Treasury sanctions Palestine Action as global terrorist, citing UK attacks since 2020

Palestine Action’s UK ban heads to Supreme Court in November

The US Treasury imposed sanctions on UK-based direct-action group Palestine Action on Wednesday, designating the organization a specially designated global terrorist and accusing it of supporting “numerous acts of terrorism since July 2020.” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the action alongside sanctions on two other organizations, saying the Trump administration would use “the full weight of our economic tools” against “far-left extremists.”

The designation freezes any US-jurisdiction assets held by the group and makes it a federal offense for US persons to provide it material support. President George W Bush introduced the specially designated global terrorist authority shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Bessent said in a statement: “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.” The Treasury announced the sanctions on Palestine Action as part of a broader push against “far-left terror organisations” around the world.

The Treasury’s announcement said the group had 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.” It added that the group had “promoted its activities on social media, encouraging the use of similar tactics internationally, including within the United States and along the US-Mexican border.”

Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori responded to the US action with sharp criticism of both the Trump administration and the UK government. “As a Palestinian and Iraqi, the fact the country which destroyed both my homelands is calling me a terrorist, is beyond hypocritical,” Ammori wrote in a social media post. In a separate statement, she said the group’s activities had “always been about saving lives” and that the ban should be a “wake-up call to anyone who cares about free speech and democracy.”

A fuller statement from Ammori read: “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.”

The US designation comes against the backdrop of an ongoing legal fight in Britain. Supporting Palestine Action became illegal in the UK in July 2025 when the government banned it under the Terrorism Act — making it the first direct-action group to be proscribed under the law, placing it alongside groups such as Islamic State and Boko Haram. In June, the Court of Appeal ruled that the UK government had made a “justified and proportionate” interference with freedom of expression rights, but the group was subsequently given permission to challenge that decision at the UK Supreme Court, which is scheduled to hear the case in November.

UK officials who recommended the proscription conceded at the time that it would be “relatively novel,” recording that there was no known precedent of an organisation being proscribed on the basis that it was concerned in terrorism mainly due to its use or threat of action involving serious damage to property. Then-foreign secretary Yvette Cooper moved to ban the group.

Palestine Action has focused largely on factories run by the Israeli weapons firm Elbit Systems and other companies that do business with it. A UK court jailed four Palestine Action members in June for a break-in at a defence firm that caused more than £1 million in damage; a court sentenced one of them for causing grievous bodily harm on a police officer who was struck with a sledgehammer. In March 2025, protesters targeted President Trump’s Turnberry golf course on Scotland’s west coast, graffitiing the clubhouse and painting the words “Gaza is not 4 sale” on the course.