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Home Office staff are concerned about the “absurd” decision to ban Palestine Action under UK anti-terrorism laws, a senior civil servant has said.
On Monday the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, announced plans to ban the group, which would make membership of it, or inviting support for it, a criminal offence under the Terrorism Act, carrying a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
It would be the first time a direct action protest group has been classified as a terrorist organisation, joining the likes of Islamic State, al-Qaida and National Action. The move has been condemned as draconian by many other protest groups, civil society organisations and politicians of different stripes.
A senior Home Office official, who requested anonymity as they are not allowed to speak to the press, said concerns about proscribing Palestine Action extended into the home secretary’s own department.
“My colleagues and I were shocked by the announcement,” they said. “All week, the office has been a very tense atmosphere, charged with concern about treating a non-violent protest group the same as actual terrorist organisations like Isis, and the dangerous precedent this sets.
“From desk to desk, colleagues are exchanging concerned and bemused conversations about how absurd this is and how impossible it will be to enforce. Are they really going to prosecute as terrorists everyone who expresses support for Palestine Action’s work to disrupt the flow of arms to Israel as it commits war crimes?
“It’s ridiculous and it’s being widely condemned in anxious conversations internally as a blatant misuse of anti-terror laws for political purposes to clamp down on protests which are affecting the profits of arms companies.”
In September last year, the UK announced it was suspending some arms export licences to Israel because of a “clear risk” they may be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law. But critics have said it does not go far enough. A court case in which the UK is accused of selling F-35 parts that could be used by Israel to attack Gaza is awaiting judgment.
After Palestine Action claimed it had broken into RAF Brize Norton a week ago and sprayed paint on two military aircraft, it said Britain continued to “send military cargo, fly spy planes over Gaza and refuel US and Israeli fighter jets”. On Friday, counter-terrorism policing south-east said it had arrested four people in connection with the protest.
Cooper said the protest was part of a “long history of unacceptable criminal damage committed by Palestine Action”.
Palestine Action said the arrests of three of the four on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism showed that “proscription is not about enabling prosecutions under terrorism laws – it’s about cracking down on non-violent protests which disrupt the flow of arms to Israel during its genocide in Palestine”.
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The Home Office is not the only government department where there has been discontent among staff recently. This month, more than 300 Foreign Office staff were told to consider resigning after they signed a letter raising fears that the government had become complicit in Israel’s alleged war crimes in Gaza.
The reply to the letter, sent by the permanent under-secretary, Oliver Robbins, and Nick Dyer, the second most senior civil servant in the Foreign Office, said: “If your disagreement with any aspect of government policy or action is profound, your ultimate recourse is to resign from the civil service. This is an honourable course.”
The proscription order will be laid before parliament on Monday and, if passed by MPs, is likely to come into effect on Friday.
When approached for comment, the Home Office referred the Guardian to Cooper’s statement from Monday.
