Prevention and Suppression of Terrorism

Jon Pearce Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Jon Pearce (High Peak) (Lab)]

I welcome the Home Secretary’s decisive action on Palestine Action, the Maniacs Murder Cult and the Russian Imperial Movement. Twenty months on from the horrific terror attacks of 7 October, the suffering of innocent people in Gaza, in Israel and beyond has rightly been the subject of much international campaigning. Money has been raised to support charities getting aid into Gaza, the hostages and missing families forum has worked tirelessly to keep the plight of the 50 remaining hostages on the world’s agenda, and hundreds of thousands of people have contacted their MPs, signed petitions and made their voices heard. That is all genuine activism, which is, importantly, within the bounds of the law.

Palestine Action is different. Over five years, it has conducted a campaign of violence, intimidation and criminal damage. In one attack on a business in Bristol, two police officers were attacked with a sledgehammer. The officers found not only sledgehammers but whips, axes and other home-made weapons. Palestine Action has attacked a business in my constituency, intimidating the workers there.

Last month, at RAF Brize Norton, military planes were vandalised and £30 million of damage was done. Such attacks undermine our national security and our armed forces. They can never be justified. I applaud the Home Secretary for responding in the strongest possible terms.

Palestine Action also has a track record of attacks against the country’s Jewish community. In May, a building housing Jewish-owned businesses in north Manchester was vandalised with red paint and graffiti reading “Happy Nakba Day”. Later that month, a Jewish-owned business in Stamford Hill was attacked by the organisation, with windows broken, red paint graffiti, and damage done to the building’s mezuzah. In the latter case, Palestine Action’s claims that the business was linked to Israeli defence companies proved baseless. This campaign of antisemitic harassment reveals the logical conclusion of its extremism. The important difference between it and all the other groups mentioned in the House is that it targets a specific ethnic and religious minority in our country.

This extremism does not help a single Palestinian. Smashing windows will not free Palestine, but it undermines the hard work of so many people who support the Palestinian cause and are working towards a peaceful future, and it leads to an environment where British Jews feel unsafe and harassed. That should never be tolerated.

Legitimate protest is a fundamental democratic freedom, but Palestinian Action abandoned legitimate action a long time ago. I welcome the Government’s swift action in ensuring that that organisation can no longer pose a threat to our security, to our businesses and to the Jewish community.