Support Palestine Action Protesters Facing Trial

London: People who have taken part in Palestine Action protests currently face a series of court trials for their activism. Many criminal trials are now delayed by more than two years after the actions took place due to court delays. The first three activists to appear in court, accused of criminal damage, were found not guilty by a District Judge in Newcastle under Lyme Magistrates Court in December 2021. In November 2022, five more were acquitted by a jury in a Crown Court in London. Another judgment in Wolverhampton Magistrates court found that: ‘The Crown [i.e.the Prosecution) had accepted that the defendants had reasonable beliefs that Elbit was producing arms, which were supplied to Israel, and which caused the deaths of Palestinians’.

This January should have seen another Crown Court trial in Manchester – but like almost all others related to the factory formerly known as Elbit in Oldham, which was closed in January 2022, this was also postponed until November this year. Crown Court trials (with juries) are now timetabled throughout this year.

Palestine Action have requested that supporters come to the trials, either to sit in the gallery or to show support outside the courts. Let’s send a clear message to Elbit Systems and the British state: we do not consent to weapons of apartheid being manufactured in our towns and cities.