Anti-Israel activists vandalize UK justice ministry with red paint

Palestine Action says 2 arrested for vandalism meant to highlight hunger-striking members of proscribed group being detained over assault on Elbit facility

Two activists from anti-Israel group Palestine Action were reportedly arrested Friday in central London after spraying a Ministry of Justice building with red paint to demand that Justice Minister David Lammy agree to meet with fellow activists currently on hunger strike.

The two suspects were protesting the treatment of eight Palestine Action activists, who have been held in custody for more than a year before trial and have been conducting hunger strikes ranging from nine to forty days, they told the Guardian. Five have been hospitalized.

In a video posted online, one activist said that the group has tried to meet with Lammy but that he “continues to ignore the friends and family, the lawyers of the hunger strikers. He ignores the fact that their lives are [in] imminent danger.”

Several Palestine Action activists have been arrested in the last year and are awaiting trial.

Six are on trial over what prosecutors have described as a meticulously planned assault by the group on the Elbit Systems UK facility in Bristol, southwest England, in August 2024. They are being charged with aggravated burglary, violent disorder and criminal damage, with one also charged with causing grievous bodily harm with intent for allegedly hitting a police officer with a sledgehammer.

Another five Palestine Action activists have been charged after breaking into an air force base in southern England and causing an estimated £7 million ($9.3 million) of damage to two aircraft in July. A trial is scheduled for January 2027.

Britain’s then-interior minister Yvette Cooper moved to proscribe the group as a terror organization shortly after the planes were targeted in June 2025, a designation now being challenged in court.

Palestine Action was founded in 2020 and gained prominence with protests targeting Israeli defense companies and British firms linked to them. It stepped up its actions during the Gaza war, sparked by the Hamas massacre in Israel on October 7, 2023.

More than 2,000 people have since been arrested for holding signs in support of the group, with over 200 charged for expressing support for a proscribed organization with placards reading: “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.