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A protest in Belfast in support of eight members of Palestine Action on hunger strike in English prisons, December 2025. Photo by Declan Roughan, Press Eye
Palestine Action made up a third of all files submitted by the PSNI to prosecutors over alleged displays of support for proscribed organisations in Northern Ireland.
Figures show the PSNI has referred 32 files involving the direct action group to the Public Prosecution Service (PPS), out of a total of 90 files linked to such offences since the Terrorism Act was introduced in July 2000.
Of the remaining cases, 48 relate to republican paramilitary groups, while 10 involve loyalist paramilitary organisations. A single file can involve multiple individuals, for example where several people are charged following a parade.
The figures were obtained by The Detail through a freedom of information request.
Amnesty International said the figures were “deeply concerning”.
Patrick Corrigan, the human rights organisation's Northern Ireland director, said they were “particularly stark” when contrasted with the PSNI “response to thousands of public displays of support for armed paramilitary groups.”
The alleged offences fall under Section 13 of the Terrorism Act 2000, which makes it a crime to wear, carry or display an item in public in a way that arouses “reasonable suspicion” of membership or support for a proscribed organisation.
Palestine Action was banned by the UK government in July 2025. Since then, over 3,000 individuals have been arrested for displaying posters or wearing clothing bearing the slogan: “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.”
Israel has been accused of committing genocide in Gaza by leading international, Palestinian, and Israeli human rights groups as well as various UN bodies. At least 72,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army.
Before its proscription the group led a direct-action campaign against Elbit UK, a subsidiary of Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer which describes its drones as “the backbone of the Israel Defense Forces.”
In February 2026, the High Court in London ruled that the group’s proscription was unlawful. A government appeal is due to be heard this week.
Writers and activists including Sally Rooney, Greta Thunberg and Brian Eno have recently written to the Court of Appeal in support of Palestine Action.
Rise
The Northern Ireland figures suggest a sharp rise in PSNI referrals to prosecutors relating to Palestine Action.
When The Detail last reported on the issue in November 2025, only six such files had been submitted. By the end of that year, the figure had risen to 18, and has nearly doubled again in the first months of 2026.
While the PSNI has made relatively few arrests linked to the group, it has issued “advisory” letters to individuals considered to be at risk of breaching Section 13. As of November, more than a dozen such letters had been sent, many to civil rights veterans holding weekly vigils in Derry.
Goretti Horgan, a trade unionist and women's rights activist in Derry, previously told The Detail that most involved are over 70 and have backgrounds in civil rights and anti-war movements.
“The people protesting against the proscription of Palestine Action are people who have been in the position of Palestine Action,” she said.
“Even the PSNI can see it is ridiculous that they are collecting evidence on us while doing nothing about people carrying the flags of sectarian murder gangs”, she added, referring to UVF and UDA displays.
The impact of the ban has also been seen elsewhere. The Detail recently reported that half of all Section 13 cases in Scotland relate to Palestine Action.
Those figures also showed that there were many more police charges brought against displays of support of Northern Ireland loyalist paramilitary groups in Scotland (66) than there were in Northern Ireland (10) over the past 25 years.
A request for data from the Crown Prosecution Service in England was refused on cost grounds.
‘Absurd’
Amnesty’s Patrick Corrigan said he wrote to both the PSNI Chief Constable and the Director of Public Prosecutions last August about “the use of counter-terrorism powers in ways that undermine the right to peaceful protest."
“Arresting people simply for expressing support for Palestine Action and opposition to genocide is a clear breach of the UK’s obligations to protect freedom of expression and peaceful assembly,” he said.
“Treating peaceful protest as terrorism is not only disproportionate, it is absurd,” he added
“Under international law, speech should only be criminalised where it incites violence, hatred or discrimination. That threshold is not met by holding a sign or wearing a T-shirt opposing genocide. That is not incitement; it is protected expression.”
Daniel Holder from the Committee on the Administration of Justice said it was “striking” that a third of all files over 25 years relate to a group that was only banned last year.
He warned that that the ban was “an abuse of Terrorist legislation” and “could be a precursor to banning and criminalising other groups engaged in direct action protests, like environmental groups.”
He also pointed to what he described as inconsistent enforcement.
“We have seen numerous instances where flags of the UDA and UVF, both of which are proscribed, have been used for the purpose of racist and sectarian intimidation from housing. Until recently there has been very limited criminal enforcement action against such displays,” he said.
He welcomed recent PSNI guidance focusing on removing displays that cause the greatest harm, particularly those linked to intimidation.
“What these figures show is that the British Government’s unlawful decision to proscribe Palestine Action has seriously skewed prosecutorial files on support offences towards instances where no harm at all has been caused,” he added.
A PSNI spokesperson said: “The rights to freedom of speech and peaceful assembly are fundamental and protected in law.
“Where an offence is suspected, police will gather evidence and submit a file to the Public Prosecution Service for independent consideration.”
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