On the day Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told Parliament she intended to ban the militant campaign group Palestine Action under Section 3 of the Terrorism Act after its notorious break-in at RAF Brize Norton, the far-Left group staged a show of strength.

Dozens of police vans and ambulances were deployed along the Strand in London last week as around 500 supporters, some of them hiding their faces with scarves, gathered in Trafalgar Square.

One, who was later questioned by police, wore an outfit resembling the concentration camp uniform handed to Jewish prisoners during the Holocaust.

Clashes between police and protesters led to 13 arrests, with seven people charged – one for a racially aggravated public-order offence.

So just who are the ringleaders of this radical group, and what are their plans?

To find out, The Mail on Sunday infiltrated one of a series of webinars on Zoom, as Palestine Action capitalised on its notoriety by embarking on a recruitment campaign.

‘Nobody here is doing anything illegal by being here,’ says the woman leading the ‘crash course’.

She is understood to be Turkish-Cypriot artist Gamze Sanli, whose work ‘weaves folklore and mythology, abolition and political resistance, death and witchcraft’.

Turkish-Cypriot witchcraft artist Gamze Sanli formerly squirted ketchup – to represent blood – on a statue of former foreign secretary Arthur Balfour in the House of Commons in 2022

Palestine Action was set up in 2020 by Huda Ammori, the daughter of a former NHS surgeon who is Palestinian by birth, in partnership with ‘Christian anarchist’ and former Extinction Rebellion member Richard Barnard, 51

Activists from Palestine Action let off smoke grenades, spray blood red paint and grapple with a security guard outside the offices of Elbit Systems in 2022

In 2022 she used a tourist pass to enter the House of Commons before squirting ketchup – to represent blood – on a statue of former foreign secretary Arthur Balfour, author of the 1917 ‘Balfour declaration’ that set out British support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

She was found not guilty of criminal damage at a subsequent trial.

In her webinar she gives a list of primary and secondary ‘targets’ for direct action (which includes breaking into factories, where she urges us to smash ‘everything you can with a sledgehammer’) and tips on what to do when we’re arrested.

Remarkably, given the cross-party condemnation of the Brize Norton attack, fresh targets include three other RAF bases: RAF Cranwell and RAF Barkston Heath, both in Lincolnshire, and RAF Valley, in Anglesey, North Wales.

Yesterday, it was reported that the group had 148 UK targets in all, according to a map on its website – including the Ministry of Defence in Whitehall, the 11 locations of insurance firm Allianz (for its supposed links to Israel’s defence industry) and, bizarrely, Shannon Airport in Ireland.

If Ms Cooper’s legislation is successful, Palestine Action could go on Britain’s list of 81 proscribed organisations this week, rubbing shoulders with Al Qaeda, the IRA and Hamas.

But many on this Zoom call seem to have been spurred into action by what they see as the Government’s over-zealous response to the Brize Norton incident.

At least two people broke into the RAF base at night. One rode a scooter up to an Airbus Voyager – a mid-air refuelling aircraft – and sprayed paint into its engine, allegedly causing damage valued at up to £25 million.

One activist rode a scooter up to an Airbus Voyager – a mid-air refuelling aircraft – and sprayed paint into its engine, allegedly causing damage valued at up to £25 million, at Brize Norton

On Friday, a woman aged 29 and men aged 36 and 24 were arrested on suspicion of terror offences relating to the incident. A 41-year-old woman was also arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender

On Friday, a woman aged 29 and men aged 36 and 24 were arrested on suspicion of terror offences relating to the incident.

A 41-year-old woman was also arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender.

A note preceding last Wednesday’s Zoom meeting claimed many new followers would be joining in ‘solidarity’.

A fundraiser set up to challenge its banning has already raised more than £180,000, and human-rights solicitor Gareth Peirce has been lined up to represent the group in court.

Her past clients include Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg – whose Islamist advocacy group Cage, which once praised Islamic State executioner Jihadi John as a ‘beautiful young man’, is closely linked to Palestine Action.

The amount being raised has reportedly led to Home Office fears that Iran may be bankrolling the group’s activities through proxies.

But Palestine Action insists it is funded by ‘ordinary people’ and condemned any Iran link as a smear.

