00:00We looked afresh at all the materials available to the Home Secretary, both closed and open,
00:07affording a due margin of appreciation to her own decision.
00:12We were satisfied that the prescription decision was a justified and proportionate interference with individual rights.
00:21We emphasised that the prescription decision was not merely a judgement based on Palestine Action's past activities.
00:31It involved an assessment of future risk to national security if Palestine Action was not prescribed.
00:39A pattern of escalating behaviour was obviously highly material.
00:43In this context, we noted that the Home Secretary took the ultimate decision to prescribe on the same day as
00:52and after the Brise Norton incident,
00:56when Palestine Action activists broke into RAF Brise Norton and damaged two military planes.
01:03This was a serious incident in evidencing the escalation of Palestine Action's activities,
01:09threatening national security and violating the rights of third parties.
01:14The ban, which began on the 5th of July last year, made membership of or support for the direct action
01:20group Palestine Action
01:21a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison
01:26and has remained in force as the Home Office attempted to challenge the ruling.
01:31We recognise that the prescription of an organisation like Palestine Action is highly controversial.
01:38We recognise too that Palestine Action is supported by many otherwise law-abiding citizens
01:45and that it is engaged in peaceful as well as non-peaceful protests.
01:52It is nonetheless a fundamental mistake to overlook the fact that Palestine Action overtly promotes unlawful violence amounting to terrorism.
02:01It is not, as it claims, a direct action civil disobedience protest group like the suffragette operating transparently in the
02:10open.
02:10It is a covert organisation operating with secret cells to avoid the detection and prosecution of those using violence to
02:19destroy the property of third parties.
02:27And at no stage has Palestine Action suggested that its terrorist activities were either a mistake or an aberration.
02:37Rather, Palestine Action has lauded those who took part.
02:41The contents of the underground manual provide good evidence of Palestine Action's continuing intention to promote the use of violence,
02:51regardless of the risk that this will result in serious damage to property or serious violence against members of the
02:59public.
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