Palestine Action Slams "Baseless" Iran Funding Claims Amid UK Ban Push

Palestine Action has dismissed Home Office suggestions that the group might receive Iranian funding, calling the claims “groundless smears.”

On Monday, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper unveiled plans to outlaw the direct-action network—known for targeting UK sites linked to Israeli arms firms—under terrorism legislation. While Cooper’s Commons statement made no reference to Iran, the Times reported that Home Office staff were examining whether Tehran bankrolls the activists.

A spokesperson for Palestine Action responded: “There’s no truth to this investigation. We’re supported by ordinary people. Ministers know many in the public question why a group damaging weapons factories should be banned, so they’re inventing a smear campaign to justify it. MPs ought to rely on hard evidence, not vague allegations.”

The organisation noted that within an hour of launching a CrowdJustice appeal on Tuesday to fund a legal challenge against proscription, supporters had pledged over £5,000 toward a £10,000 target. Civil-rights lawyer Gareth Peirce of Birnberg Peirce, famed for representing the Guildford Four and Birmingham Six, has been instructed.

The anonymous Iran briefing surfaced two days after advocacy group We Believe in Israel tweeted: “Behind Palestine Action’s theatre of resistance stands a darker puppeteer: the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps… Palestine Action is the mask. The IRGC is the face.” Its sole proof was that some slogans allegedly echoed IRGC rhetoric. The group has campaigned this month for Palestine Action to be banned, and wording from its report closely mirrored Cooper’s statement.

The move to proscribe Palestine Action—the first time direct-action protesters have faced such a step—followed Friday’s breach of RAF Brize Norton, where activists sprayed two military aircraft with paint. If approved by Parliament next week, the ban would place the organisation alongside al-Qaida, Islamic State and National Action, making membership or public support a criminal offence.

Civil-liberties groups including Amnesty International and Liberty have condemned the proposal. Greenpeace UK co-executive director Areeba Hamid warned: “Proscribing Palestine Action would be a serious mistake. Unlike al-Qaida, Wagner Group and other terrorist entities, Palestine Action neither calls for armed violence nor seeks to harm people.”

“They aim to dismantle the machinery behind war crimes. Banning them would represent a bleak moment for our democracy and a disturbing escalation by a government already cracking down on the right to protest.

“There are already legal tools available to prosecute individuals who break the law. As a peaceful organisation—‘peace’ is literally in our name—we do not support violence. Criminalising an entire group and everyone who supports it is a deeply dangerous move.”

Former justice secretary Charlie Falconer commented on Sunday that the protest at RAF Brize Norton alone wouldn’t justify proscribing the group, adding: “There must be other reasons I’m unaware of.”

Yvette Cooper’s statement offered no substantial new evidence about Palestine Action. It cited an incident involving “a Jewish-owned business in north London” as not being “legitimate or peaceful.” However, she did not acknowledge that Palestine Action claimed the target was chosen because the business is listed as the landlord for Elbit Systems UK’s weapons factory in Kent.