The group says its support base is made up of anyone from nursery teachers to surgeons, ranging in age from 18 to 80.

Palestine Action was set up in 2020 by Huda Ammori, the daughter of a former NHS surgeon, who is Palestinian by birth

Wednesday’s online workshop was very much a silver-haired affair, with a dozen or so people of pensionable age, including a retired reverend.

But the founders of Palestine Action are rather more hardcore. It was set up in 2020 by Huda Ammori, the daughter of a former NHS surgeon, who is Palestinian by birth, in partnership with ‘Christian anarchist’ and former Extinction Rebellion member Richard Barnard, 51.

Ms Ammori told The Guardian yesterday that she found the group’s proposed banning ‘hard to absorb’.

‘I don’t have a single conviction, but if this goes through I would have co-founded what will be a terrorist organisation,’ she said.

Now 31, she gained a reputation as a serial protester while studying international business and finance at Manchester University.

Her activism coincided with Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of Labour and, in an article for The New Arab magazine in 2022, she revealed it was her Iraqi mother who insisted she join the party.

She said: ‘This was quite confusing given that Tony Blair, under the Labour government, led the invasion and destruction of Iraq.’

She added: ‘However, this time round, the renewal of hope was alive, with Jeremy Corbyn, a committed anti-imperialist activist and politician, elected as leader.’

Ms Ammori told The Guardian that she found the group’s proposed banning ‘hard to absorb’

But by 2019 Mr Corbyn had lost the leadership and, under his successor Keir Starmer, Ms Ammori saw ‘a bias towards apartheid and imperialism’.

She claimed successive governments had ‘supported Israel’s apartheid regime over the Palestinian people’, and this led her to launch Palestine Action.

Its goal is to attack bodies behind arms exports to Israel, particularly the UK sites of Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems, which was described in Wednesday’s online ‘crash course’ as the ‘Zionist manifestation in the UK’.

An Elbit factory in Staffordshire became its first target. In 2020, activists climbed on its roof and spent three nights wreaking havoc with hammers and paint.

In an interview with Prospect magazine last year, Ms Ammori recalled how she felt when she looked at the wrecked building as police carried her down on a stretcher (the group teaches activists to ‘go floppy’ when being arrested to cause disruption).

‘I just remember saying how beautiful it all looked,’ she said.

Since then, its tactics have become increasingly militant. Ten members allegedly used an old prison van to break into an Elbit Systems site in Bristol last August in an act described as a ‘ram raid’.

Eighteen were arrested and remanded in custody, and will be tried this year. Ms Ammori was not involved. In March, activists on a cherry picker targeted Elbit in Bristol again, spraying it with red paint and using a sledgehammer on a rope to smash windows.

Palestine Action protesters targeted Elbit Systems in Bristol earlier this year

This militancy seems a far cry from Ms Ammori’s upbringing in a detached house in a gated cul-de-sac in an affluent area of Bolton.

But she appears to have been radicalised young. She claims her great-grandfather was killed by British soldiers in the 1936 uprising in Palestine, a major Arab revolt against British rule and increasing Jewish immigration.

She also endured turmoil in 2013 when her father, Professor Basil Ammori, left the family home and moved in with a woman 30 years his junior, whom he later married.

In 2014, she and her father were said to have had a violent doorstep altercation after she allegedly posted his new wife’s name on a personal ads website causing men to post messages asking for sex.

She also claimed he had ‘f***** off with a white whore’ and had a ‘b****** son’, a General Medical Council tribunal heard in 2016. Accused of hitting Ms Ammori when she confronted him at his home in Altrincham, Cheshire, the obesity surgeon was cleared.

Ms Ammori’s mother declined to discuss her daughter’s militant activities with the MoS.

Richard Barnard has a similarly conflicted background. Among his 30 tattoos are Buddhist chants, an IRA slogan, ‘freedom’ in Arabic and ‘all cops are b*****ds’ in code.

Once part of the Christian anarchist group Catholic Worker, he told Prospect he was now Muslim.

Protestors and Met Police officers clashed during a rally in support of Palestine Action

He is said to have been in a hardline faction of the environmental protest group Extinction Rebellion (XR) around founder Roger Hallam, who also established Just Stop Oil. Hallam is serving a four-year prison sentence for conspiring to disrupt traffic over the M25.

