Palestine Action has responded with resistance, taking direct action against the links in Israel’s military supply chain, writes co-founder Huda Ammori [photo credit: Getty Images]
Our collective humanity is being tested like never before. The slaughter of Palestinians by the Israeli military is a daily occurrence and the very existence of the Palestinian people is at stake.
Nowhere in Gaza is safe; schools, hospitals, and refugee camps are all targets of Israel’s genocidal campaign, making it nearly impossible to calculate the true extent of the catastrophe in Gaza. Is it more than 40,000? Is it more than 186,000? And what will the downstream health effects be for those who survive, or will the polio epidemic kill them first?
In the West Bank, Palestinians face weekly bouts of settler pogroms, state-sanctioned violence, and apartheid.
Meanwhile, governments in the West issue hollow calls for a ceasefire whilst continuing to export arms to Israel and purchase Israeli weapons tested on Palestinians. They capitulate to Israeli war demands and ignore Palestinian pleas for safety and justice.
So what can we do as informed and invested citizens to oppose our country’s complicity in genocide?
Palestine Action has responded with resistance, taking direct action against the links in Israel’s military supply chain.
Rather than beg the UK government to sanction Israel, ordinary people are going straight to the source by shutting down weapons manufacturers profiting from the genocide.
As a result, 16 members of Palestine Action now languish in prison in Britain, detained for trying to stop a genocide. Between them, they’ve been accused of targeting three crucial facets of Israel’s military supply chain: the arms factories, their partners, and their investors.
Francesca Nadin, 39, has been on remand — imprisoned before trial — since she was arrested on June 27 2024 for allegedly defacing JP Morgan and Barclays branches in Central Leeds. Both banks invest in Israel’s biggest weapons producer, Elbit Systems.
Less than a month earlier, she and three others occupied the roof and dismantled an American weapons factory, Teledyne, in Bradford — halting the production of Israel’s missiles and fighter jets.
Made in the UK, used on Palestinians
The UK government is barred from sending arms when there is a risk of such arms being used in violations of international law, but rather than abide by their legal and moral obligations, the British state is persecuting those who do.
The International Court of Justice has already ruled that it’s plausible that Israel is committing genocide, therefore obliging the UK to stop sending arms to Israel. Britain is also obliged to prevent the occurrence of genocide and punish those responsible for its commission, as stated in Section 1 of the Genocide Convention. Neither seems to be of any concern for the British political class. In fact, all indications point to an explicit betrayal.
On August 6, six activists were arrested inside Elbit’s research, development and manufacturing hub in Filton, Bristol. Elbit Systems manufactures 85% of Israel’s military drone fleet and land-based equipment, as well as missiles, ammunition, and digital warfare. The Israeli arms maker frequently boasts of how their weaponry is “battle-tested”, using Gaza as a laboratory to develop the latest lethal technologies.
After driving a modified prison van into Elbit’s Filton premises, the group managed to dismantle Israeli weaponry including the same model of quadcopter drones which mimicked women and children crying to lure Palestinians and kill them.
In response, UK authorities deployed extensive nationwide resources including armed police offers to round up four others for allegedly being connected to the action. After one week of being detained without charge under the Terrorism Act, each of the dubbed ‘Filton10’ was charged with non-terror offences and remanded to prison.
In another attempt to imprison Palestine Action activists, on August 20 Sheriff John McCormack sentenced five more Palestine Action activists to prison in Scotland for occupying a Thales weapons factory in Glasgow and costing the company over one million pounds. Thales works in partnership with Elbit Systems to produce military drones used on Palestinians. Each of the five received 12 months sentences each, bar one who was given a 14-month sentence. They’ll be expected to serve half of that time in prison.
The state’s move to persecute those who resist the Gaza genocide is a desperate and dystopian attempt to safeguard Israel’s military supply chain, which Palestine Action poses a genuine threat.
In a report by Israeli lobby-funded politician Lord Walney, Elbit complained of the “detrimental impact” the group is positing to their operations in Britain. In just the past year, Palestine Action has forced Elbit’s factory in Tamworth to shut down and five companies to cut all ties with the Israeli weapons maker, including the multi-billion pound shipping giant Kuehne+Nagel.
By imprisoning sixteen people for taking direct action against Israel’s weapons trade, the British state is prioritising the interests of a foreign genocidal entity over the freedom and rights of its own citizens. Conversely, Palestine Action’s political prisoners are a testament to the meaning of collective struggle, putting the liberation of Palestinians above their own freedom.
Every struggle requires sacrifice to succeed. Every day in Palestine, we witness their determination to exist, no matter how dire the circumstances. So if we genuinely want to support the fight for Palestinian liberation, we must also be willing to make sacrifices, or at the very least, stand by those who do.
Huda Ammori is a co-founder of the direct action network Palestine Action and has conducted extensive research and campaigns targeting British complicity with Israeli apartheid.
Follow her on Twitter: @HudaAmmori
Have questions or comments? Email us at: editorial-english@newarab.com
Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The New Arab, its editorial board or staff.
