LONDON — More than 130 public figures wrote to the United Kingdom's Court of Appeal expressing support for Palestine Action days before a hearing on the lawfulness of the group's ban. The Court of Appeal is scheduled to hear the government's appeal to uphold its proscription of Palestine Action on April 28 and 29.

The letter, bearing 132 signatures, read: "We oppose genocide, we support Palestine Action." Signatories included Sally Rooney, Greta Thunberg and Judith Butler, alongside British musicians Nadine Shah and Brian Eno, writers China Mieville, Lina Meruane and Tariq Ali, and dozens of professors at Cambridge, Oxford, Yale, Columbia and the London School of Economics.

The UK government proscribed Palestine Action as a "terrorist organisation" in July 2025, placing it in the same category as Hezbollah and al-Qaeda. Under the proscription, it is illegal to be a member of or express support for Palestine Action, offences punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

In February, the UK's High Court ruled that the government's ban on Palestine Action was unlawful and disproportionate. London's Metropolitan Police said it would refrain from arresting demonstrators rallying in support of the group after the High Court ruling. With the government appeal pending, the Metropolitan Police reversed course, and officers arrested more than 500 people at a protest earlier this month.

Defend Our Juries, an activist group that has organised rallies and called for the government to drop its proscription of Palestine Action, said in a statement that the signatories were vulnerable to "terrorism charges." The group said: "If the police proceed to arrest these scholars on terrorism charges, the authoritarian nature of the ban will be further exposed. But if they don't, the more than 3,000 previous arrests of people for saying precisely the same thing will be shown to be not just unlawful but arbitrary and discriminatory."

Neve Gordon, an international law professor at Queen Mary University of London, said: "The UK government is silencing the messenger." Gordon said: "The decision to appeal the ruling rendering the proscription unlawful is yet another sign of the government's moral bankruptcy."