Rescind the proscription of Palestine Action! Please share this post and if you're an academic, sign it

From the Verso Books website:

'We Support Palestine Action In Their Campaign Against Proscription'.

An open letter from some of the world's leading thinkers calling on the UK government to drop the charges against Palestine Action.

Academics Against the Proscription of Palestine Action 6 August 2025

As scholars dedicated to questions of justice and ethics, we are astonished and dismayed by the current priorities of Keir Starmer and his ministers. 

On the one hand they continue to offer material, military and diplomatic support to their close ally Israel and its rampaging war machine; on the other hand they are taking dramatically punitive steps to persecute some of the most direct and effective domestic critics of that machine. 

On the one hand they are sworn to uphold a Convention that obliges them to “prevent and to punish” genocide, a crime the UN defines as “deliberately inflicting” upon a nationally or ethnically defined group “conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”; on the other hand they remain directly complicit in precisely this ongoing crime, and refuse to consider the sorts of measures (notably a full arms embargo and consequential and far-reaching sanctions) that alone might not only slow it down but actually put a stop to it. 

I 

Even as the dire consequences of Israel’s assault on Palestine grow more obvious by the day, the UK government adamantly refuses to characterise this assault as a violation of international law, let alone as genocidal. In July 2025 as in September 2024, while the Israeli military continues to demolish the whole of the Gaza Strip and to eliminate its inhabitants, Starmer’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy is prepared only to acknowledge that there may now be a “risk” of war crimes. There is now a “possibility,” Lammy says, that violations of humanitarian law may occur, perhaps at some indeterminate point in the future. According to Lammy no such crimes have actually yet been committed. Starmer himself tells us that since he is “well aware of the definition of genocide,” therefore he has “never described this as or referred to it as genocide.” 

Incredibly, when it comes to its most crucial decisions over arms supplies or diplomatic support, Starmer’s government is still reluctant even to acknowledge the risk or possibility of crimes against humanity. Starmer’s lawyers continue to justify the ongoing provision of essential UK-made F-35 fighter-bomber components to the Israeli air force, for instance, not only because “the evidence available does not support a finding of genocide” but also because the government’s own assessment somehow managed to conclude that “there was no serious risk of genocide occurring.” Since everyone can see what Israel is doing with the military equipment it receives from the UK, it is unconscionable that the UK continues to flout the formal conditions of the Arms Trade Treaty that it signed in 2014, notably its prohibition (in article 6:3) of any transfer of weapons made in the knowledge that they might be “used in the commission of genocide or crimes against humanity.” 

No matter how many people are actually starved, bombed or shot to death by the Israeli military, no matter how many UN officials or human rights groups or genocide scholars name this genocide for what it is, to this day Starmer and his ministers still decline to characterise Israeli actions as actually criminal or genocidal. They decline to do this, presumably, because it might amount to tacit admission of their own complicity in Israel’s flagrant war crimes. 

The present UK government, like the present governments of the US and of Israel, has a profoundly vested interest in preserving all forms of established impunity. These governments are especially invested in such impunity now that Israel’s long war of colonial conquest in Palestine, even as it expressly threatens the entire West Bank with imminent annexation, has in Gaza itself morphed from anything we might recognise as a “war” into genocidal ethnic cleansing pure and simple. Today Israel is not so much waging war in Gaza as eliminating the population and demolishing their homes. 

Like so many other critics of Starmer and Lammy, we take this opportunity to remind them once again that the UK, like the US and Israel, is formally obligated not merely to deplore but actively to prevent and to punish genocide. We believe that this moral and legal obligation takes precedence over all others, and we maintain the UK government now owes its people – to say nothing of the people of Palestine and indeed of the entire world – a full explanation of why it has so abjectly failed to meet it. 

II 

Rather than adopt measures that might prevent Israeli forces from starving or shooting people in Gaza, rather than halt their systematic demolition of towns and villages across the Strip, rather than stop their ongoing conquest and settlement of the West Bank, we note that Starmer and his Home Secretary Yvette Cooper have instead chosen to go after a different and rather softer target: domestic critics of Israel’s assault. 

Like analysts and observers all over the world, we were astonished to learn, earlier this month, that after taking draconian steps over the preceding months to harass student protestors and the organisers of mass pro-Palestine demonstrations, Cooper has now taken the entirely unparalleled step of banning the non-violent protest group Palestine Action as a supposedly “terrorist” organisation. A couple of days before it came into effect, Amnesty International (echoing many hundreds of lawyers, human right activists, UN officials, writers, artists, activists of all stripes) rightly characterised Cooper’s “decision to ban Palestine Action, under anti-terror laws, as an unprecedented legal overreach.”  

In solidarity with our colleagues across the UK and across the full spectrum of groups engaged in the Palestine solidarity movement, we believe that Cooper’s proscription of Palestine Action represents an attack both on the entire movement and on basic freedoms of expression, association, assembly, and protest. 

