We need to talk about Yvette
By any rational standard, the decision by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation marks one of the most chilling and authoritarian moves by a British government in living memory. It is a signal to all dissenters, all anti-war activists, and anyone with a shred of moral decency that speaking out against British complicity in foreign atrocities is now punishable by a 14-year prison sentence. And it is being cheered on, not by the usual suspects on the Tory benches, but by a moribund Labour government led by Sir Keir Starmer, with Cooper as its iron fist.
What this Government is saying is, even if you highlight that we are breaking international law, we will come down on you like a ton of fucking bricks. It's not just morally appropriate to stand up to these threats, it is our patriotic duty.
Let us be absolutely clear: Palestine Action is not a terrorist organisation. It is a direct action network that targets the UK operations of Elbit Systems, Israel's largest weapons manufacturer. They have broken into offices, occupied rooftops, and spray-painted symbols of death onto buildings that facilitate the mass murder of Palestinians. Their tactics are disruptive, symbolic, and yes, illegal: but they are not violent. No one has been harmed. No bombs. No guns. No knives. Just red paint and a refusal to be complicit. To treat such activism as terrorism is to grotesquely distort the meaning of that word, and to reveal the state's real fear: not of violence, but of effective resistance.
A Precedent That Should Terrify Everyone
This is the first time in modern British history that a protest group has been proscribed under the Terrorism Act. To say it sets a dangerous precedent is a grotesque understatement. It opens the door to a future in which any group that disrupts business as usual, whether on climate, workers' rights, or war, can be silenced with the full power of the state.
Imagine Extinction Rebellion banned as terrorists for blocking roads. Imagine trade unionists jailed for picketing arms factories. Imagine student occupations treated as domestic extremism. Thanks to Yvette Cooper, this future is not speculative, it is precedent. And what is her justification? According to her statement, Palestine Action's methods cause 'serious criminal damage' and present 'a risk to public safety'. She might as well have been talking about every major movement in British history, from the Suffragettes to the miners' strikes. Cooper and her colleagues have claimed that the group poses a threat because it disrupted operations at RAF Brize Norton, allegedly damaging a plane connected to British military support for Israel. Well this wasn't a threat to public safety, it was a threat to Britain's complicity in the genocide unfolding in Gaza. And that, evidently, is what the Labour government cannot tolerate.
Follow the Money
Why this clampdown? Why this hysterical overreaction to a group of largely young, idealistic activists who have made it their mission to stop British involvement in foreign war crimes? The answer lies as it so often does in the money. Yvette Cooper is one of many senior Labour politicians who have benefitted from funding and trips associated with the Israel lobby. While not as openly embedded as Sir Keir Starmer or Rachel Reeves, she has enjoyed support from Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) and has aligned herself with their narrative on the so-called 'conflict' in Palestine, a narrative that treats the Israeli military as victims and any resistance, violent or otherwise, as terrorism. Labour MPs, including Cooper, have accepted over £280,000 in donations and hospitality from pro-Israel groups. Some of these back handers were funded directly by the Israeli Foreign Ministry. This isn't a conspiracy theory, it is documented fact in the Register of Members Interests. British MPs have flown to Tel Aviv, posed for photo ops, and returned with a script that paints critics of an out of control Israel as extremists and defenders of Gaza as a threat to public order. It is no accident that this government has doubled down on arms exports to Israel, criminalised protests, and now moved to ban Palestine Action. The political class is not merely complicit, it is compromised and by its own actions it is banged to rights. It's guilt is clear for all to see.
The Authoritarian Turn of the Labour Right
Yvette Cooper has long been a creature of the Labour right: technocratic, managerial, obsessed with appearing 'tough', whether on immigration, crime, or protest. Her stint as Shadow Home Secretary under Starmer revealed a figure more comfortable talking about border control than social justice. But now, with actual power in her hands, Cooper has dropped the veil entirely. Her decision to wield the Terrorism Act against nonviolent protest is not just cowardly, it is totalitarian. This is the same Yvette Cooper who, in previous years, warned against the dangers of giving police excessive powers, who claimed to stand for human rights, who spoke eloquently about protecting women from violence. And yet, here she is, criminalising activists who oppose the mass killing of women and children in Gaza. What happened to those principles? Were they ever real?
