Police in England and Wales arrested more than 140 people on Tuesday, the first day of coordinated protests against the UK government’s proscription of the direct action group Palestine Action. This is happening as a trial of members of the group begins.
The group Defend our Juries posts: “Hundreds take part at 10 locations in the first day of the National Lift The Ban wave of Action! defiantly holding signs across Britain ahead of the judicial review of the Palestine Action ‘terror’ ban (25-27 November).” (The group states “Jurors have a right to acquit a defendant according to their conscience, irrespective of a Judge’s directions. Every defendant deserves access to fair justice.”)
The Guardian just published the piece “Sally Rooney says UK prisoners linked to Palestine Action face ‘shocking mistreatment.’” The outlet reported earlier this year: “Met police arrest activists holding signs referring to Palestine Action.”
CHRISTOPHER KETCHAM, [email protected]. @cketchamwild
Ketcham just wrote the piece “How to Monkeywrench a Genocide” for Drop Site News, focusing on the efforts by “direct actionists” to sabotage the operations of the Israeli munitions firm Elbit Systems. He writes: “There’s no exact count of the incidents of sabotage, vandalism, street protest, and blockade attributable to Palestine Action. According to [Huda] Ammori [of Palestine Action], thousands of people over the last five years have engaged in hundreds of acts of disobedience and disruption under the PA banner in the UK. They have repeatedly hit Elbit’s drone factory in Shenstone, with actionists in December 2024, for example, attempting to break through the factory walls using demolition tools. They vandalized and blockaded another Elbit weapons factory in the city of Tamworth a half-dozen times. The group has conducted numerous rooftop raids, including at an Elbit-owned drone plant in Leicester in 2021, when four PA actionists held out for six days as they smashed up the roof.”
See a documentary on Palestine Action “To Kill a War Machine” here.