PALESTINE Action’s ban under terror laws shows Britain has the “most repressive and dangerous response” to civilian protests threatening Israeli arms sales, 18 international organisations said yesterday.

The groups, including Campaign Against Arms Trade, signed a solidarity statement on British state repression on the last day of the judicial review against the Home Office proscription of the direct action group.

But Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori faces a wait to discover whether her legal challenge has been successful.

After a three-day hearing at the High Court in London, which concluded yesterday, the judges hearing the challenge said they would give their decision at a later date.

More than 2,700 people have been arrested at sit-in protests against the banning of the direct action group in July.

On Saturday, Christmas shoppers were left puzzled as a man dressed as Father Christmas was arrested during one of the demonstrations organised by Defend Our Juries campaign group.

He bellowed: “Ho ho ho, Merry Christmas kids” while being hauled off by four officers in Haymarket, Norwich, joking that police were “going on the naughty list” and protesting he had “presents to make.”

The international organisations said: “Our governments are failing us….they manipulate to their benefit the application of arms trade regulatory frameworks at the international, regional and domestic levels.

“Instead of taking the only moral and law-compliant option available to them — the imposition of a full two-way arms embargo — they continue to supply arms to Israel.

“The UK government’s latest move, to criminalise as ‘terrorists’ groups and individuals doing what they feel is necessary to stop an unfolding genocide, is the most repressive and dangerous response so far. 

“It paves the way for other governments to do the same and gives governments and courts a green light to dismiss legal challenges against the arms trade.”

The statement added that the proscription “starkly exposes this pernicious misuse of counter-terrorism laws against those who ideologically challenge the government by seeking to end arms supplies to a genocide.

“This draconian and indiscriminate response to the group’s actions is of course unsurprising given the ever-closer union between the UK government and the arms industry and the many ways in which the arms industry influence is tied-up with government in Western arms-producing countries.

“The far-reaching implications of these developments for our movements — and for the already limited tools at our disposal to challenge potentially illegal arms transfers — cannot be overstated.”