The United States has designated UK-based pro-Palestinian group Palestine Action as a foreign terrorist organization. Washington also imposed sanctions on Italy-based Autistici/Inventati and the pro-Palestinian group Masar Badil. State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott described the groups as violent far-left terrorist organizations, while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the United States would use its full economic power to halt their financial activities.

Palestine Action says it seeks to end global cooperation with Israel and what it describes as Israel’s genocide and apartheid system. The group gained greater prominence after Israel’s military operation in Gaza began following Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack. It has faced allegations of attacking Israeli arms companies and related facilities and damaging property. The organization has also been banned in the United Kingdom.

A Palestine Action co-founder criticized the US decision, saying it raised concerns about free expression and protest rights and sought to intensify pressure on anti-Israel movements. Human rights activists similarly warned that equating political activism and protest with terrorism could restrict peaceful protest. The US Treasury alleged Masar Badil acts as a front for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, already designated by Washington.