Last month, there was a mini fracas in the UK over Palestine Action, a pro-Palestine group, gaining access to a major airbase and causing damage to airplanes allegedly used to support Israel's genocide of the Palestinian people. This resulted in arrests for acts of terrorism, despite the fact that nobody was killed or maimed, and a move to criminalize any acts of support for the organization by designating it a proscribed terror group.

There are many talking points, which I may raise in a future long format article at a later date. However, first and foremost is this. If an absolutely crucial base was protected by nothing more than a six-foot (1.8 meter) wooden fence, shouldn't this be a wake-up call to those maintaining such facilities? This embarrassment, following a recent blackout at Heathrow Airport which revealed that it relied on a single poorly secured and neglected substation, indicates that the UK's key security infrastructure is not fit for purpose.

With this apparently being the first time the UK has ever used anti-terror laws against non-violent activists, it's worth asking why these people and their support base were targeted so aggressively. Is it because the UK profits from arms exports to Israel, despite official headlines pretending otherwise? Is it a sign of authoritarian creep that will soon lead to a plethora of other non-violent organizations being banned without so much as a vote by parliament? Or is the UK simply embarrassed at the revelation that its security infrastructure has been left to rot?

The UK government should be upgrading its infrastructure as a priority, not using such a pitiful failure of security as an excuse to expand its de facto definition of a terror group.