Over 1,000 people showed their support for the jailed Palestine activists (Photo: Guy Smallman)
The Palestine movement mobilised outside a south London court against a state-orchestrated attack on all our democratic rights.
Four members of the Filton 24 group of Palestine activists—Samuel Corner, Charlotte Head, Ellie Kamio and Fatema Zainab Rajwani—were sentenced as “terrorists” even though they were not tried or convicted under terror laws.
The four were sentenced with a “terrorism connection” by Justice Johnson, after a jury convicted them of criminal damage.
Justice Johnson said there was a “terrorism connection” as there was “serious property damage” to Israeli weapons and claimed the defendants did the action to influence the British government and intimidate Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer.
Samuel Corner, who was convicted of criminal damage and Grievous Bodily Harm, was sentenced to eight years and eight months. Charlotte Head, who was convicted of criminal damage, was sentenced to six years. Leona Kamio, who was convicted of criminal damage, was sentenced to six years. Fatema Zainab Rajwani, who was convicted of criminal damage, was sentenced to five years and eight months in prison.
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The jury was not informed that they could be sentenced as terrorists if they were found guilty of the charge of criminal damages.
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At around 1pm a long line of activists, some 200 people, held up cardboard signs which read, “Saving lives is not terrorism, I support Palestine Action.” It was as part of a peaceful protest organised by Defend Our Juries.
The police arrested pensioners, disabled people and activists for taking action against the weaponisation of anti-terrorism laws to shutdown Palestine solidarity.
One sign-holder told Socialist Worker before they were dragged away, “Everything’s been rigged to make sure they’re getting sentenced as terrorists.
“The jury didn’t know there was a terrorism connection. I’m here today because I am extremely concerned about where this is heading.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Article by Stephen Prager republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
Displaced Palestinians, including many children, wait in long queues to receive hot meals distributed by a charitable organization in Gaza City, Gaza, Palestine on June 7, 2026. (Photo by Moiz Salhi/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“Aid is not a political tool and should not be weaponized in this way,” said an advocate at Save the Children. “The survival and needs of children in Gaza should not have to answer to airstrikes elsewhere.”
In an act described as “collective punishment” against two million Palestinians, Israel announced that it would close off the main entry points for humanitarian aid into Gaza indefinitely in retaliation for strikes launched this weekend by Iran.
Iran launched missiles at Israel on Sunday in response to Israel’s bombing of a densely populated Beirut suburb, which killed civilians and violated a June 1 agreement not to bomb Lebanon’s capital.
In addition to retaliating with new strikes on Iran, Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said on Sunday that “a number of necessary security measures have been implemented” following the missile fire, “including the closure of the crossings into the Gaza Strip, among them the Kerem Shalom Crossing and the Rafah Crossing, until further notice.”
COGAT claimed that closing the crossings “will not affect the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip” because “the substantial quantities of food that have entered the strip since the beginning of the ceasefire significantly exceed the nutritional needs of the population, according to [United Nations] methodologies.”
Contrary to this statement from COGAT, the UN report at this link https://t.co/2VNcUn8cBA shows clearly that the supply of food and water is precarious indeed.#Israel is responding to being restrained from killing Iranians by killing more civilians in #Gaza. https://t.co/ncjG2DR4bP
That is not what actual UN reports say. The World Food Program (WFP) estimated in June that about 1.6 million people living in Gaza, more than three-quarters of the population, were “facing high levels of acute food insecurity” despite the entry of food parcels and other aid since the October 2025 “ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas.
In the first half of May, UN workersidentified more than 2,000 cases of acute malnutrition among young children, according to a June report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
That same OCHA report said about 678,000 hot meals were delivered in May, down from 1.5 million per day in mid-March as a result of underfunding and due to Israel’s closures and restrictions at certain entry points. The number of people receiving food parcels in May also dropped to about 820,000, down from 1.1 million in March. The rations that were distributed in May covered only about 75% of the average person’s minimum daily caloric needs, while those distributed in March covered about 50%.
While the amount of aid entering the strip has increased since the ceasefire went into effect, UN data has never suggested that the amount entering “exceeds” the needs of Palestinians. Since the truce began, reports haveconsistentlysaid the amount of aid entering the strip was only reaching part of the population, and that aid packages only contained part of the needed nutritional value, which did not meet the terms of the agreement.
Israel, which has been accused of using starvation as a “weapon of war” against Gaza by UN bodies and major human rights groups, previously closed all crossings into the strip at the start of its military assault against Iran in late February.
This not only halted the entry of food and medical aid but also blocked medical evacuations for sick and injured Palestinians, which were desperately needed due to Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s medical system. Even as entry points reopened in the following weeks, aid entry never returned to previous levels.
COGAT said on Monday that “the crossings will be reopened gradually, subject to an ongoing operational assessment and under security restrictions designed to ensure the safety of all personnel present at the crossings on both sides,” though it provided no clear timeframe or indication of how much aid would be allowed in.
“Aid is not a political tool and should not be weaponized in this way. The survival and needs of children in Gaza should not have to answer to airstrikes elsewhere,” said Ahmad Alhendawi, Save the Children’s regional director for the Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Europe in a statement on Monday.
“For nearly three years, Gaza has been pummelled so hard by Israeli airstrikes that nothing can grow there and people have been reliant on the already small amount of aid crossing the border—aid that was never enough and is now totally out of reach,” he added. “Children in Gaza have already been starved by design. They should not now be denied water, medicine, shelter, and the other essentials needed to survive. The Israeli authorities must re-open these crossings immediately, lift the siege, and facilitate the safe delivery of humanitarian aid at scale.”
