British government defends Palestine Action ban in Supreme Court hearing

A UK government lawyer defends before Britain’s highest court the banning of Palestine Action as a “terrorist” organization, insisting that it is not a “non-violent protest group.”

Lawyer James Eadie tells judges that Palestine Action is not a “transparent non-violent protest group,” nor “part of a long and honorable tradition of civil disobedience.”

“Their activities are planned and undertaken secretly in order to avoid detection,” Eadie says, adding that “serious damage to property” — even without injury to people — can be considered “terrorism.”

The lawyer for the Home Office says that no measure other than proscription “could properly be said to be equivalently effective.”

Two UK Jewish groups have made legal submissions in support of the government’s ban, saying the Jewish community was “especially vulnerable to Palestine Action’s violent activities.”

The Supreme Court judges are expected to hand down a decision at a later date.