The British government said on Monday that it would ban as a terrorist group a pro-Palestinian organization that broke into a British air base and vandalized President Trump’s Turnberry golf resort in Scotland
Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, announced the move against the group, Palestine Action, three days after members damaged military planes using red paint at Britain’s largest air force base, at Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, on Friday.
Ms. Cooper said that a legal order to ban the group would be submitted to Parliament on June 30. She said Palestine Action had “orchestrated a nationwide campaign of direct criminal action” against defense companies and other targets, putting Britain’s national security at risk. She also said that its activities met the legal definition of terrorism because they included “serious damage to property.”
Palestine Action will join more than 80 groups banned as terrorist organizations by the British government, including the Islamic State, Hamas and Al Qaeda, as well as Atomwaffen Division, a white supremacist group.
In a statement responding to the government’s announcement on Monday, Palestine Action called the ban “unhinged” and said it was “plainly preposterous” to list the group with terrorist organizations like the Islamic State.
A spokesperson for the group said that Ms. Cooper had made a number of “false claims” and added that its lawyers “are pursuing all avenues for legal challenge.”
Jonathan Hall, the British government’s adviser on terrorism laws, told The New York Times that to his knowledge the ban would be the “first time that a group has been proscribed on the basis of serious damage to property” in Britain rather than because of the use of, or support for, serious violence.
He said that targeting the air force base had moved the group’s activities into “the zone of national security” and had acted as “a tipping point” for the government.
The decision was criticized, however, by several human rights groups. Sam Grant of Liberty, a British civil liberties organization, said it was a “shocking escalation” of wider moves to control protest in Britain.
“This move needs to be viewed in light of the sustained crackdowns on protest we have seen from successive governments over recent years, and the worrying fact that there are more and more nonviolent protesters spending years in prison,” he said.
The order banning the group has to be approved by Parliament, but such orders are normally passed into law unopposed.
The law will make it a criminal offense to be a member of Palestine Action, to raise funds for the group or to “invite support” for it, to arrange meetings, to display its logo or to fail to disclose information about any banned activities to the police.
In March, after the group was accused of vandalizing his Trump Turnberry golf resort in Scotland, Mr. Trump referred to its members as “terrorists” and called for them to be “treated harshly.”
The activists had defaced the resort’s clubhouse with red paint and painted “Gaza is not 4 sale” on part of the golf course.
The Terrorism Act 2000, introduced under a previous Labour prime minister, Tony Blair, allows the government to ban any group “concerned in terrorism” but contains a broad definition of terrorism.
It covers the use or threat of action that involves serious violence against a person or endangers someone’s life, involves serious damage to property, creates a serious risk to the health or safety of the public or a section of the public, or is designed to seriously disrupt or interfere with an electronic system.
To meet the legal definition of terrorism, such threats or actions must be designed to influence the government or intimidate the public, and be “for the purpose of advancing a political, religious, racial or ideological cause.”
Palestine Action has carried out a series of acts of vandalism, mostly targeting sites operated by Elbit Systems U.K., the British subsidiary of an Israeli weapons manufacturer.
Last August, activists broke into an Elbit research and development site in southwestern England, where they smashed equipment and damaged property. Two police officers and an Elbit employee were injured.
Police officers filmed protesters who gathered in support of Palestine Action in Trafalgar Square on Monday afternoon as they waved banners and Palestinian flags.
Ruth Brown, 61, was holding a handmade sign reading, “Starmer Helps War Criminals and Criminalizes Protesters.” She said that using terrorism powers against Palestine Action was “against the spirit of the law,” adding: “They may be doing criminal damage, I accept that, but no way is it terrorism. There’s already perfectly good legislation against criminal damage.”
Representatives of several groups held banners in the crowd, including Jewish Voice for Labour and Stop the War Coalition. Organizers led chants including, “We are all Palestine Action” and “U.K. government stop the slaughter, Gaza must have food and water.”
Patrick Reynolds, 75, waved a sign reading, “Red paint is not terrorism” and said it was “morally wrong” to ban the group. “If people protest, the government should listen to the people, but sadly in this country the government thinks they have absolute power, and that’s very frightening,” he said.
In 2000, when Britain’s current terrorism definition was created, several lawmakers tried to remove or change the “serious damage to property” clause. The Home Office minister at the time, Charles Clarke, told Parliament it was needed because of Irish Republican Army bombings that destroyed buildings but did not injure people because warnings were given in advance.
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