Palestine Action's High Court victory confirms the moral vacuum that lies at the heart of the UK government

Keir Starmer and his Attorney General Richard Hermer are at the centre of it all

13 February 2026

During a period when reasons to be cheerful are increasingly hard to come by, today the UK Hight Court has offered a flash of hope by ruling that Keir Starmer’s ban on the civilian disobedience group Palestine Action is unlawful. The three judges, led Dame Victoria Sharp, reached their decision despite the UK government applying enormous pressure on an already conservative judiciary to uphold the ban as well as limit the rights of those accused to defend PA’s existence and motives in court on the bogus grounds that this would itself amount to a terrorist activity.

The proscription, which can have only been based on advice given to Starmer by his Attorney General Richard Hermer, a close friend of Starmer’s for decades, also ex-friend of mine from the Jewish youth movement I grew up in, was always a scandal of grotesque proportions. There were never any grounds to categorise a civil disobedience group that modelled itself on the Sufragettes, the ANC and the civil rights movement as a terrorist grouping. Terrorists explicitly target civilians in order to generate fear. The terrorist in the room has never been PA, which targeted a militaristic organisation embedded in a genocide, but the Israeli state, which from its very formation systematically began to ethnically cleanse and massacre the Palestinians.

When Hermer became Attorney general he made much of his ambition to return the UK to the rule of law, both domestically and internationally, yet all we’ve seen him and his boss Starmer do is manipulate the law to support Zionist goals. Any government concerned with uploading the law wouldn’t have proscribed PA in the first place, as the judge has made clear. Any government concerned with upholding the law would now acknowledge in light of the ruling that it got it made a mistake and do everything it could to rectify its error. But instead the UK government immediately announced that it would appeal the decision. This means that PA will remain proscribed until the appeal is concluded, even though its innocence has been confirmed.

The appeal has nothing whatsoever to do with the law and justice. It’s merely a continuation of the original deceit, which was to enable Israeli to carry out its genocide, the greatest crime known to humanity, unimpeded by annoying activists. The appeal also can’t be grounded in rational argument because the government announced it would appeal immediatelyy, without having time to consider the judge’s reasoning. The appeal is a mere delaying tactic designed to provide Israel with extra time to extend the genocide—the IDF has murdered more than 500 civilians since the ceasefire--and take over the eastern half of Gaza, where it’s building settlements and walls. Meanwhile Kushner and Trump, supported by Netanyahu, are attempting to progress their aptly-named “Final Solution” and turn Gaza’s western half into a luxury coastal resort while Palestinians are confined to a concentration camp—or an even smaller, much more controlled concentration camp than Gaza has in effect been since 2005.

Starmer has history. As Director of Public Prosecutions he decided to not prosecute the serial paedophile Jimmy Saville, but he did resolve to prosecute Julian Assange. He has since refused to recognise that Israel is perpetrating a genocide, not because he believes there’s no genocide taking place—the UN has confirmed that Israel is perpetrating a genocide--but because the delaying tactic enables the UK to continue to provide Israel with the military weapons and diplomatic support it needs to progress the genocide. Recognition of the naked facts would require the UK government to observe the Genocide Convention and cut off relations with its bosom ally. Starmer has even refused to recognise that Israel is perpetrating war crimes, even though we now know that Health Secretary Wes Streeting, a Labour politician who is even more right wing than Starmer, also a hardcore Zionist, told the cabinet that he believes that war crimes are taking place.

Starmer’s selective relationship to the law also led him to appoint Peter Mandelson as UK ambassador to the US despite Mandelson’s well-known friendship with the serial paedophile and hardcore Zionist Jeffrey Epstein. The release of the Epstein files has confirmed Mandelson illegally provided Epstein with insider financial information that he was able to use against the British taxpayer (but not that tax avoiders whose patronage enabled Starmer to become leader in the first place). Starmer appointed Gordon McSweeney, the person who orchestrated his soulless rise to power, Chief of Staff, despite knowing about McSweeney close friendship with Mandelson. Confirming the trend, Starmer also appointed Tim Allan as head of communications despite Allan’s well-known associated with a convicted paedophile. For Starmer paedophilia falls outside the rule of law until someone points out to him that it’s a grave crime.

As part of his perpetual holding operation, Starmer has of course dismissed Mandelson, McSweeney and Allan so that he can remain in power. Nothing is ever Starmer’s fault. He is unable to apologise or take responsibility for his own actions. He is also incapable of showing empathy, which requires action rather than empty, belated press conference slogans, not towards the children who are the victims of paedophilia or Israel’s genocide. Therefore displays the characteristics of a lying psychopath.

Meanwhile Hermer continues to provide his mate Starmer with every piece of legal advice he requires, whether it relates to the non-recognition of genocide and war crimes, the proscription of PA and High Court, the ongoing supply of military weapons to Israel, which has increased exponentially since Starmer’s tenure began, the actions taken against independent journalists, the continuation of UK spying missions over Gaza, ongoing trading relations with Israel and the visas granted to Israeli leaders, both political and military, while allegations of war crimes and genocide hung over their heads. Hermer is also part of a government that is planning to get rid of the jury system, no doubt to enable future genocidal states to carry out their work more effectively. If Starmer ever ignored Hermer’s advice Hermer would have been obliged to resign on professional grounds. Instead he stays in place, newly-established as Starmer’s primary ally following McSweeney’s dismissal.

Back in January 2025 Hermer maintained during a public talk given to the Jewish Labor Movement that any advice he gives to Starmer is “purely legal decision” and rejected the claim of another lawyer who happened to be in the audience that decisions were grounded in “interpretation”, even though interpretation lies at the very heart of the legal process and is precisely why lawyers exist in the first place. Those at the top of their profession, including Hermer, who was made a QC as early as 2009, are paid handsomely for their interpretative advice. That Hermer, as the Attorney General the most senior lawyer in the country, should make this claim reeks of staggering ignorance and arrogance.

We must take heart from Palestine Action’s victory, justice is possible, the corrupt government in the UK is teetering on the brink of collapse and this can only have global repercussions.

Free, free Palestine!

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