Only one in three adults believe Palestine Action is a terrorist organisation, according to polling carried out for Zeteo UK.
The survey, conducted by Opinium, found that only 36% of adults said they believe Palestine Action is a terrorist organisation, while 23% said they did not and the remaining 41% were unsure.
Palestine Action has been a proscribed group since July 2025, meaning membership and certain forms of support are criminal offences under the Terrorism Act 2000, which gives the home secretary the power to ban organisations concerned in terrorism. Organisations previously proscribed include al-Qaida and Boko Haram.
The government argues that Palestine Action has carried out serious and coordinated property damage and disruption to try to influence policy, and that some of this activity falls within the legal threshold for terrorism. Critics, however, say the use of terror legislation against Palestine Action is a threat to the right to protest and freedom of expression.
The proscription sparked a wave of protests organised by the campaign group Defend Our Juries, in which people held signs saying “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action”, leading to thousands of arrests.
Hundreds of people are expected to take part in another demonstration against the ban and in support of Palestine Action in Liverpool on Sunday, the opening day of Labour’s annual conference – the first since Andy Burnham became prime minister.
Defend Our Juries said Zeteo UK’s polling showed opposition to the government’s approach.
“The findings of this survey are a damning indictment of Keir Starmer’s mad proscription of Palestine Action,” a spokesperson for the group said.
“To date Andy Burnham has stayed silent on the proscription, but Sunday is the moment when he’ll have to show his hand. There will be hundreds of people peacefully holding signs outside the Labour Party conference, demonstrating against the genocide and expressing support for Palestine Action,” they added.
The latest published Home Office statistics covering the period to the end of March recorded 3,061 arrests for terror-related activity – a 12-fold increase from the year before. Of those arrests, 92% (2,819) were linked to supporting Palestine Action.
Many of the arrests have taken place during protests at which people have displayed signs stating their support for the organisation – and the arrests have led to scenes of elderly people being dragged into police vans.
Palestine Action was founded by Huda Ammori and Richard Barnard in 2020, and its aim is to disrupt companies it believes are involved in supplying weapons or military technology used by Israel.
One of the most significant cases was the incident at an Elbit Systems facility in Filton, near Bristol, in August 2024.
Six activists broke into the Israeli defence firm’s site, causing £1.2 million in damage, and a police officer was injured.
Four of the defendants – Charlotte Head, Samuel Corner, Leona Kamio and Fatema Zaynab Rajwani – were subsequently convicted of criminal damage. Corner was also convicted of causing grievous bodily harm to a police officer.
In June, the judge ruled that the offences had a “terrorist connection” for sentencing purposes. The four had not been convicted of separate terrorism offences, but the ruling allowed the terrorist connection to be taken into account when their jail sentences were determined.
Sukaina Rajwani and Emma Kamio, the mothers of Fatema Zaynab Rajwani and Leona Kamio respectively, criticised the use of the terrorism provisions in an interview with ‘The Real Question with Shehab Khan’.
“This isn’t just about activists and protesters, but when you can be charged with one thing and sentenced as another without the jury knowing anything about it, then it should horrify everybody,” Emma Kamio said.
Separately, the government’s decision to proscribe Palestine Action has been challenged in the courts.
The High Court ruled in February that the decision was unlawful and quashed it, although the ban remained in place while the government appealed.
On June 15, the Court of Appeal overturned that judgment. Ammori has appealed against the ruling, with a hearing scheduled in the Supreme Court for November.
Zeteo UK has contacted the Home Office for comment.
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