BREAKING: Israel has closed all crossings into Gaza and halted the entry of humanitarian aid following the Iranian missile strikes on Israel.
Why do Palestinians in Gaza have to pay the price for Iranian missiles?
With Israeli leaders openly stating their goal in recent weeks to expand the nation’s occupation of Gaza despite the ceasefire, international observers have suggested that Israel was using the escalation of hostilities with Iran as an excuse to ramp up its brutal treatment of Palestinians, nearly 1,000 of whom have been killed in the strip since the ceasefire went into effect.
The US-brokered ceasefire agreement signed by Israel and Hamas in October required the “full entry of humanitarian aid and relief” into the strip.
“The guarantors of the ceasefire must step in and force Israel to reopen the crossings, resume and triple the aid amounts, and totally stop any attacks on Gaza now,” said Palestinian journalist Abubaker Abed. “This is their job. And they must uphold the ceasefire agreement.”
Article by Stephen Prager republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Five of the six Palestine Action activists tried in the first Filton case outside Woolwich Crown Court (Photo: Alamy)
Activists could be sentenced as terrorists despite not being convicted of terrorism
Documents suggest “terrorism connection” was added to cases to help justify proscription of Palestine Action
Authorities refuse to say when criminal damage crosses threshold into terrorism
Intelligence report indicates actions costing over £1m could be treated as terrorism
Arms companies could be incentivised to inflate protest-related damage costs to aggravate charges
Palestine Action ban could be overturned next month
Four activists could be sentenced as terrorists next month despite not being convicted of terrorism offences.
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During the trial, a jury was asked to decide whether the defendants were guilty of criminal charges but not allowed to know there was also a “terrorism connection”.
The 12-panel jury was also not permitted to hear why the defendants chose to target the Israeli arms firm, stripping the action of all context – namely the genocide in Gaza.
It is now up to the presiding judge to decide whether to sentence the activists with a “terrorism connection” – and, if he does, the ramifications will be enormous.
Unlike most prisoners in the UK who serve around 40 percent of their sentences, they would have to serve their full terms unless they can convince a parole board that they have “reformed” after serving at least two-thirds of it.
Once released, they could be treated as terrorists for decades.
And this could all happen without a jury ever finding them guilty of any terrorist offence, marking the first case where activists risk prosecution under terrorism provisions.
Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
This government chose not to bring in wealth taxes, not to implement rent controls, not to make the kind of public investment in council-housing that is needed to tackle the housing crisis, and chose not to redistribute resources from those who wield it to those who need it. It chose to give a top political job to a man with an established relationship to a convicted sex offender — a man who just so happened to pride himself on his opposition to our mass movement for social justice and peace.
Rather than rewriting the rigged rules of corporate Britain, the government also chose to blame a different group of people for the problems in our society: migrants and refugees. It went after the rights of migrants who have contributed so much to this country and demonised human beings seeking asylum. It mimicked the politics of Reform UK and rolled out the red carpet for Nigel Farage.
There is perhaps one political decision that will leave the greatest stain of all. As Israel embarked on the mass murder of Palestinians in Gaza, this government could have defended international law and called for peace. Yet it chose to facilitate war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. And it chose to launch a systematic assault on the civil liberties of those who protested against the government’s complicity (alongside its outrageous decision to erode jury trials, the cornerstone of our justice system). This government’s enduring legacy will be its complicity and participation in the greatest crime of our age. And we will never, ever forget.
These decisions are the root cause of the chaos that Starmer is now trying to temper — and unless these root causes are addressed, we will continue to lurch from one political crisis to the next. It’s not enough for Starmer to go. What needs booting out is the politics he represents: corporate greed, anti-migrant policies and endless war.
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I haven’t heard anything from his main contenders about the need to end corporate greed, the need for rent controls, or the need for a mass redistribution of wealth and power. I certainly haven’t heard any calls for an investigation into British complicity in genocide — presumably because that investigation would implicate them as well.
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Keir Starmer … managed to hide the real record beneath his rhetoric: child poverty, inequality and genocide. Those are the government’s big decisions. And that is how this government will be remembered.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership is intensely relaxed about assaulting those least able to defend themselves – the very poorest and most vulnerable.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Demonstrators wave a giant Palestinian flag outside Greece’s Foreign Ministry in Athens, April 30, 2026, during a rally to protest the interception of Gaza aid ships by Israeli forces near Greek waters
THE activist-led mission attempting to sail to Gaza with humanitarian aid set sail for Turkey today, eight days after the Israeli military kidnapped some of its members in a much-criticised raid in international waters off the coast of Greece.
The Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF), a collection of about 57 mostly small sailing ships, had to stop and take stock on the Greek island of Crete after the Israeli raid on April 30.
During the raid 180 members were taken to an Israeli ship, where, the flotilla activists said, many of them were subjected to beatings and torture before they were handed over to the Greek authorities.
Two men, Saif Abukeshek — a Spanish and Palestinian citizen — and Thiago Avila from Brazil were taken to Israel, where they have been held in detention on trumped-up terrorism charges.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Demonstrators wave a giant Palestinian flag outside Greece’s Foreign Ministry in Athens, April 30, 2026, during a rally to protest the interception of Gaza aid ships by Israeli forces near Greek waters