Reform UK board member Gawain Towler has slammed the “suicidal empathy” he said is exhibited by the Palestine Action group after Labour’s ban was ruled unlawful.
Earlier today, the UK’s High Court judges ruled the proscribed group should not be banned under anti-terrorism laws.
Co-founder of the group Huda Ammori took legal action against the department over the then-Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s decision to proscribe the group under the Terrorism Act 2000.
The ban, which began on July 5 last year, made membership of, and support for, the direct-action group a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
Explaining the logic behind the ruling, host Nana Akua said: “If you try to parallel Palestine action with Isis, it doesn’t kind of wash, does it? That’s what the judge’s point was. But I don’t think you need to wait for someone to get to that point.
“Something like ISIS is rooted in sort of a rotten ideology, and that people become involved in it, and then it becomes more.”
“Suicidal empathy is the rotten ideology of these people,” Mr Towler said, in agreement. “It’s suicidal empathy.
“They wish to destroy our country in order to promote a cause that actually is murderous, that is absolutely abhorrent.”
The insider blasted the group’s ‘rotten ideology’
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GB NEWS
However, Mr Towler argued the sovereignty of Parliament should be respected by judges.
The board member said: “Parliament makes those decisions on behalf of the people of this country who have voted for its members.
“They give instruction to the courts, and the courts interpret those instructions. But the instruction was pretty clear.
“This organisation was described as a terrorist organisation with the support of a vast majority of the members of the House of Commons.
Palestine Action leader described the initial banning of the group as a ‘Trumpian abuse of power’
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PA“Therefore, the court does not really have the right to overturn that. It just doesn’t,” he told GB News, adding the case has become another example of judicial overreach.
The group remains banned as a terror group to allow further arguments and the Government time to consider an appeal.
About 100 people gathered outside the High Court building in central London, cheering and chanting “Free Palestine” after the news broke, including some holding signs saying they support the group.
Ms Ammori said: “This is a monumental victory both for our fundamental freedoms here in Britain and in the struggle for freedom for the Palestinian people, striking down a decision that will forever be remembered as one of the most extreme attacks on free speech in recent British history.
“Palestine Action is the first civil disobedience organisation that does not advocate for violence to be proscribed by the British Government as a ‘terrorist’ group, in a Trumpian abuse of power which would have seen this Labour Government proscribe the Suffragettes.”
In a summary of the High Court’s decision, Dame Victoria Sharp said: “The court considered that the proscription of Palestine Action was disproportionate.
“A very small number of Palestine Action’s activities amounted to acts of terrorism within the definition of section 1 of the 2000 Act. For these, and for Palestine Action’s other criminal activities, the general criminal law remains available.
“The nature and scale of Palestine Action’s activities falling within the definition of terrorism had not yet reached the level, scale and persistence to warrant proscription.”
Meanwhile, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said she was “disappointed” by the decision, arguing the proscription followed a “rigorous and evidence-based decision-making process, endorsed by Parliament”.