Michael Madden of Madden & Finucane Solicitors speaks outside of Erskine House at the Belfast rally against the proscription of Palestine Action. Full text below:
The government’s move to make Palestinian Action a proscribed organisation is without precedent. Unlike Palestine Action, the 95 organisations already proscribed by the government are said to support the use of violence to further their political goals. Nowhere on the Palestine Action website is there any call to use physical violence. As far as I understand it, the government position does not involve any allegations of Palestine Action inciting violence. In fact what Palestine Action are very publicly calling for is an end to the catastrophic violence against the people of Palestine.
Legislation to proscribe organisations under Terrorism laws first date back to the Prevention of Terrorism Act 1974, which was specifically introduced to ban the Official and Provisional IRA.
There is no established definition of terrorism under international law. There’s a great deal of debate over which actions are terrorist and which are acts of legitimate resistance against oppressive governments. There is an overwhelming consensus that terrorism involves the use of threat of violence against civilians for a political purpose.
In 2004, a Secretary-General of the United Nations report described terrorism as any act “intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to civilians or non-combatants with the purpose of intimidating a population or compelling a government or an international organization to do or abstain from doing any act”.
In the UK, the legal definition of terrorism is provided in section 1 of the Terrorism Act 2000. This defines terrorism as the use or threat of action which:
- involves serious violence against a person
- involves serious damage to property
- endangers a person’s life
- creates a serious risk to the health or safety of the public; or
- is designed seriously to interfere with or seriously to disrupt an electronic system
In circumstances where:
- the use or threat is designed to influence the government or to intimidate the public or a section of the public; and
- the use or threat is made for the purpose of advancing a political, religious or ideological cause.
The purpose of the definition in section 1 is not to define a crime of terrorism – virtually any terrorist offence is already a violation of existing criminal law, such as incitement, conspiracy to cause explosions or murder. Instead, section 1 acts as a trigger for the use of other counter-terrorism measures.
In January of this year, an Amnesty International briefing noted: ‘The past 15 years have seen the adoption of wave upon wave of new counter-terror legislation, together with the increasing securitisation of life in the UK. This securitisation continues to negatively affect a wide range of human rights.’
Consequences of being a proscribed organisation
Criminal offences
- S.11 TACT 2000
Criminal offence to be a member of a proscribed organisation
- S.12 TACT 2000
(1)A person commits an offence if—
(a)he invites support for a proscribed organisation, and
(b)the support is not, or is not restricted to, the provision of money or other property.
(1A)A person commits an offence if the person—
(a)expresses an opinion or belief that is supportive of a proscribed organisation, and
(b)in doing so is reckless as to whether a person to whom the expression is directed will be encouraged to support a proscribed organisation.]
(2)A person commits an offence if he arranges, manages or assists in arranging or managing a meeting which he knows is—
(a)to support a proscribed organisation,
(b)to further the activities of a proscribed organisation, or
(c)to be addressed by a person who belongs or professes to belong to a proscribed organisation.
(3)A person commits an offence if he addresses a meeting and the purpose of his address is to encourage support for a proscribed organisation or to further its activities.
A meeting can be defined as having as few as three participants.
- S.13 TACT 2000
A person commits an offence if he:
- Wears clothing or carry or display articles in public in such a way or in such circumstances as to arouse reasonable suspicion that the individual is a member or supporter of a proscribed organisation (section 13)
- publishes an image of an item of clothing or other article, such as a flag or logo, in the same circumstances (section 13(1A))
A well known example of this power being used by police is the recent arrest of Mo Chara of Kneecap. He is faces terror charges for allegedly picking up a Hezbollah flag thrown from the crowd at a gig at the Kentish Town Forum in November 2024 and waving it.
- S.58 TACT 2000
Section 58 Terrorism Act 2000 makes it an offence to collect, make a record of, or be in possession of information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism. The Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019 introduced new provisions to extend the offence to cover those who view material over the internet, streaming or downloading it.
The would mean that any PA manuals, instructions, guides, etc, would be illegal to possess and download. Download could mean that you have clicked on a website and a copy of the link downloads to a temporary folder on your computer or mobile phone.
Under sections 11 and 12 of the Terrorism Act 2000, the penalties for proscription offences are a maximum of 14 years in prison and/or a fine. The maximum penalty for a section 13 offence is 6 months in prison and/or a fine not exceeding £5,000.
The Home Secretary has said that she will present a draft proscription order before parliament. Faced with such draconian measures, it can feel totally daunting and hopeless to do anything to stop the government’s plans. However, there are still a number of actions that every individual citizen can take. You can write to your local MP. You can show support and attend lawful demonstrations such as this one. The government’s plans to proscribe PA still has to get through parliament, and politicians do respond to public pressure.
The ban cannot be applied retrospectively. It can’t be used by the police for things that have already happened.
If you find yourself in the extremely unfortunate position of being arrested, try not to panic. You will be brought to a police station, most likely Musgrave. From there you can request a solicitor who will attend with you and keep you advised of your rights at every stage of the process. You will be provided with a solicitor of your own choice, free of charge under the legal aid system.
If the proscription order is passed into law, no doubt there will be challenges taken in the courts even before the ink has dried.
We have lodged Judicial Review proceedings at the High Court in Belfast on behalf of Cairde Palestine, to challenge funding provided by the Department of Economy and Invest NI to companies directly involved in the supply chain of components and/or equipment for F-35 fighter jets which could be used by Israel to drop bombs in Gaza. This is despite the UK Government accepting that there is a real risk that Israel might commit a serious violation of international humanitarian law, including through the use of F-35 fighter jets.
- 10/9 Review
- 22/10 Leave Hearing
Earlier today, the High Court in London dismissed a similar Judicial Review taken by Al-Haq. Although we are disappointed for the Palestine people, and our legal colleagues in London, we are not disheartened for our case in Belfast. The London court in its’ ruling said the case was about whether the court could rule on withdrawal from the international F-35 programme, which was “a matter for the executive … not for the courts”. One of the central points in our case is that Invest NI not bring the funding for debate to the Executive, as it should have done under its’ own rules.
We hope to be joined in our case by Act Now and the PILS project, and we have already started working together on their application.
Before I left for here earlier today, Al Jazeera was reporting that another 80 people were killed by the IDF in Gaza. We can only pray that doesn’t rise to 81 people. I know that everyone here will do all we can to ensure Palestine Action does not become the 96th proscribed group.
We are all Palestine.
