10 Feb 2026 · 12:02 PM UTC
https://nitter.net/Jonathan_K_Cook/status/2021193028098990466

1. It reminded us that the Starmer government's proscription of the group as a
terrorist organisation was done at the behest of Elbit Systems - the Israeli
arms firm making killer drones used in Gaza targeted by Palestine Action.

Government officials regularly met with Elbit. A 2023 internal Home Office
email, two years before proscription, states: "Reassure Elbit Systems UK and the
wider sector affected by Palestine Action that the government cares about the
harm the group is causing the private sector [arms industries]."

2. A senior official told the film-makers there was widespread belief among Home
Office staff that the government was "wrong" to proscribe Palestine Action, and
there was "disquiet" that the government was using Palestine Action as a way to
curtail rights to protest and speech more generally.

3. The government's terrorism adviser, Jonathan Hall KC, made clear that there
was zero evidence of any links between Palestine Action and Iran - a claim
leaked to the press by government officials on the same day Palestine Action was
proscribed. Private Eye had already reported in November that the claim was
concocted by a PR firm for Elbit Systems.

4. Additionally, Lord Walney, the government's former "independent" adviser on
political violence, who has been at the forefront of demanding even more
draconian legislation to ban protest in relation to Israel and its genocide,
struggled through his interview.

It was only too clear that his views on the subject had nothing to do with the
public good but were shaped by his ties to the arms industries and his role as
an Israel lobbyist.

What the programme made clear was that Starmer's government made the
unprecedented decision to declare Palestine Action a terrorist organisation not
because the group is a terrorist organisation but because large corporations -
arms firms like Elbit - have captured the UK government.

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Jonathan Cook @Jonathan_K_Cook

One scene in Channel 4's Palestine Action documentary, however, needs calling
out. An interview with Huda Ammori, the group's co-founder, included a truly
cringe-inducing request that she condemn Hamas over its October 7 2023 attack.

We should have long moved past the point where Palestinians - more than two
years into a genocide of their people - are expected to make such ritual
denunciations before they can be heard.

If that isn't obvious, consider another interview during the programme - this
one with Gideon Falter, the head of the Campaign Against Antisemitism. The CAA
is a virulently pro-Israel organisation that was recently excoriated by a judge
for repeatedly misleading him - lying - in an antisemitism case it brought
before the court.

Why did the programme makers not ask Falter, who actually is an apologist for
Israeli violence, whether he would condemn Israel for its two-year slaughter of
children in Gaza? Presumably they shied away from that confrontation because it
would have suggested that they were holding Jews collectively responsible for
the actions of the Israeli government.

In which case, why is it still ok to imply that Palestinians are collectively
responsible for the actions of Hamas?

That this double standard is still a respectable position for journalists to
adopt should be genuinely shocking.