Palestine Action’s co-founder Huda Ammori has won a High Court challenge over the ban of the organisation as a terror group on two grounds, judges have said. Palestine Action remains banned as a terror group to allow further arguments and the Government time to consider an appeal, judge Dame Victoria Sharp has said.

From July 5 last year, being a member of – or showing support for – the group became an offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison. The Government will appeal against the High Court’s decision that the ban on Palestine Action is unlawful, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has said. In a summary of the High Court’s decision, Dame Sharp said: “The court considered that the proscription of Palestine Action was disproportionate.

“A very small number of Palestine Action’s activities amounted to acts of terrorism within the definition of section 1 of the 2000 Act.

“For these, and for Palestine Action’s other criminal activities, the general criminal law remains available.

“The nature and scale of Palestine Action’s activities falling within the definition of terrorism had not yet reached the level, scale and persistence to warrant proscription.”

Around 100 people gathered outside the High Court in central London, cheering and chanting “Free Palestine” after judges ruled that the Home Office’s decision to ban Palestine Action under terrorism laws was unlawful.

Waving Palestinian flags, many of the activists are holding placards in support; one reads: “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.”

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