IHRC condemns the accelerating use of lawfare by the British government to prevent ordinary people from exercising their legitimate right to challenge the genocide in Gaza.

Determined to criminalise pro-Palestine activism, the judicial system is seeking a terrorism related sentence for five actionists who vandalised the façade of a high street bank complicit in helping arm Israel.

The actionists, known as the Barclays Five, were convicted of criminal damage at Preston Crown Court last month after damaging the windows of a Barclays Bank branch in Burnley in 2024 and spraying it red to symbolise the victims of Israel’s genocide.

They testified in court that they were seeking to make the cost of supporting Israeli arms companies prohibitive for Barclays, an aim in which they ultimately succeeded when the bank divested from Elbit Systems the same year.

As with the Filton Four who were convicted in June, the judge has announced his intention to apply the aggravating factor of terrorism when he hands down sentences to the group. Again, this is despite the fact that the five were not charged, tried or convicted under any anti-terror statutes.

It is abundantly clear that in the face of British juries’ consistent refusal to convict people acting on their conscience against the most heinous crimes against humanity, the authorities are cynically employing legal workarounds to secure prosecutions and punitive sentences.

IHRC considers the retrofitting of a terrorism label to be a flagrant abuse of due process and a direct attack on civil liberties. Having abdicated its moral duty to prevent genocide, the British state is doubling down in supporting the perpetrator by seeking to criminalise all legitimate opposition. This is the hallmark of a fascist regime.

Notes: The Barclays Five are Brendan O’Hagan, Amanda Kelly, Hmeera Atiqnisar, Mohammed Malik, and Alma Yaniv