Actors Tilda Swinton, Steve Coogan, Reggie Watts, and rocker Roger Waters and many more have signed onto a letter demanding that the British government reject a plan to officially label a home-grown Palestinian activist group as a terror outfit.
The British government is debating whether to label the U.K.-based group Palestine Action as a terror outfit after the group has made it a policy to engage in violence, property destruction, and disruptive protests since its founding in 2020. The organization has particularly targeted the British government’s weapons and munitions manufacturing, the products of which are sometimes pledged to the Israeli government to use against Hamas terrorists in Gaza.
In their letter, the actors and entertainers insisted that Palestine Action is merely “intervening to stop a genocide.”
“Palestine Action is intervening to stop a genocide. It is acting to save life,” the letter exclaims. “We deplore the government’s decision to proscribe it. Labeling non-violent direct action as ‘terrorism’ is an abuse of language and an attack on democracy.”
“The real threat to the life of the nation comes not from Palestine Action but from the home secretary’s efforts to ban it,” the letter continues. “We call on the government to withdraw its proscription of Palestine Action and to stop arming Israel.”
The letter comes on the heels of a proposal by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper to designate Palestine Action as a domestic terror organization. The proposal would put the group on the same list as ISIS, al-Qaeda, and other such groups. But the U.K. high court ruled that Palestine Action founder Huda Ammori had the standing to file a legal challenge to Cooper’s plans, thus delaying the designation.
A spokesperson for Artists for Palestine said in a statement that “Never before has a decision like this been challenged so immediately by artists and so widely across the country. If the Government persists with this ban, it will face anger and opposition on a massive scale.”
The U.K. artists who signed the letter include, Khalid Abdalla, Beezy Bailey, Tim Booth, Rana Begum, Frankie Boyle, Hugh Brody, Caryl Churchill, Steve Coogan, Robert del Naja, Jeremy Deller, Brian Eno, Paul Ewen, Bella Freud, Jay Griffiths, Billy Howle, Tez Ilyas, Ken Loach, Miriam Margolyes, Francesca Martinez, Pankaj Mishra, Alice Oswald, Laline Paull, Florence Peake, Julia Sawalha, Alexei Sayle, Anna Shaffer, Nadine Shah, Kamila Shamsie, Maggie Steed, Juliet Stevenson, Tilda Swinton, Marina Warner, Mark Wallinger, Roger Waters, Reggie Watts, Paul Weller, Beatie Wolfe, and Penny Woolcock.
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