"Under any authoritarian government, bad laws are there to be broken." Massive Attack react to High Court ruling that the UK government acted unlawfully when classifying Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation

Massive Attack's Robert del Naja — (Image credit: massiveattackofficial Instagram)

Massive Attack have shared their reaction to today's British High Court ruling that Keir Starmer's government decision to proscribe the activist group Palestine Action under anti-terrorism legislation was unlawful.

Although the group remains banned for now, three High Court judges ruled that its activities do not make it a terrorist organisation. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood says that the Labour government will appeal the decision.

Last summer, Massive Attack bandleader Robert del Naja has hit out at Keir Starmer's "ugly" government following the August 9 arrest of 532 individuals, half of them aged 60 or over, at a pro-Palestine protest in Parliament Square in London. Those arrested were holding placards displaying the message, "I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action", and were arrested under Section 13 of the Terrorism Act.

The singer hit out at the "moral vacuum" of the British government, writing: "UK civil liberties are trapped in a deeply cynical, manufactured crisis. Peaceful citizens of conscience (including the frail, the blind, pensioners, poets, vicars & a retired colonel from the British Army) have become terrorists, at the will of a human rights lawyer turned authoritarian; who now lunges at opinions that expose the moral vacuum of his ugly, unrecognisable government."

The band's latest social media post celebrates the High Court ruling today, February 13.

“Keir Starmer’s government wanted to punish those who made their complicity in a genocide visible," it reads. "They confected an authoritarian law to retaliate against peaceful citizens holding signs. They wanted to brand those people terrorists.

“Just like the court of public opinion, the High Court has now found that unlawful. Respect and love for every citizen, every pensioner, every young person who risked their liberty to resist genocide. They were arrested by the state for nothing more than their peaceful conscience.

"In the case of the Filton 24, the highest price has been paid by those on the receiving end of this government’s vindictive guilt.

Under any authoritarian government, bad laws are there to be broken. Free Palestine.”

A post shared by Massive Attack (@massiveattackofficial)
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Palestine Action activists the Filton 24 were arrested in August 2024, and held on remand for 17 months, after protesting and breaking military drones at Elbit Systems - Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer - in Bristol.

Last week, on February 4, the first six of the 24 activists to face a criminal trial were either acquitted or not convicted of all charges against them.

All six were found not guilty of aggravated burglary, the most serious charge levellled against them.

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.

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