We are encouraged to see that London’s High Court has now agreed to consider a legal challenge to Cooper’s ban, but we deplore the repressive consequences that this ban has already had on public debate and the rights of dissent. We deplore the fact that over the past several weeks more than two hundred people have already been arrested merely for expressing either support for Palestine Action or opposition to Israel’s genocide. We are amazed to see that British police are prepared to arrest people as “terrorists” merely for holding signs that call for the liberation of Gaza or for “action” against genocide, i.e. for exercising their rights of free expression. 

As people who work in or adjacent to universities, we are especially concerned about the impact that the proscription of Palestine Action is sure to have on campuses across the UK, not least because it establishes a horrific precedent that could very well be cited by administrators on campuses in other countries as well. The University of Cambridge has already referenced the ban in arguments made to the High Court to justify surveillance of student activism and the further criminalisation of protest. Many other universities, for example Cardiff, Leicester, Newcastle and London, can now also draw on Cooper’s proscription to intensify their ongoing efforts to crack down on pro-Palestine protests. 

As university staff working in many different places we write in full solidarity with embattled student encampments and other campaigning organisations in support of Palestine, in the UK, in the US and in countries all over the world, including Students for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace, University and College Workers for Palestine, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, BRICUP, and many other groups too numerous to mention. 

III 

We therefore applaud the growing campaign of collective defiance that aims to overturn Cooper’s ban. We commend, in particular, the courageous stand taken by activists associated with Defend our Juries, who for several weeks running have been arrested for participating in demonstrations that express opposition to genocide and support for Palestine Action. We applaud the exemplary recent motion adopted by Derry Council that demands the reversal of proscription, that “supports all those who have protested the ban on Palestine Action, and [that] calls for charges against them to be immediately dropped.” We join our voices with the many tens of thousands of people who continue to demonstrate against genocide and against proscription. 

In alliance with thousands of trade unionists and teachers across the UK, we affirm our own solidarity with Palestine Action in their campaign against proscription. We fully share both their goal of ending the flow of weapons from Britain to Israel and their belief that all participants in the pro-Palestine movement should be free to make our own decisions about how best to achieve that goal, without having to face down the threat of state repression and violence. 

As the organisers of massive national demonstrations face prosecution, as hundreds of people again risk arrest by joining street protests on 9 August, and as students and teachers prepare for the start of another turbulent academic year, we express our full solidarity with those mobilising on their campuses or in their workplaces and communities to prevent genocide and to end UK complicity with Israel’s crimes. We share and affirm the insightful slogans and just demands that now reverberate across the country: protest is not terrorism; drop the charges; lift the ban; stop starving Gaza; stop arming Israel; stop the genocide and bring those responsible for it to justice; full equality in rights, including full participation in political self-determination, for all inhabitants of Palestine. There is no time to wait. 

 

Signed:  

Gilbert Achcar, Emeritus Professor of Development Studies and International Relations, SOAS, University of London. 

Umberto Albarella, Professor of Zooarchaeology, University of Sheffield. 

Anne Alexander, Senior Research Associate, Cambridge Digital Humanities, University of Cambridge. 

Tariq Ali, Writer and historian. 

Sandra Babcock, Clinical Professor of Law, Cornell University Law School. 

Etienne Balibar, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, University of Paris X – Nanterre. 

Chetan Bhatt, Anthony Giddens Professor of Social Theory, London School of Economics. 

Marion Birch, editor of Medicine, Conflict & Survival (Taylor & Francis). 

Sarah Bracke, Professor of Sociology, University of Amsterdam. 

Nathan Brown, Professor of English, Concordia University, Montréal. 

Wendy Brown, UPS Foundation Chair, School of Social Science, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. 

Susan Buck-Morss, Distinguished Professor, CUNY Graduate Centre, NYC. 

Judith Butler, Distinguished Professor in the Graduate School, Department of Comparative Literature, UC Berkeley. 

Alex Callinicos, Emeritus Professor of European Studies, King’s College London. 

John Chalcraft, Professor of Middle East History and Politics, London School of Economics. 

Emilios Christodoulidis, Chair of Jurisprudence, University of Glasgow. 

Justin Clemens, Associate Professor in Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne. 

Rebecca Comay, Professor of Philosophy and Comparative Literature, University of Toronto. 

David Cunningham, Professor of Modern Literature and Culture, University of Westminster 

Angela Davis, Distinguished Professor Emerita, UC Santa Cruz. 

Alex de Waal, Executive Director, World Peace Foundation. 

Jodi Dean, Professor of Politics, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, NY. 

Elsa Dorlin, Professor of Contemporary Political Philosophy, Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès. 

Jennifer Doyle, Professor of English, UC Riverside. 

