Palestine Action activists spared terrorist sentences over UK bank attack

A judge at Preston Crown Court has ruled that five activists from the group 'Palestine Action' will not face terrorism-related sentencing for causing over £200,000 in damage to a Barclays bank branch in Burnley. The defendants, known as the 'Barclays five,' were convicted of smashing windows and spraying red paint at the Lancashire branch in August 2024 to protest the bank's alleged links to the Israeli defense firm Elbit Systems. Judge Altham determined that the scale and nature of the damage did not meet the threshold for terrorist sentencing. The five will be sentenced next month for criminal damage, but the ruling prevents the application of harsher terrorism-related provisions. Defense lawyers argued that the group was not proscribed as a terrorist organization at the time of the incident. The activists welcomed the decision, characterizing the threat of terrorism sentencing as an attempt to suppress protests against the Israeli arms industry. Barclays had previously stated that its holdings in Elbit Systems were held on behalf of clients and confirmed that it sold all such shares in October 2024. The British government formally designated Palestine Action as a terrorist organization in July 2025, following a separate attack on an Elbit Systems facility in Bristol.