How Palestine Action put the justice system on trial
The article is an account of the trial of six Palestine Action activists who broke into Elbit Systems factory in Filton, Bristol in August 2024. Since I am only able to quote a small section I suggest reading the original article. It has very recently been announced that the six will face a retrial on the charges that the jury was unable to reach a verdict on.
https://www.declassifieduk.org/how-palestine-action-put-the-justice-system-on-trial/
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The missing footage
Elbit was not even called to give evidence about their apparently unfit-for-purpose security surveillance system. Remember this is a high-tech company that provides sophisticated surveillance systems for border walls, but more than a year after the incident, it came to light during the trial that the map of CCTV cameras given to the defence team had several missing including those in areas of the factory where disputed incidents had taken place.
Testimony from police witnesses, and in particular the CCTV recovery officer working for the police’s National Digital Exploitation Service, revealed for the first time various issues with camera footage, none of which had been in her original written statement. In the afternoon at the start of the trial’s third week when the jury was not in the court, Menon said that the defence had been kept in the dark about these issues, and only by pressing harder during the trial had they finally been given unredacted body-worn footage including the moment security guard Angelo Volante entered the factory wielding a whip.
Another clip showing Volante moving towards someone while holding a sledgehammer triggered a wider request on 18 November, and the defence team were then drip fed around 300 pages of further evidence including email traffic between the police and an anonymised senior Elbit employee known as “Witness Alpha”.
On 2 December, defence barristers were cross-examining a police officer, PC Sarah Grant. Menon asked Grant if Elbit had sole control and access to the CCTV system for two days. She replied yes. He then quoted an email she had sent to “Witness Alpha” in which she wrote: “There’s a huge opportunity for the defence counsel to use the gaps and jumps to their advantage”. Menon then questioned why among the correspondence revealed in the hundreds of pages of new evidence, police appeared to be “chatting with Israel’s largest arms manufacturer about what the defence counsel might do”.
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Over 80 UN members condemn Israeli acts to expand ‘unlawful presence’ in occupied West Bank
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More than 80 UN member states and several organizations on Tuesday condemned “unilateral” Israeli decisions aimed at expanding Israel’s “unlawful presence” in the occupied West Bank, Anadolu reports.
Delivering a statement at a news conference at UN headquarters in New York, Palestine’s UN envoy Riyad Mansour said, “I have the honor to deliver the following statement on behalf of 80 States and a number of organizations on the latest Israeli decisions regarding the occupied West Bank.”
“We strongly condemn unilateral Israeli decisions and measures aimed at expanding Israel’s unlawful presence in the West Bank. Such decisions are contrary to Israel’s obligations under international law and must be immediately reversed,” he said, underlining “our strong opposition to any form of annexation.”
The group reiterated its rejection of “all measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem.”
“Such measures violate international law, undermine the ongoing efforts for peace and stability in the region, run counter to the Comprehensive Plan, and jeopardize the prospect of reaching a peace agreement ending the conflict,” the statement said.
READ: Israeli authorities issue notices for 60 West Bank and Jerusalem structures
The countries also reaffirmed their commitment, reflected in the New York Declaration, “to take concrete measures, in accordance with international law,” and in line with relevant UN resolutions and the July 2024 advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The statement stressed that a “just and lasting peace,” based on relevant UN resolutions, the Madrid terms of reference, the principle of land for peace and the Arab Peace Initiative “remains the only path to ensure security and stability in the region.”
Israel has intensified military operations in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since launching its war on the Gaza Strip on Oct. 8, 2023. The operations have included killings, arrests, displacement and settlement expansion, according to Palestinian officials, who say the measures aim to impose new realities on the ground.
At least 1,114 Palestinians have since been killed, 11,500 wounded and 22,000 arrested in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, according to official Palestinian data.
On Sunday, the Israeli government approved a proposal to register large areas in the West Bank as “state property,” for the first time since Tel Aviv occupied the territory in 1967.
Palestinians warn that Israel’s actions pave the way for a formal annexation of the occupied West Bank, which they say would end prospects for a Palestinian state envisioned in United Nations resolutions.
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1,200 former Israeli officials urge Knesset to reject death penalty bill
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More than 1,200 former Israeli officials and public figures have signed a petition opposing a proposed bill that would impose the death penalty on Palestinian prisoners, according to Hebrew media reports published on Tuesday.
The signatories include former Supreme Court judges, Nobel laureates, ex-heads of the Shin Bet and Mossad intelligence agencies, academics, university presidents, former Israel Defense Forces chiefs of staff Dan Halutz and Moshe Yaalon, as well as former prime minister Ehud Olmert.
In the petition, the group said it “strongly opposes the death penalty bill currently being debated in the Knesset in preparation for its second and third readings” and called on lawmakers to vote it down.
READ: Knesset approves bill allowing death penalty for Palestinians over 7 October attack
The statement argued that reinstating capital punishment would impose “a moral stain” on Israel and contradict its identity as a Jewish and democratic state. It added that the death penalty is incompatible with a state committed to human rights and that there is no scientific evidence proving it deters violent crime.
The proposed legislation, promoted by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, would reportedly apply the death penalty in cases involving Palestinians convicted of killing Israelis. Critics of the bill say it creates discriminatory legal standards and would require military courts in the occupied territories to impose capital punishment without judicial discretion or the possibility of commutation.
The petition further warned that reintroducing the death penalty would run counter to global trends and could conflict with Israel’s international legal obligations, potentially increasing its diplomatic isolation.
The bill remains under parliamentary consideration.
READ: Extremist Israeli minister ‘stepped on prisoners’ heads’ during Ofer Prison raid, rights group says
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Adalah says West Bank land settlement plan could amount to war crime
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The Adalah Center, a Haifa-based human rights organisation, has called on Israeli authorities to revoke a recent government decision on land settlement procedures in the occupied West Bank, warning that it may amount to a war crime.
In a letter addressed to the Israeli defence minister, the attorney general and other relevant legal and military authorities, Adalah demanded the cancellation of a decision issued on 15th February 2026. The directive instructs the commander of the Israeli army in the West Bank to enable land settlement procedures in Area C and to register approximately 15 per cent of unregistered land in the area as part of the process.
Dr Suhad Bishara, Adalah’s legal director, said the move serves the expansion of Israeli settlements, deepens annexation efforts and effectively imposes Israeli sovereignty over occupied territory. She argued that the decision aligns with coalition commitments made to the Religious Zionist Party and reflects positions publicly expressed by ministers including Bezalel Smotrich and Yisrael Katz.
Adalah contended that the measure violates core principles of international humanitarian law and warned that its implementation could constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.
In her letter, Bishara said that land ownership settlement procedures are sovereign acts that produce long-term — and potentially permanent — changes to the legal and property regime in the West Bank, which is regarded under international law as occupied territory.
Israeli officials have not yet publicly responded to the letter.
READ: Israeli authorities issue notices for 60 West Bank and Jerusalem structures
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