Communist Vanguard strongly condemns the UK government’s decision to proscribe Palestine Action under anti-terror laws – a decision that, if passed by Parliament, will criminalise membership and support for the group, punishable by up to 14 years in prison. This move follows recent actions by Palestine Action, including a high-profile break-in at RAF Brize Norton to protest the UK’s complicity in arming and supporting Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people. The Home Secretary’s framing of Palestine Action as a “threat to national security” is part of a broader clampdown on any effective challenge to the UK’s role in Zionist oppression, attempting to shield British imperialist interests from righteous popular opposition.
We state clearly: although Palestine Action’s form of activism is not our own, and although we disagree with its strategy of isolated direct action, we salute the courage and determination of its militants. Their actions, often at great personal cost, have exposed and disrupted the UK’s complicity in the slaughter of Palestinians. They deserve not criminalisation, but the full solidarity of all those who oppose imperialism and Zionism. The banning of Palestine Action is an attack not only on them, but on the entire Palestine solidarity movement — and it sets a dangerous precedent that will be used to target other progressive and working-class forces in the future. We stand with Palestine Action against this repression.
Yet even as the stubborn resistance of Palestine Action militants faces savage reprisals, their example will continue to inspire all in Britain who oppose Zionism and its brutal oppression of the Palestinian people. The more they are repressed, the stronger our solidarity will grow — and with it, the strength of the Palestinian resistance.
We stand with Palestine Action against proscription and repression.