Protestors arrested at High Court as Palestine Action fights UK's attack on civil liberties

London police have arrested protestors outside Britain's High Court as Palestine Action takes the UK government to court for targeting civil liberties.

Police arrested protestors opposing the ban on Palestine Action as supporters of the pro-Palestine group rallied outside the Royal Courts of Justice, Britain’s High Court, in central London on Wednesday.

At the same time, inside the court, lawyers representing the group’s co-founders presented their case against the UK government’s decision to designate Palestine Action as a "terrorist organization."

Protestors held placards reading, "I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action," as the long-awaited judicial review into the UK government's ban on the direct-action group began in the morning.

The trial is expected to last until Thursday, with a third day to be set at a later stage.

At least 2,300 people have been arrested since the proscription came into effect, according to protest organisers Defend Our Juries. Teachers, students, pensioners and even an 83-year-old retired vicar are among those arrested.

London’s Met Police says only 254 of those arrested have been charged so far.

Meanwhile, as police were arresting the protesters outside the Royal Courts of Justice, inside, the lawyers representing Huda Ammori, one of the co-founders of Palestine Action, argued that the chilling effect of the ban was evident, citing arrests across Britain in opposition to the proscription.

Lawyers argued the proscription is a misuse of the country’s anti-terrorism laws.

Palestine Action used direct action to stop arms sales to Israel as the regime was carrying out the genocidal war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, one of Ammori's lawyers said in opening remarks.

The pro-Palestinian group was targeted in July, days after Palestine Action activists protesting against Israel’s genocidal war broke into an air force base in southern England. Prosecutors have said they caused an estimated 7 million pounds ($9.3mn million) damage to two aircraft at the base.

Raza Husain KC said by targeting premises connected to British and Israeli-owned arms companies supplying weapons to the Israeli regime, Palestine Action aimed to "prevent serious violations of international law by Israel against the Palestinian people."

The lawyers pointed out that Britain's own security assessments, produced by the government's Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre, found that Palestine Action does not "advocate for violence against persons."

He added, "If it was a violent group, you would think the Secretary of State would rely on the violence link, which she does not."

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Palestine Action sees itself as part of Britain's "long tradition of direct action," citing the suffragettes as an inspiration in written submissions. "The Suffragettes would have been liable to proscription if the regime had been in force at the turn of the 20th century."

Lawyers representing Ammori noted that the Home Office's Proscription Review Group informed then Home Secretary Yvette Cooper that proscribing the group would be "'relatively novel and unprecedented' as there was no known precedent for proscription solely for serious damage to property."

“Today marks the beginning of our legal challenge to one of the most extreme attacks on civil liberties in recent British history – a measure condemned across the political spectrum as an affront to our democracy and an unjustifiable drain on counterterror resources that should be focused on actual threats to the public,” Ammori said at the beginning of the hearing.

The Council of Europe, the European main human rights watchdog, has criticized “excessive limits on freedom of assembly and expression” imposed by the UK.

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