30th June 2025: HXR members join Free Political Prisoners action to support the right to protest and the Filton 18

On 30th June, HXR members and other health workers joined the ‘Free Political Prisoners‘ peaceful action outside Woolwich Crown Court, where a hearing of the Filton 18 was taking place. The Filton 18 are a group of Palestine Actionists who were arrested for their alleged involvement in the temporary shutting down of an Israeli weapons hub in Bristol, in solidarity with Palestinians. The hub is owned by Elbit Systems, one of the biggest providers of arms to the Israeli government. The protestors have already been held in prison without trial for many months.

The government has announced plans to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation, even though their protests are never intended to harm or injure people. In contrast, Palestine Action are protesting against the genocide in Gaza and the UK’s complicity in this. Over 55,000 civilians including over 17,000 children are known to have been killed and over a million people are facing starvation. Many hospitals have been destroyed and doctors, health and aid workers have been killed, tortured and imprisoned.

Defend our Juries protestors sat in silence, holding 40 placards presenting the timelines for the genocide against the Palestinian people and corruption within our government and judiciary. They also held over 40 images of individuals who have stood against the genocide, including images of the Filton 18. Others sat with their hands painted red, representing the blood of those already lost to the genocide.

This is a critical and defining moment for all of us who undertake peaceful protest in the United Kingdom and a grave challenge for our democracy. Indeed, UN experts and special rapporteurs and hundreds of lawyers and legal academics have written to, or contacted, the government saying that “acts of protest that damage property, but are not intended to kill or injure people, should not be treated as terrorism” and that such a decision would “conflate protest and terrorism“, “set a dangerous precedent” and was an “unprecedented and extremely regressive step for civil liberties“. Amnesty International describe the move as a “violation of the right to freedom of association and expression amongst other human rights“.

Update, 2nd July 2025: Shockingly, Parliament have today voted to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation. The vote was bundled in with two neo-Nazi groups, which human rights organisations and some MPs say put unreasonable pressure on MPs to back this.

Palestine Action has been granted an urgent high court hearing on Friday, where Huda Ammori, a co-founder of Palestine Action, has an opportunity to apply for “interim relief” with respect to the proscription order. Ammori’s lawyer argues that while “extensive consultation has taken place with the Israeli government and arms companies … no opportunity has been provided for other groups affected or concerned by the proposal to proscribe Palestine Action, including Liberty, Amnesty International and other civil society organisations”.

If this is unsuccessful, members of the public will no longer be able to express their support for Palestine Action without risk of criminal sanction.

Further reading and watching

The Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers Press release, 1st July 2025. Thousands back Haldane Letter Opposing proscription of Palestine Action. Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers

Dr Lynne Jones: Ban on Palestine Action will rebound on Labour. The Guardian, 2nd July 2025

MP Zarah Sutana in Parliament, 2nd July on X, standing against proscription, that the government is criminalising solidarity and declaring “we are all Palestine Action” https://x.com/Pal_action/status/1940441966795432082

Gaza: Doctors Under Attack: This film, commissioned by the BBC who then refused to show it, shows the horrifying targeting, detainment and torture of medics in Gaza. It is available on Channel 4 here. Viewers across the world can access the film here