Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International UK Chief Executive said: 

"Amnesty International is seriously concerned by the Home Secretary’s announcement that she intends to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation. The UK has an overly broad definition of terrorism and proscribing a direct-action protest group like Palestine Action risks an unlawful interference with the fundamental rights of freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly.

"Terrorism legislation must always be treated with the highest degree of caution and restraint, as it allows the state to curtail due process and interfere with other human rights in ways that would violate international human rights law. Given the enormous consequences of proscription, such an interference with fundamental rights will only be lawful when it is provided by a clear law and is strictly necessary and proportionate in the sense that it is the only step capable of securing a legitimate aim.

"Clearly that is not the case when it comes to Palestine Action; the ordinary criminal law, accompanied by appropriate human rights protections, is more than capable of responding to direct action protesters of their kind. It should be remembered that proscribing Palestine Action not only makes membership of the organisation a criminal offence, through broadly worded speech offences such as ‘glorification’ it puts at risk the free speech rights of many other activists who are deeply concerned about the plight of Palestinians in the context of Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.

"Government embarrassment at security breaches is no proper basis for excessive and disproportionate interferences with human rights. It is precisely this kind of unlawful government action that critics of the UK’s terrorism laws warned would come one day.”