Scottish Greens Urge UK Government to Lift Ban on Palestine Action

The Scottish Greens have urged the UK government to lift its ban on Palestine Action. Party spokesperson Maggie Chapman said the rights of people speaking out over the situation in Gaza should be respected and that peaceful protest and freedom of expression must be protected.

The Scottish Greens made the demand on Thursday following comments by UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, who said the government was listening to the millions of people who had been affected and angered by the plight of the Palestinian people. Citing the British newspaper The National, Chapman said that people who had marched, organized and spoken out against what they described as genocide by Israel had helped bring the issue of Palestine onto the political agenda. She said their voices should be heard and their rights respected.

Her comments came after Miliband said earlier this week that the government was listening to the millions of people in Britain and elsewhere who had been affected and angered by the plight of Palestinians. He said the government had recognized their concerns and, under the leadership of Prime Minister Andy Burnham, had reconsidered its approach. Chapman said Miliband was right to acknowledge the anger and grief felt by millions of people who had witnessed the destruction in Gaza and called on the government to take action. However, she stressed that if the UK government was serious about changing its political approach to Palestine, it would need to lift the ban on Palestine Action.

She said the acknowledgement would remain hollow as long as the Labor government maintained a ban under which hundreds of people had been prosecuted for speaking out against what they described as genocide, displaying banners or wearing T-shirts. Chapman called on the government to end the proscription of Palestine Action and defend the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful protest.  She also urged the UK government to impose a ban on all arms sales to Israel and ensure that Britain did not become further involved in what she described as the oppression of the Palestinian people.

Palestine Action was proscribed under the Terrorism Act 2000 on July 5, 2025. The legal effect of the proscription is that membership of the organization or inviting support for it constitutes a criminal offence. The move followed actions by members of the group at a Royal Air Force base, where two aircraft were spray-painted, with reported damage estimated at about £7 million ($9.4 million).  The legal status of the ban remains subject to ongoing proceedings. In June 2026, the Court of Appeal ruled that the Home Secretary had been entitled to proscribe Palestine Action and that a fair balance had been struck between freedom of expression and association and national security interests. On July 29, 2026, the UK Supreme Court granted permission for an appeal on a limited issue concerning the Home Secretary's published policy. The Supreme Court hearing is scheduled for November 4–5, 2026. Human rights organizations and UN experts have also criticized what they describe as increased restrictions on peaceful protest in the UK and have called for the proscription of Palestine Action to be reversed.