The United States has imposed sanctions on Palestine Action, a UK-based direct-action group, designating it as a “transnational terror group."
The US Treasury Department announced Wednesday that Palestine Action had been designated a specially designated global terrorist. The designation allows Washington to block the organization’s assets and prohibits US citizens and companies from conducting transactions with it.
The authorities used powers established by President George W. Bush in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced sanctions against Palestine Action and two other organizations, warning: “Far-left extremists, their fronts, and their enablers should be on notice: we will bring the full weight of our economic tools to bear. Political terrorism has no place in our society and we will continue to cut the financial lifelines of these groups until they are eliminated."
Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori, who is leading the legal challenge against the organization's UK designation, rejected the US action.
“Palestine Action’s activities in the US and elsewhere have always been about saving lives by disrupting the Israeli war machine, which is committing a genocide in Gaza with the support of the US government. Trump has been at the center of the mass murder of Palestinians, enabling the Zionist regime at every turn," she charged.
“The fact that Trump is now taking inspiration from Britain’s repression of the movement for Palestinian freedom exposes just how dangerous this ban is and should be a wake-up call to anyone who cares about free speech and civil liberties. By banning a direct action protest group under terrorism legislation for the first time in British history, Keir Starmer’s government has created a blueprint for authoritarian governments around the world to suppress political dissent, and to criminalise British citizens who travel or live abroad," added Ammori.
“Trump’s decision to adopt Keir Starmer’s designation of Palestine Action as a ‘terrorist’ group should be the final nail in the coffin of this dangerous, draconian and disproportionate ban."
According to the Treasury, Palestine Action “supported numerous acts of terrorism since July 2020, including acts that have physically injured UK law enforcement personnel, as well as acts intended to intimidate lawful commercial enterprises and coerce the UK government."
The department said the group had repeatedly broken into defense facilities and British military sites and caused millions of dollars in damage to military equipment. It also accused the organization of using social media to promote its methods and encourage similar actions internationally, including in the United States and along the US-Mexico border.
Britain designated Palestine Action as a terrorist organization in July last year, making it the first direct-action group to be proscribed under the UK's Terrorism Act. The designation places it in the same legal category as groups including Islamic State and Boko Haram. A legal challenge to the UK ban is scheduled to reach the UK Supreme Court in November.
The British government's decision followed an attack by Palestine Action activists on an Elbit Systems UK facility in Bristol that caused an estimated £1 million in damage.
The group has also carried out other high-profile actions. Activists damaged a portrait of Lord Balfour at Trinity College Cambridge using red paint and cuts, while in another incident they removed two busts of Israel's first president, Chaim Weizmann, from a display case at Manchester University.
Palestine Action was founded in 2020 and describes itself as a “direct action" network opposing what it calls British “complicity" with Israel, particularly in relation to arms sales.