Palestine Action Leader Cheers Reversal of British Ban From Propaganda Tour in Iran

While the British government prepares to appeal a court ruling that lifted its ban on the anti-Israel group Palestine Action, the founder of the organization’s American arm is celebrating the ruling from Tehran, where she’s been praising the Iranian regime’s deadly crackdown on protestors. Communist activist Calla Walsh co-founded Palestine Action US — now operating as Unity of Fields — in 2023. This week she posted videos of herself on Tehran’s streets during pro-regime demonstrations, praising the Islamic Republic and claiming it enjoys overwhelming popular support.“I feel incredibly inspired and optimistic by the millions of Iranians out in the streets today defending their government despite the lies we hear in the west that the people are against the Islamic Republic,” she said in one clip. “We see it has mass popular support. People support the resistance against U.S. imperialism and Zionism.”Ms. Walsh’s glowing account flies in the face of anti-regime protests that swept through hundreds of towns and cities across Iran in early January. A U.S.-based human rights group, the Human Rights Activists News Agency, says it has verified that more than 7,000 people were killed in a violent crackdown on the protests.Ms. Walsh suggested that the crackdown on dissent “is important to all oppressed people fighting against colonialism and arrogance across the entire world.” Equating the protesters with Israeli and American interests, she wrote that she feels “hope that the pedophilic, zionist, genocidal, US and Israeli regimes will be defeated by the resistance forces led by the Islamic Republic of Iran.”Between regime propaganda posts, Ms. Walsh celebrated her U.K. counterpart’s court victory. The Palestine Action founder, Huda Ammori, won her challenge to Britain’s terrorism ban on Friday, when the High Court ruled the proscription was “disproportionate” and caused “very significant interference with the right to freedom of speech and free assembly.”Ms. Walsh credited the win to “sacrifices of the political prisoners, the thousands of arrests, the hunger strikes where prisoners almost died, and the refusal to ever back down from continuing direct action.”The U.K. government designated Palestine Action as a terrorist organization last year after members vandalized a Royal Air Force station in Carterton, England, causing more than $9.4 million in damage to aircraft. The group targeted the base to protest Britain’s support for Israel’s military campaign against Hamas.Officials argued that Palestine Action’s “orchestration and enaction of aggressive and intimidatory attacks against businesses, institutions and the public” had “crossed the thresholds established in the Terrorism Act 2000.”The ban made it illegal to belong to or support Palestine Action. Nearly 700 protesters have been charged over their affiliations with the group since the proscription took effect.Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said Friday she would appeal the ruling. “I am disappointed by the court’s decision and disagree with the notion that banning this terrorist organization is disproportionate,” she said.The ban remains in place pending the appeal. Both parties will submit arguments by February 20 on whether it should be dropped or maintained during the legal challenge.

Palestine Action Leader Cheers Reversal of British Ban From Propaganda Tour in Iran

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