A crowdfunding campaign aimed at financing Palestine Action’s legal challenge to the UK Supreme Court’s ban has been halted after US sanctions targeted the activist group.
CrowdJustice, the UK-based fundraising platform, refused to host the appeal for legal fees because its payment processor, Stripe, is based in the United States.
In an email reviewed by the Guardian, CrowdJustice relayed Stripe’s statement that it ‘cannot support accounts or transactions linked to, or for the benefit of, Palestine Action,’ including fundraising for legal proceedings.
The sanctions were enacted last month by former President Donald Trump, invoking authority granted to the presidency after the September 11, 2001 attacks under legislation signed by President George W. Bush.
Huda Ammori, a co‑founder of Palestine Action who is leading the Supreme Court challenge, said: ‘Because CrowdJustice and similar platforms depend on US‑based services, we cannot raise the funds needed for our legal fight.’
‘Meanwhile, the government continues to spend millions of pounds defending the ban, which has resulted in over 3,700 arrests of individuals accused of supporting a proscribed organisation. Both the British authorities and the United States are placing obstacle after obstacle in our path, seeking to tilt the odds against us.’
The Home Office has already allocated £700,000 to defend the proscription in the High Court, according to the Independent. Total government expenditure will be considerably higher, as the case proceeded to the Court of Appeal—which reversed the High Court’s ruling that the ban was unlawful—and now advances to the United Kingdom’s Supreme Court, scheduled for November.
When then‑Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced in June of the previous year her intention to proscribe Palestine Action under UK law—placing the group alongside entities such as Islamic State and Boko Haram—a CrowdJustice fundraiser for the High Court challenge amassed more than £300,000 in just a few days.
Ammori added: ‘It is evident that powerful interests have united against citizens acting on conscience to oppose Israel’s military campaign and the alleged ethnic cleansing of Palestine. Palestine Action is being subjected to stricter sanctions than Israel itself.’
‘The Supreme Court proceeding is vital not only for freedom of expression in Britain but also for Palestinians. A successful outcome would quash the prosecutions of demonstrators who displayed signs; an adverse ruling would see thousands face imprisonment for holding placards.’
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Former British diplomat Craig Murray, who is separately contesting the ban’s legality in Scottish courts, saw his own CrowdJustice fundraiser for legal fees removed after the United States designated Palestine Action as a global terrorist organisation.
‘It is utterly disgraceful,’ Murray remarked. ‘Not only does the draconian proscription of Palestine Action curtail free speech, but efforts to impede our legal resistance through the courts compound one injustice with another.’
Stripe declined to comment on individual accounts, and CrowdJustice was also approached for a statement.