Barnard was arrested in 2019 but later acquitted for protesting on top of Tube trains in an XR stunt.

He is due to be tried next year for allegedly eliciting support for Hamas and encouraging criminal damage.

At a demo in Manchester the day after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, he reportedly told the crowd: ‘When we hear the resistance, the Al-Aqsa Flood [as Hamas called the attack] we must turn that flood into a tsunami of the whole world.’

Other supporters include NHS orthopaedic doctor Rahmeh Aladwan, who on Thursday reposted a tweet from Iranian leader Ali Khamenei, which read: ‘I offer my congratulations on the victory over the fallacious Zionist regime.’

She has also tweeted: ‘Let the record show that I support [Palestine Action]… upholders of truth and justice. Our British heroes.’

Then there is Paul Shortt, 52, from Dumfries, Scotland, who posed with what appears to be a handgun on social media alongside a post stating: ‘Resistance is not terrorism! Resistance is justified. When people are occupied. Resist! By any means necessary.’

He was one of ten activists who attacked Elbit’s Bristol HQ in 2022. He received a suspended jail term.

Palestine Action supporters stage a protest in Trafalgar Square against government plans to proscribe the activist group

Palestine Action has produced a manual on how to plot disruption. Members should organise themselves into cells of three or four, use ‘burner’ phones and code names, cover their faces and pay for any supplies in cash.

Today, it is due to carry out a ‘training day’ in Leicester for recruits, who are expected to ‘harness the strength of the grassroots and direct it towards bringing down Israel’s war machine’. More are scheduled for London, Liverpool and Glasgow next month.

In our webinar, Gamze Sanli says members are expected to make a ‘level of sacrifice’.

But in a slide marked ‘police station tips’, detainees are told they can ask for ‘a free tracksuit’.

These middle-class activists seem ready to part with their liberty for the cause. But some home comforts clearly remain essential.

In pictures: Saturday at Glastonbury Festival

1 hour ago Share Save Clara Bullock BBC News, Somerset Share Save

PA Media Britpop icons Pulp were the mystery band listed under the Patchwork slot

Day four of Glastonbury Festival began with Kaiser Chiefs opening the Pyramid Stage and continued with performances from an array of huge stars. Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts headlined the Pyramid Stage, with Charli XCX, Doechii and Scissor Sisters also drawing big crowds on other stages. Kneecap’s set on The Other Stage was not screened live, but will be made available on demand later, the BBC has confirmed. Elsewhere, people finally found out who the mystery band listed under Patchwork were – Britpop icons Pulp.

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Fashion show: People continue to put in their best effort when it comes to their outfits – even on day four.

PA Media Kaiser Chiefs performed on the Pyramid Stage on Saturday

In the air: Kaiser Chiefs opened the Pyramid Stage on Saturday

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All in pink: British singer-songwriter Alessi Rose performed on The Other Stage earlier.

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Exploring Glastonbury: While everyone else is running around in T-shirts and shorts, one person was spotted dressed like an Arctic explorer.

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Tune: Even early on day four, the crowd was ready to party.

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You Without Me: Many in the crowd were emotional as US country star Brandi Carlile performed You Without Me, a song about the experience of a parent watching their child grow up and assert their independence.

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Crowd surfing: Bob Vylan performed on the West Holts stage.

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Protective parasol: It is due to stay warm with temperatures of up to 25C.

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Kneecap: Moglai Bap and Mo Chara of Kneecap perform to a huge crowd on the West Holts stage.

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Colour and glitter: Carnival performers put on a show on the festival site.

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Raye in a box: There was a huge cheer from the crowd when singer Raye emerged from a black box at the start of her sunset slot on the Pyramid Stage.

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A surprise appearance: Haim performed to a packed-out Park Stage. However, shouts of “louder, louder” could be heard from the crowd as they competed with music from a neighbouring stage, with some fans leaving the set early.

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Keep on Rockin’ in The Free World: Neil Young took to the Pyramid Stage in a headline set that did not disappoint. “The section of the crowd I’m in actually swooned as Neil Young plucked the opening chords to The Needle and The Damage Done,” wrote the BBC’s Mark Savage.

