A Methodist minister has alleged that Palestine Action are being unfairly penalised on the basis of race, as the Court of Appeal has refused to block a ban on the group.
The campaign group has been proscribed as a terrorist organisation, after Home Secretary Yvette Cooper described the vandalism of two fighter planes as "disgraceful" and said the group had a "long history of unacceptable criminal damage".
The Revd Daniel ‘Woody’ Woodhouse claims he received preferential treatment when undertaking a similar style of protest due to being a “nice white boy”.
In 2017, alongside Quaker activist Sam Walton, Revd Woodhouse broke into UK military airbase BAE Warton. The pair were campaigning against British-made war planes being sent to Saudi Arabia and allegedly used in attacks on Yemen.
Writing for Novara Media, Revd Woodhouse insisted that their method of protest was “extremely similar” to that of Palestine Action – with the difference being that “we were not victims of an obsessive Islamophobic police crackdown. We are both white.”
Woodhouse recalled his ministerial role offering him protection: “Shortly after security caught us, [I] loosened the scarf from [my] Cambridge theological college to reveal [my] dog collar. The security guards that had caught us literally went, ‘Oh sh*t!’”
“The police couldn’t wait to rush Woody out of the station,” the pair said. They were charged with low-level criminal damage and found not guilty in court.
Woodhouse contrasts his own experience with members of Palestine Action, known as the ‘Filton 18’. In August 2024, protestors broke into an Elbit Systems factory in Filton, Bristol. An early court hearing was told that during the incident a vehicle was driven into the doors of buildings, and two police officers and a security guard were injured.
Members of the 'Filton 18' have been waiting months in prison for a trial. Their charges include criminal damage, violent disorder, and aggravated burglary.
Revd Woodhouse claims: “Palestine Action has never used violence against people. Its members have exclusively damaged property, just like we did – just like all nonviolent direct action ever.
“Yet while most people would agree that harming a person is categorically different to spray-painting a plane, in the eyes of the state, property damage is just as important, often more important than harm to human beings.”
In their judgment not to block the ban, Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr, Lord Justice Lewis and Lord Justice Edis said: "The merits of the underlying decision to proscribe a particular group is not a matter for the court. This is a matter, under the relevant Act of Parliament, for the Secretary of State, who is accountable to Parliament for the decisions that she makes."