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Palestine Action to be proscribed as a terror group after break-in at UK's largest airbase

Palestine Action to be proscribed as a terror group after break-in at UK's largest airbase

Middle East Eye15 hours ago

The British government will move to ban the activist group Palestine Action and proscribe it as a terrorist organisation, after two activists broke into the UK's largest airbase on Friday on electric scooters and damaged two Royal Air Force (RAF) planes.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper will submit a statement before parliament on Monday which if passed will make it illegal to be a member of the group, the BBC reported.
Footage shared by Palestine Action purported to show two protesters riding scooters towards the RAF planes on the runway at the Brize Norton airbase, where they used "repurposed fire extinguishers to spray red paint into the turbine engines" and "caused further damage using crowbars". The activists then evaded security and escaped the base.
The group announced on its website on Friday that the airbase was targeted because flights leave daily from there "for RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, a base used for military operations in Gaza and across the Middle East".
The British base on Cyprus, RAF Akrotiri, is just a 40-minute flight from Tel Aviv.
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From there, RAF Shadow aircraft have conducted hundreds of surveillance flights over Gaza throughout Israel's war on the Palestinian enclave.
A security review has begun at military bases across Britain, and South East counter terrorism police said its specialist officers were investigating the incident with Thames Valley Police and the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
Prime Minister Keir Starmer branded the action as "disgraceful" and an "act of vandalism".
Palestine Action said in a post on X that "we exposed Britain's direct involvement in the genocide, and how ordinary people can act to stop it.
"In response, the political establishment rush to call us "terrorists", whilst they enact the worst crimes against humanity.
"No amount of smears or intimidation tactics will waver our solidarity with Palestine."
Secrecy surrounding Gaza surveillance flights
The planes the activists damaged were Airbus Voyagers, which carry military cargo and refuel fighter jets and military aircraft.
In response to questions about its surveillance flights over Gaza, the MoD has repeatedly insisted they are in support of "hostage rescue".
Earlier this year, Luke Pollard, minister for the armed forces, said during a debate that Britain "shares an important, long-standing and broad strategic partnership with the state of Israel".
He said that surveillance flights over Gaza are "solely in support of hostage rescue" and that information is passed on "only if we are satisfied that it will be used in accordance with international humanitarian law".
Pro-Palestine activists on electric scooters damage RAF planes and evade capture at UK airbase Read More »
The MoD also said last year that it "would consider any formal request from the International Criminal Court to provide information relating to investigations into war crimes".
However, there is significant secrecy surrounding much of what the RAF Akrotiri airbase is used for.
Last month, MEE reported that the UK government blocked Labour MP Kim Johnson from asking about Israeli bombers using the Cyprus airbase.
Palestine Action have carried out a series of high-profile actions during Israel's war on Gaza.
PA activists were arrested on terror charges after an action in August when activists drove a modified van into the research and development hub of UK-based Israeli arms company, Elbit Systems, in Filton, Bristol. They are currently being held in remand.

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