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Brat is forever: Despite a brat background going up on flames at the start of Charli XCX’s set, it ended with the words “I think you all have proven to me that brat is forever.” During Blame It On Your Love the singer crawled along the stage – and licked it – before launching into 2012 hit I Love It.

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A hip-hop masterclass: Doechii delivered a high-energy set, schooling the crowd on hip hop. Her set was only 45 minutes long, but the Swamp Princess (a nod to her Floridian roots) made her Glastonbury debut count.

What: The UK government condemned chants made by rap punk duo Bob Vylan at Glastonbury Festival, which were aired live on the BBC.

When: Saturday (June 28, 2025) during Bob Vylan’s set at Glastonbury. Government condemnation and BBC response occurred shortly after. Police review is ongoing.

Where: Glastonbury Festival (West Holts stage), UK; BBC broadcast.

Why: Bob Vylan led chants calling for ‘death to the IDF’ and ‘free, free Palestine,’ which the government and BBC deemed deeply offensive and potentially discriminatory.

How: The chants were made during a live performance at Glastonbury and broadcast by the BBC. The government, through Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, contacted BBC Director General Tim Davie to seek an explanation. The BBC issued an on-screen warning and removed the content from iPlayer. Police are reviewing footage.

Neil Young’s set was a very different, but equally gnarly, proposition.

The rocker walked on stage alone, hunched over with his face obscured by a corduroy cap, to play a hushed acoustic version of the classic Sugar Mountain.

But that was a cunning misdirect.

His new band, The Chrome Hearts, joined him immediately afterwards, launching into a furious flurry of guitar anthems – Be The Rain, Cinnamon Girl and Hey Hey, My My – full of jagged chords and intense solos.

The crowd swooned when they switched back to acoustic mode for The Needle and The Damage Done and Harvest Moon; and cheered when Young announced he was playing Hank Williams’ old guitar (a battered and worn acoustic) on the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young song Looking Forward.

The star might be 79 years old, but his voice is still unusually supple and youthful, cutting through the night with crystalline clarity, and buoyed by The Chrome Hearts’ close-knit harmonies.

They were at their best on the heavier material – in particular Like A Hurricane, whose time-bending guitar solo was a revelation. Young always seems to get great pleasure from playing that particular song, and it was mesmerising to watch.

He ended the set with Tear Your Hatred Down, a savage takedown of politicians and the war machine, that contrasts the idealism of the 1960s with the cruelties of the modern world.

Both as a protest song and a lament for human nature, it was a powerful way to end a peerless set.

Police are assessing videos of comments made by acts Bob Vylan and Kneecap at Glastonbury to decide whether any offences may have been committed.

Rapper Bobby Vylan, of rap punk duo Bob Vylan, led crowds on the festival’s West Holts Stage in chants of: “Free, free Palestine” and: “Death, death to the IDF”, before a member of Irish rap trio Kneecap suggested fans “start a riot” outside his bandmate’s upcoming court appearance.

In a post on social media, Avon and Somerset Police said: “We are aware of the comments made by acts on the West Holts Stage at Glastonbury Festival this afternoon.

“Video evidence will be assessed by officers to determine whether any offences may have been committed that would require a criminal investigation.”

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Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has spoken to the BBC director general about Bob Vylan’s performance, a Government spokesperson said.

Bob Vylan performing on the West Holts Stage (Ben Birchall/PA)

They added: “We strongly condemn the threatening comments made by Bob Vylan at Glastonbury.

“The Culture Secretary has spoken to the BBC Director General to seek an urgent explanation about what due diligence it carried out ahead of the Bob Vylan performance, and welcomes the decision not to re-broadcast it on BBC iPlayer.”

A BBC spokesperson said: “Some of the comments made during Bob Vylan’s set were deeply offensive. During this live stream on iPlayer, which reflected what was happening on stage, a warning was issued on screen about the very strong and discriminatory language. We have no plans to make the performance available on demand.”

There was a display of pro-Palestinian flags and t-shirts during Kneecap’s set (Yui Mok/PA)

Kneecap, who hail from Belfast, have been in the headlines after member Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the name Mo Chara, was charged with a terror offence.

