THE Home Secretary’s “preposterous” plans to brand Palestine Action (PA) a terrorist organisation were dealt a blow today after the anti-arms campaigners secured a legal challenge against the bid.

Yvette Cooper had vowed to proscribe PA in the wake of activists gaining entry to RAF Brize Norton last month, daubing red paint on military jets in protest against the assistance the air force continues to provide to the Israeli military in its onslaught on Gaza.

Ms Cooper laid a draft order before Parliament which could, with parliamentary approval, see the group added to the list of proscribed organisations under Schedule 2 of the Terrorism Act 2000 — alongside Isis and al-Qaida — by the end of this week. The move could see PA membership punished with up to 14 years in prison.

But Mr Justice Chamberlain at the Royal Courts of Justice granted PA co-founder Huda Ammori’s legal challenge today.

At an urgent hearing now set for Friday morning, Ms Ammori’s legal team will argue — backed by witness statements from Amnesty International, Liberty, and the European Legal Support Centre — that proscription would cause “irreparable harm,” not just to PA, but the wider public, who would be “left with no means of seeking relief against unlawful executive decision-making.”

The submission also pointed out that while “the Israeli government and arms companies” had been consulted, “no opportunity has been provided” for others. 

After the emergency hearing, Ms Ammori said: “Spraying red paint on war planes is not terrorism. 

“Causing disruption to the UK-based arms factories used by Israel’s largest weapons firm, Elbit Systems, is not terrorism. 

“The terrorism and war crimes are being committed in Palestine by Israel, which is being armed by Britain, and benefiting from British military support. 

“Direct action has a long history in Britain — Suffragettes, anti-apartheid activists, Greenham Common and anti-Iraq war campaigners, including those who were defended by the Prime Minister Keir Starmer himself for using the same direct-action methods he is now seeking to proscribe as ‘terrorism’.”

Accusing the Home Secretary of “borrowing tactics from Trump’s playbook,” a PA spokesperson added: “Bundling Palestine Action — a domestic civil disobedience protest group — in with foreign neonazi organisations further highlights how unjustified and preposterous the Home Secretary’s proposed proscription of Palestine Action is.”

In a statement of solidarity, Artists for Palestine UK, who count Paul Weller, Massive Attack’s Robert del Naja, and Brian Eno, as well as actors Tilda Swinton, Steve Coogan and Billy Howle among their numbers, said: “Labeling non-violent direct action as ‘terrorism’ is an abuse of language and an attack on democracy.  

“The real threat to the life of the nation comes not from Palestine Action but from the Home Secretary’s efforts to ban it.”