreign terrorist group, as US President Donald Trump’s administration seeks to crack down on left-wing groups in its counterterrorism efforts.

The US also issued sanctions against the anti-Israel group, saying the move was for supporting “an act of terrorism.”

Set up in 2020, Palestine Action is appealing against an earlier UK government ban of its activities, which has led to thousands of arrests. Rights groups have decried the ban, which defines Palestine Action as a terror group, saying it was aimed at criminalizing dissent.

Palestine Action’s stated goal on its website is to end “global participation in Israel’s genocidal and apartheid regime.” It gained visibility for large protests and violent acts of vandalism after the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel sparked a two-year war in Gaza.

The action comes after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio last month told officials from more than 60 countries that Washington would seek to ​refocus international counterterrorism efforts on what he called “far-left terror.” The conference sparked concerns from US Democrats that President Donald ‌Trump’s Republican administration is politicizing counterterrorism efforts and diverting resources from other extremist threats.

“Far-left extremists, their fronts, and their enablers should be on notice: We will bring the full weight of our economic tools to bear,” Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said in a statement regarding the ban on Wednesday.

“Political terrorism has no place in our society, and we will continue to cut the financial lifelines of these groups until they are eliminated.”

Britain’s ban on Palestine Action as a terrorist organization came after the group had increasingly targeted Israel‑linked defense companies in Britain, especially Israel’s largest defense firm Elbit Systems. The country’s Supreme Court said last month that it would hear an appeal against a lower court ​ruling that the ban was lawful.

The UK ban, which came into force on July 5, 2025, made membership in or support for the protest group a criminal offense punishable by up to 14 years in prison under the Terrorism Act.

It was banned shortly after a break-in at the Royal Air Force’s Brize Norton base in June 2025, in which activists damaged two military planes.

In June, a judge jailed four activists for raiding an Elbit site near Bristol, in western England, in 2024 and causing over a million pounds in damage. One of them hit a police officer twice on the back with a sledgehammer, leaving her with a fractured spine.

As of July 2026, roughly 3,000 people have been arrested for holding signs in support of Palestine Action.

Responding to the US designation on Wednesday, Huda Ammori, co-founder of Palestine Action, said the group’s activities “have always been about saving lives by disrupting the Israeli war machine.”

“The fact that Trump is now taking inspiration from Britain’s repression of the movement for Palestinian freedom exposes just how dangerous this ban is and should be a wake-up call to anyone who cares about free speech and civil liberties,” Ammori said in a statement to Reuters.

The US Treasury Department on Wednesday also imposed sanctions on an Italy-based entity it accused of supplying digital architecture, tools and services for the anti-fascist movement antifa and other far-left groups.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.