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In reference to his bandmate’s upcoming court date, Naoise O Caireallain, who performs under the name Moglai Bap, said they would “start a riot outside the courts”, before clarifying: “No riots just love and support, and support for Palestine.”

In the run-up to the festival at Worthy Farm in Somerset, several politicians called for Kneecap to be removed from the line-up and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said their performance would not be “appropriate”.

Bob Vylan also displayed pro-Palestinian images (Yui Mok/PA)

During the performance Caireallain said: “The Prime Minister of your country, not mine, said he didn’t want us to play, so f*** Keir Starmer.”

He also said a “big thank you to the Eavis family” and said “they stood strong” amid calls for the organisers to drop them from the line-up.

O hAnnaidh, 27, wore a keffiyeh during the set, while member JJ O Dochartaigh, who performs under the name DJ Provai, wore his signature tri-coloured balaclava as well as a T-shirt that said: “We are all Palestine Action”, in reference to the soon-to-be banned campaign group.

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News broadcasts criticising the hip hop trio played from the sound system before they walked onto the stage were booed by the Glastonbury Festival audience.

The trio opened with the song Better Way To Live from their 2024 album Fine Art and also performed tracks including Get Your Brits Out and Hood.

Access to the area around the West Holts Stage was closed around 45 minutes before their performance after groups of fans arrived to form a sea of Irish and Palestinian flags.

A Bob Vylan member crowd-surfs surrounded by Palestinian flags (Yui Mok/PA)

Earlier on Saturday, the BBC confirmed they would not be live-streaming the set but said the performance is likely to be made available on-demand later.

O hAnnaidh was charged with allegedly displaying a flag in support of proscribed terrorist organisation Hezbollah, while saying “up Hamas, up Hezbollah” at a gig in November last year.

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On June 18, the rapper was cheered by hundreds of supporters as he arrived with bandmates O Caireallain and O Dochartaigh at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in Free Mo Chara T-shirts.

He was released on unconditional bail until the next hearing at the same court on August 20.

Saturday night’s Pyramid Stage headliner, Neil Young and The Chrome Hearts, opened with the song Sugar Mountain, with Young saying “thank you folks” to the crowd as the song ended.

The set list, drawing heavily from live album Live Rust, included songs Be The Rain, When You Dance I Can Really Love, Cinnamon Girl and Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black), with lyrics that reference Johnny Rotten, the stage name of Sex Pistols’s John Lydon.

Neil Young performing on the Pyramid Stage during the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Somerset. Picture date: Saturday June 28, 2025.

Young, 79, played the track Looking Forward, by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, telling the audience: “I just want you to know that tonight, Hank Williams’ guitar is here.”

Prior to that, Harvest Moon prompted a singalong with festivalgoers swaying and holding their phones in the air.

Other songs included Sun Green, Love and Only Love, Like a Hurricane and classic track Old Man, from 1972 album Harvest, and an encore saw Young return to close the headline set out with Rockin’ in the Free World and Throw Your Hatred Down.

Charli XCX’s performance on the Other Stage saw US singer Gracie Abrams perform the viral Apple dance.

As the song began, the British pop star said: “Who the f*** is gonna be Apple girl, Glastonbury?” while holding what appeared to be a glass of wine.

The 32-year-old played her Partygirl set at Glastonbury Festival last year, but this time the singer is performing on a much bigger stage amid a year that has seen her pick up a slew of awards.

Elsewhere at the festival, Haim were revealed as the surprise act on the Park Stage at 7.30pm on Saturday. The band bounced on to the stage in black and silver outfits and tore into a raucous version of hit single The Wire.

Haim performed on the Park Stage (Ben Birchall/PA)

After the song, singer Danielle Haim said: “On our first album, we came to Glastonbury and we played the Park Stage, I love you, and it was the best show I had ever played, until now, this tops everything.”

The band was revealed as the surprise act with a red LED sign, similar to the one on their new LP I Quit, which was released earlier this year. The sign read “the Haim show is about to begin”.

Haim also dipped into some of their best-known songs, such as Summer Girl, Want You Back and one of their latest singles, Relationships.

On the Pyramid Stage, Pulp were revealed to be Patchwork with the Sheffield-formed Britpop band paying homage to their breakthrough 1995 stand-in headline set during the performance.