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Palestine Action will be banned from midnight after a judge refused its request to temporarily block the government from proscribing it as a terror group.
On Friday, a High Court judge refused the group more time to pursue legal action against the government’s decision.
The proposed ban, which amends the Terrorism Act 2000, will come into force after being approved by both the House of Commons and House of Lords earlier this week.
It means supporting Palestine Action will become a criminal offence, with membership or expressing support for the direct action group punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
The move was taken to ban the group after an estimated £7m of damage was caused to planes at RAF Brize Norton last month, in action claimed by Palestine Action.
At a hearing earlier on Friday, Raza Husain KC, barrister for Palestine Action’s co-founder Huda Ammori, told the court banning the group would be “ill-considered” and an “authoritarian abuse” of power.
“This is the first time in our history that a direct action civil disobedience group, which does not advocate for violence, has been sought to be proscribed as terrorists,” he said.
