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who are palestine action

Palestine Action is a UK-based pro-Palestinian direct action network that targets arms companies it says are complicit in Israel’s military actions against Palestinians. It was founded in 2020 and has since become one of the most high-profile and controversial protest groups in Britain.

Who are Palestine Action?

  • A direct action movement that focuses on disrupting the activities of arms manufacturers linked to Israel, especially Elbit Systems, a major Israeli weapons producer with facilities in the UK.
  • They describe themselves as committed to ending “global participation in Israel’s genocidal and apartheid regime,” framing their actions as part of a broader struggle for Palestinian liberation.
  • The network operates mainly in the UK, but its tactics and rhetoric have inspired or linked up with similar efforts abroad, including groups that have rebranded or split off, such as Unity of Fields in the US.

What do they actually do?

Palestine Action’s identity is tied to its willingness to use disruptive, often law-breaking tactics against property.

  • They have occupied, blockaded, and vandalised arms factories, offices and other facilities, including sites belonging to Elbit Systems, Thales, and other weapons manufacturers.
  • Common tactics include:
    • Breaking into facilities and occupying rooftops or production areas.
* Chaining or locking themselves to machinery or gates to halt operations.

* Throwing or spraying red paint (symbolising blood) on buildings, vehicles or corporate logos.

* Damaging equipment or infrastructure, sometimes causing substantial financial losses.
  • Their actions have also extended to media and state targets; for example, they have targeted BBC buildings to accuse the broadcaster of pro-Israel bias, and RAF bases linked to military transport to Israel.

An illustration: one widely reported pattern involves small teams entering an arms factory before dawn, ascending to the roof, unfurling banners, and using paint or tools to damage equipment, forcing the facility to shut down for hours or days while police negotiate and later clear the site.

Legal and political status in the UK

This is where the “who are they?” question becomes especially controversial.

  • The UK government has moved from simply policing their protests to formally treating the organisation as a terrorist group under the Terrorism Act 2000.
  • A proscription order was announced in mid‑2025, with ministers arguing that Palestine Action’s activities constitute terrorism because they involve serious property damage, risk to life and an intent to coerce government or influence policy.
  • Once the ban came into force, membership, organising for the group, or publicly expressing support for it can carry penalties of up to 14 years in prison.

This legal move has itself sparked mass protests and a wider civil liberties debate in the UK, with critics saying that banning a protest movement blurs the line between “terrorism” and disruptive, even criminal, protest.

How do different sides view them?

Because Palestine Action operates at the intersection of Palestine solidarity, anti-war activism and domestic security policy, opinions about them are sharply divided.

Supporters tend to say:

  • They are a necessary escalation because conventional marches and lobbying have failed to stop UK complicity in arms sales and military cooperation with Israel.
  • Their actions are targeted at property, not civilians, and aim to disrupt what they see as war crimes, so they view themselves as part of an anti-apartheid and anti-genocide resistance tradition.
  • Proscription of the group is framed as a dangerous attack on free speech and protest rights, especially around Palestine.

Critics and government officials tend to say:

  • The group uses illegal and sometimes dangerous methods, including break-ins and serious vandalism, which can put workers, security staff and bystanders at risk.
  • Labeling them a terrorist organisation is justified, in this view, because their intentions go beyond symbolic protest to coercing policy through sustained criminal disruption.
  • Some commentators worry that normalising such tactics could escalate into more serious violence, even if the group’s declared focus is on property.

A good way to understand the split is to imagine two headlines about the same event: supporters might call it “shutting down a genocide-enabling factory,” while opponents might call it “a dangerous attack on a lawful business.”

Recent context and “latest news” angle

Since 2023–2025, the group’s prominence has grown in the context of the Gaza war and huge pro-Palestine marches in the UK and elsewhere.

  • After the escalation in Gaza in late 2023, Palestine Action ramped up its actions, targeting more sites, including media and multiple arms manufacturers, and drawing larger police operations and more arrests.
  • The UK Parliament’s decision to proscribe them, and the subsequent large protests and mass arrests opposing that decision, have turned them into a focal point in debates over how far states can or should go in restricting radical protest movements.
  • The group and its allies have launched legal challenges and crowdfunding efforts to fight the ban and defend activists facing prosecution, framing this as part of a broader struggle over civil liberties and Palestine solidarity.

In forum discussions and social feeds, the phrase “who are Palestine Action” is now often less about basic information and more a shorthand for arguing over whether radical, destructive protest is justified when conventional politics appears to fail.

TL;DR: Palestine Action is a British pro-Palestinian direct action network, founded in 2020, known for high-profile occupations and sabotage of arms-related sites it links to Israel; the UK has since banned it as a terrorist organisation, turning it into a central flashpoint in debates about Palestine, protest tactics and civil liberties.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.