Politicians from across the political spectrum have strongly criticised suspended Labour MP Zarah Sultana for appearing to express support for Palestine Action, which is set to be proscribed as a terrorist organisation.
On Tuesday afternoon she declared, “we are all Palestine Action” and shared an emoji of a Palestinian flag in a post on X.
Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, confirmed on Monday that the government intended to proscribe Palestine Action, saying in a statement that the direct-action group’s “activities meet the threshold set out in the statutory tests established under the Terrorism Act 2000.
“This has been assessed through a robust evidence-based process, by a wide range of experts from across government, the police and the Security Services.”
The move, which was hinted at on Friday following the group breaking into RAF Brize Norton and damaging two aircraft, was welcomed by Jewish communal organisations.
Sultana’s latest comments were rounded on by MPs, including several from Labour.
Hemel Hempstead MP David Taylor told the JC that she should not be readmitted to the Parliamentary Labour Party and have her membership of the party rescinded.
“Zarah Sultana is not a Labour MP. I am not aware of any plans to change this. The whips and party are best placed to oversee any change to this fact. As a backbench MP, it is my view that Ms Sultana embodies the very worst of politics. If it were up to me her party membership card would be rescinded.”
Another Labour MP, Neil Coyle, joked: “Someone should check where she was the night of the attack at RAF Brize Norton.”
He told the JC: “We are proscribing Palestine Action, so she is clearly seeking attention and not seeking the return of the whip.”
Sultana, a vocal and frequent critic of Israel, was re-elected as a Labour MP in last year’s general election but was swiftly suspended for voting against the government on a key issue.
In March, the Corbynite was criticised for posing for photos with Francesca Albanese, a controversial UN official who compared Israel to Nazi Germany.
At the time, Labour sources suggested to the JC that her actions reduced her prospects of returning to the party fold.
In January, she accused the Labour government of being complicit in “genocide” and indicated she would likely rebel against the government in the future if she was allowed to return.
MPs from other political parties were also keen to criticise Sultana’s latest outburst.
Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice said her words were “shocking” and accused her of aligning “herself with a … group that damages UK safety & security assets”.
Conservative MP Ben Obese-Jecty, himself a former army officer with the Yorkshire Regiment, said her words were “disgraceful”.
“In a week when the Home Secretary announces that Palestine Action will be proscribed under the Terrorism Act 2000, Zarah Sultana, elected as a Labour MP, voices her support for them.
“Imagine if this was an MP pledging support for National Action or Wagner Group,” he added, in reference to the far-right and Russian mercenary groups that are both proscribed as terrorists under UK law.
Sultana has expressed strong opposition to moves to proscribe Palestine Action since they were hinted at on Friday.
She told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kunessberg: “I'm worried about is what the government is announcing around prescribing Palestine Action. What happened at the RAF base was two aircraft being damaged. No single life harmed. No one injured.
“What activists, protesters, politicians like myself have been trying to highlight is UK complicity through surveillance, through selling of arms and what we see with prescribing a group is a dangerous escalation in terms of the crackdown on the right to protest”, she added.
The measures announced by the home secretary look set to be backed by MPs as early as next week.
However, some left wing MPs have expressed opposition to the government’s move to label the group as a terrorist organisation.
Labour MP Kim Johnson described the move to proscription as a “kneejerk reaction”.
“Yes, they were guilty of criminal damage, but not of terrorism. Even the former Justice Secretary Lord Falconer said that this action would not justify proscription”, she told the Commons on Monday evening.
Plaid Cymru MP Liz Saville Roberts compared Palestine Action to the women who protested against nuclear weapons at RAF Greenham Common in the 1980s.
“They did not just march; they pulled down fences and criminally damaged infrastructure. So does the Minister recognise the risk implicit in proscribing as terrorist organisations protest groups calling out war?”
Armed forces minister Luke Pollard rejected her characterisation, saying Palestine Action were “not a protest group, but people who have undertaken severe criminal damage to military assets and who are increasingly using violence as part of their modus operandi.”
