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The UK said on Monday that it will ban the campaign group Palestine Action under anti-terrorism laws after its activists broke into a military base and vandalised two planes.
The measure means it will be a criminal offence to belong to or support the group, with a maximum of 14 years in prison.
Two of the group’s members entered the Royal Air Force base in Brize Norton, central England, on Wednesday and damaged two planes with red paint.
The group released a video appearing to show the activists spraying paint into a jet’s turbine engines and damaging them with crowbars.
“The disgraceful attack on Brize Norton … is the latest in a long history of unacceptable criminal damage committed by Palestine Action,” UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said in a written statement to parliament.
Cooper said the group’s recent actions, including an attack against a defence factory in Glasgow in 2022, have resulted in damage that runs into millions of pounds.
“The UK’s defence enterprise is vital to the nation’s national security and this government will not tolerate those that put that security at risk,” she added.
Cooper’s announcement came as protesters in support of Palestine Action clashed with police during a demonstration in central London.
Palestine Action described the ban as “an unhinged reaction” that it intends to challenge.
Planes from RAF Brize Norton regularly fly to RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, Britain’s main air base for operations in the Middle East.
The UK has sent more Typhoon fighter jets and Voyager tankers to Cyprus since the Israel-Iran conflict started a week ago for what Starmer called “contingency support”.
The government said a draft order will be laid in parliament next week, and lawmakers still need to approve it. The UK list of banned organisations includes about 80 groups, including Hamas and al-Qaida, and domestic far-right groups such as National Action.
Additional sources • AP