Haidar Eid, Associate Professor of Postcolonial Literature, Al-Aqsa University, Gaza, Palestine. 

Roberto Esposito, Professor of Philosophy, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa. 

David Ewing, Lecturer in French, Queen’s College, University of Oxford. 

Patrick ffrench, Professor of French, King’s College London. 

John Bellamy Foster, Professor Emeritus, Sociology, University of Oregon. 

Verónica Gago, Professor of Social Sciences, University of Buenos Aires. 

Neve Gordon, Professor of International Law, Queen Mary University of London. 

Ian Gough FAcSS FBA, Visiting Professor, London School of Economics. 

Greg Grandin, Peter V. and C. Vann Woodward Professor of History, Yale University. 

Penny Green, Professor of Law and Globalisation, Queen Mary University of London. 

Amy Hagopian, Professor Emeritus, Health Systems and Population Health, University of Washington 

Peter Hallward, Professor of Modern European Philosophy, CRMEP, Kingston University. 

Michael Hardt, Professor of Literature, Duke University. 

Amber Jacobs, Head of School of Historical Studies, Birkbeck College University of London. 

Robin D.G. Kelley, Professor of History, UCLA. 

Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor Emeritus of Modern Arab Studies, Columbia University. 

Darryl Li, Associate Professor of Anthropology & Associate Member of the Law School, University of Chicago. 

Elena Loizidou, Professor in Law and Political Theory, Birkbeck College. 

Frédéric Lordon, Research Director, CNRS, France. 

James Martel, Professor of Political Science, San Francisco State University. 

Tracy McNulty, Professor of Comparative Literature and Romance Studies, Cornell University. 

Angela McRobbie FBA, Professor Emeritus, Goldsmiths University of London. 

Mandy Merck, Professor Emerita of Media Arts, Royal Holloway University of London. 

Lina Meruane, Distinguished Writer in Residence, NYU – Chile. 

Sandro Mezzadra, Professor of Political Theory, University of Bologna. 

China Miéville FRSL, Salvage. 

Vittorio Morfino, Professor of the History of Philosophy, University of Milan-Bicocca. 

Nick Nesbitt, Professor of French, Princeton University. 

Abdaljawad Omar, Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Cultural Studies, Birzeit University, Palestine. 

Ilan Pappé, Professor of History and Middle Eastern Studies, Director of the Centre of Palestine Studies, University of Exeter. 

Paul Patton, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, University of New South Wales, Australia. 

Rahul Rao, Reader in Reader in International Political Thought, University of St Andrews, Scotland. 

Matthieu Renault, Professor of Philosophy, Université Toulouse – Jean Jaurès, France. 

Bruce Robbins, Old Dominion Foundation Professor in the Humanities, Columbia University. 

William I. Robinson, Distinguished Professor of Sociology, University of California at Santa Barbara. 

Jacqueline Rose, Professor of Humanities and Co-Director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, University of London. 

Lynne Segal, Professor Emerita of Psychosocial Studies, Birkbeck, University of London. 

Tanya Serisier, Professor in Feminist Theory, Birkbeck, University of London 

Richard Seymour, Salvage. 

Avi Shlaim FBA, Emeritus Professor of International Relations, St Antony's College, Oxford. 

Ludi Simpson, Honorary Professor of Population Studies, University of Manchester. 

Nikhil Pal Singh, Chair, Department of Social and Cultural Analysis, New York University. 

Panagiotis Sotiris, Editor and writer. 

Elettra Stimilli, Professor of Philosophy, Sapienza Università di Roma. 

Rei Terada, Professor Emerita of Comparative Literature, UC Irvine. 

Alberto Toscano, Emeritus Professor of Critical Theory, Goldsmiths, University of London. 

Enzo Traverso, Professor in the Humanities, Cornell University. 

Elena Tzelepis, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Thessaly. 

Françoise Vergès, Senior Research Fellow Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Racism and Racialization, UCL. 

Mara Viveros Vigoya, Professor in the Faculty of Human Sciences at Universidad Nacional de Colombia, and Simón Bolívar Professor, University of Cambridge, 2024-25. 

Jeffery R. Webber, Professor of Politics, York University, Toronto. 

Eyal Weizman, Founding Director of Forensic Architecture and Professor of Spatial and Visual Cultures, Goldsmiths, University of London. 

Lynn Welchman, Professor of Law, SOAS University of London. 

Jessica Whyte, Scientia Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of New South Wales, Australia. 

Jim Wolfreys, Reader in French and European Politics, King’s College London. 
 

If you are employed by a university and would like to add your signature to the abbreviated version there is a sign-up form posted here 

An abbreviated version of this statement was published in the Guardian on Wednesday 6 August 2025, along with an additional story about it. If you are employed by a university and would like to add your signature to the abbreviated version there is a sign-up form posted here.