The Court Has Spoken — And It Chose Repression
SHORT SUMMARY FOR SKIM‑READERS
The Court of Appeal has upheld the government’s ban on Palestine Action, keeping the proscription fully in force and deepening the criminalisation of solidarity. The ruling comes days after the Filton 4 were sentenced as terrorists for direct action against Elbit, exposing a coordinated state crackdown on anti‑genocide activism. Emma Kamio and Huda Ammori’s testimonies reveal the human and political cost behind the legal façade. With four more cases approaching sentencing, today’s decision will shape everything that follows. The machinery is exposed — and once exposed, it cannot be unseen.
The Court of Appeal has overturned the High Court and ruled that the government can lawfully proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation.
The decision keeps the ban fully in force — meaning the criminalisation of support, membership, and association continues without interruption.
It lands just days after the Filton 4 were sentenced as terrorists for direct action against Elbit, tightening the political logic that now binds their case to the proscription.
And it comes as four more Palestine Action cases move toward sentencing, each now shaped by the legal and political weight of today’s ruling.
In our view, today’s ruling is proof of state repression, not proof of wrongdoing.
The Court of Appeal has chosen to uphold a ban that criminalises solidarity rather than confront the UK’s role in arming and enabling Israel’s violence. Nothing in this judgment resolves the underlying political reality: that the state is escalating against those who expose its complicity, from the Filton 4 to the thousands arrested for nothing more than showing support. And with four more Palestine Action cases still moving through the courts, the consequences of this ruling will only deepen.
The Court of Appeal Delivered A Ruling That Will Define The Political Landscape
This morning, the Court of Appeal delivered a ruling that will define the political landscape for months: whether the government can ban Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation.
In February, the High Court said the proscription was unlawful — a rare moment of judicial restraint — but the government appealed instantly, determined to keep the ban alive.
Since then, more than 3,000 people have been arrested, many for nothing more than holding signs saying they support Palestine Action.
Everyone knows how absurd that is. Everyone can see what it represents.
Today, five judges decided whether the state’s attempt to criminalise solidarity stands or collapses — and with a panel this large, the stakes could not have been higher.
A livestream outside the Royal Courts of Justice began at 10:45am, capturing the moment the country learned which way the scales would tip.
Emma Kamio: The Human Cost No Court Can Hide
On Sunday’s Crispin Flintoff Show, Emma Kamio spoke with a grief that didn’t need volume.
The show is an independent, left‑leaning, socialist weekly Zoom broadcast that’s grown into a vital space for voices shut out of mainstream media — and we should thank Crispin for building it.
The grief of a mother who watched her daughter be sentenced as a terrorist for trying to save lives.
She’d seen the outpouring of public shock — and she understood it.
People are more visibly shaken now than ever before.
And she asked the question everyone is asking:
“How did we get here?”
Her answer was blunt:
because they complied with a gagging order.
Because for two years, the truth was kept from the public.
Because the family was forced into silence.
“I was forced to stay silent for Ellie — that’s the bottom line.”
Emma said she warned people two years ago:
“We were being frog‑marched into a dictatorship.
We had fallen asleep at the wheel.”
She said the outcry we’re seeing now is exactly what would have happened then — if people had known what the family was up against.
And she said we must learn from this:
stop being compliant
stop accepting gagging orders
stop letting the state control the narrative
The Sentencing Was Engineered — And Everyone Felt It
Emma said it made perfect sense that the court pushed the sentencing through on Friday — unprecedented, running until 7pm.
Because Monday was coming.
Because the ruling was coming.
Because the state wanted the deterrent effect in place before the Court of Appeal spoke.
She said:
“The statistic judge prepared his statements and sentences well in advance.”
This wasn’t justice.
It was choreography.
A Moment That Will Stay With Her Forever
Then Emma said something that will stay with anyone who heard it.
“I’m going to get emotional now — it will remain with me for the end of my days.”
As Ellie was being taken down, she turned back and looked up at the public gallery.
Emma remembered the line she quoted — from Palestinian poet Marwan Makhoul:
“In order for the birds to sing, the drones must be silenced.”
A mother watching her daughter disappear into a cell, quoting a poet whose people live under drones.
One of the most human moments of the entire show.
She Knows What’s Coming Next
Emma didn’t sugar‑coat anything.
She said the other trials in the pipeline will be worse.
She said the state is escalating.
She said the families know what they’re walking into.
But she also said something else — something that matters:
People are awake now.
People are paying attention.
People are no longer silent.
And that changes everything.
Huda Ammori: The Political Clarity of the Moment
On Sunday’s Crispin Flintoff Show, Huda Ammori didn’t speak like someone speculating.
She spoke like someone who has seen the inside of the state machine — and is now naming it out loud.
She said Judge Johnson didn’t need aggravated burglary convictions.
He only needed criminal damage — enough to attach the terrorism connection.
That was the aim from the beginning.
And crucially, she said:
“They’ve been accused of being terrorists, but not allowed to defend themselves against the accusation.”
The jury never heard:
about Elbit’s weapons
about the genocide
about the lives at stake
The terrorism element was kept away from them.
Huda said the consequences were draconian — and the defendants were denied the right to explain why they acted.
But now, she said, the real fight begins:
“I am sure one way or the other we are going to defeat this.”
The State–Elbit–Government Coordination Is Now Exposed
Huda said the proscription case revealed what many suspected:
meetings between Elbit Systems, the Israeli government, UK ministers, the CPS, and police
discussions about “what to do about the Palestine Action problem”
a meeting two months before the action where prosecutors and police discussed proscribing Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation
At that point, no one had been arrested under terrorism laws for direct action.
So they used property damage as the hook.
And Huda was clear:
“From the very beginning this had been orchestrated in order to ban Palestine Action.”
She said openly that the judge was doing the state’s bidding — and Israel’s.
What Today’s Ruling Makes Unmistakable
What today’s ruling makes undeniable is this: the state is no longer pretending.
It is criminalising solidarity in broad daylight, sentencing young people as terrorists for trying to save lives, and bending the law to protect a weapons manufacturer whose products are used to kill civilians.
The machinery is exposed now — the coordination, the timing, the choreography, the political intent.
And once exposed, it cannot be unseen.
Because when the powerful choose repression over accountability, resistance stops being a crime and becomes a responsibility.
When people pushed back against injustice, like the Filton 4 did, the response wasn’t to listen — it was to criminalise them.
“How the Filton 4 Were Sentenced as Terrorists for a Political Protest in the UK”