Criminalising Solidarity
To support Palestine Action after this proscription order will be to risk arrest. To give them money, offer a venue, share a post, wear a badge: all of it could now be construed as 'supporting terrorism'. This is how low the cunts in the Labour Government have stooped. This is state repression dressed up in legalese. The chilling effect will be enormous. Other campaigns will go quiet. Fundraising will collapse. Journalists and filmmakers will back away. What was once public solidarity will retreat into whispered conversation. And that is exactly the point. This move isn't about stopping crime. It's about stopping politics. It's about silencing a generation that refuses to sit quietly while the UK fuels genocide - it's about an open admission that our Government is complicit in war crimes and it has nothing but contempt for the electorate that feel uncomfortable about this.
By Proscribing non-violent groups and making protest illegal you radicalise dissent. Have these fuckers learned nothing from Northern Ireland?
Broad and Immediate Dissent
The backlash to Cooper's decision has been swift, broad, and fierce. Amnesty International condemned the move as 'a blatant violation of civil liberties' and warned that proscription of nonviolent protest groups is a hallmark of authoritarian regimes, not functioning democracies. Liberty called it 'an affront to free expression and protest rights' adding that this opens the door to a disturbing redefinition of terrorism. Even traditionally apolitical environmental groups like Greenpeace issued a statement warning that the move could be used against climate protesters in future, labelling it a 'canary in the coal mine for civil society'. Within the Labour Party itself, voices of dissent are emerging, though muted by fear of leadership reprisals. Former leader Jeremy Corbyn called the proscription "An outrageous abuse of power," while MPs such as Zarah Sultana, Apsana Begum, and John McDonnell have all spoken out publicly, describing the decision as dangerous, illiberal, and politically motivated. Clive Lewis MP warned that this could mark "a dark turning point for protest rights in the UK," and Labour councillors across major cities have begun issuing joint statements condemning the ban and calling for its reversal. Human rights organisations, legal experts, and civil liberties campaigners are beginning to mount legal challenges to the move. Prominent barristers and academics have described it as "legally indefensible," noting that no court has ruled Palestine Action a terrorist organisation and no violent acts have been attributed to the group.
The Bigger Picture
Let us step back for a moment. Since October 2023, Israel has killed over 55,000 Palestinians in Gaza. Whole families have been wiped out. Hospitals bombed. Journalists targeted. Children mutilated and murdered. The International Court of Justice has said there is a plausible case that Israel is committing genocide. And Britain? Britain continues to arm the perpetrators. Elbit Systems, the company targeted by Palestine Action, produces drones, ammunition, and surveillance equipment used in those very war crimes. The UK government licences the exports. It protects the supply chains. It shelters the arms dealers. Palestine Action exists because of this complicity. It is a response to moral cowardice at the highest levels of government. It is an attempt, albeit a desperate one, to do what the courts, parliament, and mainstream media refuse to do: stop the machinery of death. By proscribing this group, Yvette Cooper is siding with the executioners. She is using the full weight of British law to protect war profiteers and punish the people who expose them. This is cuntishness of the highest and most cynical level.
Resistance Must Continue
This moment must be a wake-up call. Not just for the Palestine movement, but for everyone who believes in freedom, justice, and democracy. If this is allowed to stand, no movement is safe. If they can proscribe Palestine Action, they can proscribe anyone. Climate activists. Anti-racist organisers. Trade unionists. You name it. We need solidarity now more than ever. We need mass resistance. We need lawyers, journalists, trade unions, and civil rights groups to rally against this authoritarian assault. And we need to say loudly and without apology: Palestine Action are not terrorists! They are the conscience of a nation that has lost its moral bearings. They are the red paint on a warplane that would otherwise fly unchallenged. They are the scream in the night when everyone else has fallen silent.
And Yvette Cooper? She is not a moderate. She is not a responsible stateswoman. She is the face of repression. She is dangerous. Another British politician sucking the teat of an out of control Genocidal settler ethno-state that is pulling us into a third world war. The smiling bureaucrat of soft fascism. The absolute shit who decided that painting a jet was worse than bombing a hospital. We need to talk about Yvette. And we need to make damn sure she doesn’t get the last word.
The world has gone mad. If you enjoyed reading this, please feel free to look at the rest of the blogs on www.TetleysTLDR.com. They're free to view, there's no paywall, they aren't monetised and I won't ask you to buy me a coffee. Also please free to share anything you find of interest, we only get the message out if people are aware of it. Just a leftie, standing in front of another leftie, asking to be read. All the best, Tetley
