A CROWN Court jury has refused to convict four Palestine Action activists accused of causing more than £500,000 of damage at a factory supplying weaponry to Israel.
The four faced charges of criminal damage to a Teledyne Defence and Space factory at Shipley in West Yorkshire.
The activists were reported to have used sledgehammers to smash the roof, windows and the interior of the factory.
In closing speeches, the activists reminded jurors of their rights to acquit according to their conscience.
AN ISRAELI arms factory in Kent was under siege today [yesterday] after Palestine supporters blockaded its entrance roads.
The Instro Precision factory is part of Israeli-owned Elbit Systems, which is believed to manufacture military drones, pilotless aircraft and other weapons for Israel.
Palestine Action mounted the blockade and vehicles were used to block the entrances.
Activists also covered the premises in red paint, symbolising “Palestinian bloodshed.”
Palestine Action said the factory’s products were not affected by last week’s government announcement that 50 [dizzy:30] out of 320 arms export licences were being suspended.
British pro-Palestine activist and journalist Sarah Wilkinson—seen here in an undated photo—was arrested on August 29, 2024 for what police said was “content that she has posted online” amid Israel’s Gaza onslaught. (Photo: Sarah Wilkinson/X)
“1984 has arrived and is alive and well in the United Kingdom,” said musician Roger Waters.
At least a dozen police officers raided the home of British pro-Palestine activist and journalist Sarah Wilkinson on Thursday over “content that she has posted online” that allegedly ran afoul of the United Kingdom’s anti-terrorism law.
“The police came to her house just before 7:30 am,” Wilkinson’s son, Jack Wilkinson, said on social media. “There were 12 of them in total, some of them in plain clothes from the counterterrorism police… Her house is being raided and they have seized all her electronic devices.”
Police—who later freed Wilkinson on bail—did not disclose what content she posted that led to her arrest. Wilkinson has been a tireless critic of the U.K. government’s support for Israel and has posted many images of the death and destruction in Gaza, where Israeli forces have killed and wounded more than 144,000 Palestinians. Israel is on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice.
“The British prime minister is determined to terrorize into silence critics highlighting his, and now his government’s, complicity with Israel and its genocide in Gaza.”
Pro-Israel media reported Wilkinson called the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas-led militants an “incredible infiltration” and hailed the late Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh—who was assassinated last month in Iran—as a “hero.”
Section 12 of the U.K.’s Terrorism Act of 2000 criminalizes anyone who “invites support for a proscribed organization” or “expresses an opinion or belief that is supportive” of such a group. Violators can be punished with up to 14 years’ imprisonment and a fine. Hamas is included on the U.K. government’s list of proscribed groups.
Critics say the U.K. government uses the highly controversial anti-terror law to silence dissent.
Israel-based British journalist Thomas Cook said in a Friday blog post that Wilkinson’s arrest is “definitive proof” that U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s “authoritarian purges of the Labour left are being rolled out against critics on a nationwide basis.”
“The British prime minister is determined to terrorize into silence critics highlighting his, and now his government’s, complicity with Israel and its genocide in Gaza,” Cook added.
Musician and staunch Israel critic Roger Waters, who co-founded the rock band Pink Floyd, said in a video posted Thursday on social media that Wilkinson was arrested “for standing up for human rights and campaigning against genocide.”
Thank you @rogerwaters & for everyone’s support for my mother’s arrest, interrogation, injuries and theft of her property by 16 balaclava-clad thugs pic.twitter.com/VeK0UoJY9I
“If you allow this to stand, the arrest of Sarah Wilkinson and the persecution of my friend Craig Murray among others, then you have absolutely accepted that England is now a fascist state,” Waters asserted, adding that “1984 has arrived and is alive and well in the United Kingdom.”
In addition to her pro-Palestine activism, Wilkinson is a news contributor for the Lebanon-based news site MENA Uncensored.
“The pro-genocide U.K. regime has arrested MENA Uncensored‘s roving reporter and human rights activist Sarah Wilkinson for supporting the Palestinian resistance and relaying what is really happening in Gaza and the West Bank to the world,” the outlet said on social media.
Wilkinson’s arrest came one week after Syrian-British independent journalist Richard Medhurst was apprehended at London’s Heathrow Airport and held for nearly 24 hours for allegedly violating Section 12 with social media posts “expressing an opinion or belief that is supportive of a proscribed organization.”
BREAKING: After a targeted campaign by the zionist lobby, Palestine Action's co-founder Richard Barnard is facing three charges for two speeches.
He is accused of supporting a proscribed organisation under the Terrorism Act and encouraging 'criminal activity'. pic.twitter.com/cWq0qwk15v
Richard Barnard, co-founder of the London-based group Palestine Action—with which Wilkinson has been involved—is also facing three criminal charges for two speeches allegedly supporting a proscribed organization.
PALESTINE ACTION activists who occupied a weapons factory to disrupt weapon productions for Israel in Shipley are set to go on trial on Monday.
The four activists were charged with criminal damage after they were seen scaling and taking a sledgehammer to the roof of the US-owned Teledyne Defence and Space factory on April 2.
The factory manufactures components for missiles, electronics, gunsights and munitions for the Israeli military.
Operations were ground to a halt as a result of the action.
Two out of four activists were remanded to prison afterwards.
One was held for approximately one month, while the other was held for three months.
Palestine Action says the firm “boasts of its involvement with missile products procured by Israel, including the AGM-Harpoon, AIM-120 AMRAAM and AGM-114 Hellfire missiles deployed by Israel against Gaza — the latter reportedly being used to strike al-Shifa hospital.”
It also produces parts, including filters and multifunction assemblies for drones and aircraft, along with radar systems such as the type fitted in F-35 Fighter jets used by Israel.
SEVEN people have been charged with offences linked to terrorism following a Palestine Action protest at an Elbit Systems UK site.
The Israeli-based defence firm’s site near Patchway, south Gloucestershire, was ram-raided on August 6.
Avon and Somerset Police said a group of people forced their way into the building, using a vehicle to smash through the doors, before employees were “seriously assaulted.”
The force said two of its officers who attended the disruption were also “seriously assaulted in the course of their duties.”
The Crown Prosecution Service said it would be submitting to the court that the alleged offences have a “terrorist connection.”
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The seven defendants were remanded in custody today, Palestine Action said, adding: “Despite arrests under the Terrorism Act, giving the police the ability to detain without charge for up to 14 days, none of the activists have been charged with terrorism offences.
