MPs were right to ban Palestine Action - Iran's Revolutionary Guard must be next

MPs were right to overwhelmingly back the government in its move to ban Palestine Action, aside from a handful of MPs such as Jeremy Corbyn who previously voted against banning organisations including Hamas and Al Qaeda just months before 9/11. The ban follows a clear pattern of escalation from property damage to direct threats against national security. While some defend this as legitimate protest, the evidence tells a different story.

In May 2025, activists targeted Stamford Hill, a significant Orthodox Jewish cultural hub, smashing windows of Jewish businesses and spraying red paint on religious scrolls. When Palestine Action activists appeared at the High Court, they displayed a banner declaring "END ZIONIST CONTROL OF THE UK GOVERNMENT", echoing far-right conspiracy fantasies.

Banning Palestine Action doesn't treat them like Al-Qaeda. It treats them like National Action, another banned domestic group that used "direct action" against "zionism". Like National Action, Palestine Action has attracted Holocaust deniers and enjoys support from far-right networks

Violence against property often precedes violence against people. Palestine Action activists have assaulted police officers with sledgehammers, hospitalising one. Just weeks ago, social media posts by a Palestine Action activist showed him posing with handguns and the text "resistance is justified".

Palestine Action's campaign has targeted universities, banks, restaurants, and charities based on tenuous or non-existent links to Israel. But breaking into an RAF base to sabotage Britain's military capabilities is not a vote winner. It crossed a red line that forced government action.

The damage extends beyond the financial cost, estimated in tens of millions. In the time it took to ban them, extremism has been legitimised among impressionable young students who they recruit like National Action used to. In November 2024, groups at nineteen universities declared "unwavering solidarity" with Palestine Action and praised their "crucial work".

This support on campuses translated into street action. At a recent protest against the banning of Palestine Action, thirteen arrests included charges for attacking emergency workers, police and a racially aggravated offence. Critics invoke the "democratic right" to "peaceful protest," but there is no democratic right to violence and hate.

Palestine Action follows an uncompromising ideological approach. The Home Office has suggested they could be funded by the Iranian regime, who also hold a violent, totalitarian belief system. The Metropolitan Police chief correctly identified "direct action" as a euphemism for criminality. The ban on Palestine Action represents overdue recognition that escalating extremism, whether domestic or foreign-inspired, threatens public safety and social cohesion.

The question now is whether authorities will act decisively against other hate groups, including foreign entities like Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who have been indoctrinating schoolchildren and planning attacks in Britain, before more damage is done.