Palestine Action activists jailed over factory raid

[Twiglets1]

The BBC report that four Palestine Action activists have been jailed after causing £1.2m of damage at a UK site of an Israel-based defence firm.

Charlotte Head, 30, Samuel Corner, 23, Leona Kamio, 30, and Fatema Rajwani, 21, were convicted of criminal damage in a retrial after they broke into the Elbit Systems factory near Bristol in August 2024.

Corner was jailed for seven years and eight months for criminal damage and inflicting grievous bodily harm on a police sergeant. The judge, Mr Justice Johnson, said Corner had had no justification for the "extreme and gratuitous force" used.

The case is believed to be the first time that convictions for criminal damage have been classified as being connected to terrorism.

The judge said their actions had aimed to influence the government.

Head, who drove the prison van into the compound, was sentenced to five years in prison, Kamio was also handed a five-year jail term, and Rajwani received a prison sentence of four years and eight months.

The offenders will not qualify for early release from prison provisions and the Parole Board will assess their risk to the public when it determines when they can be set free.

All four will also serve an additional one year on a licence in the community at the end of their terms.

Green Party Leader Zack Polanski said it was "gut-wrenching to see four young people jailed for direct action against an arms supplier to Israel".

He added that the sentence was a "truly dangerous attack on the right to protest".

Labour MP John McDonnell said the scale of the sentences was "truly shocking".

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce950111xk7o

His Twitter had nothing about the violence earlier

Nor did Corbyn’s

Agree. Attacking an arms factory isn't attacking jewish people who live their lives like the rest of us. Its not terrorism, its protest at what Israel are doing to innocent people.

And the sledgehammer attack?

And what are your feelings on the poor police woman who was attacked with a sledgehammer?

Was wrong and is justifiably being punished.

The right in the UK is to peaceful protest not violence and vandalism and sabotage of property.

Protesters also should not be allowed to stop others going about their normal business. The sooner everyone agrees that only peaceful protest is allowed, the better for our democracy which appears somewhat anarchic right now.

Sabotage of arms that will be used to kill children is perfectly moral imo.

Good, They deserved the punishment. I don’t care why they were vandalising. 🙄

Yes. Agree

Is it all arms being sold as part of a perfectly legal business, or is it just Israel you object to?

Arms are sold for all sorts of reasons. Its Israel's use of them specifically that I am objecting to.

Considering this has been linked to terrorism, think very carefully about how the CPS have managed to do this. The bar has to be pretty high. I wonder who might have been funding these people?
a few years ago a warehouse was set on fire that contained drones set for Ukraine to help the war effort. The arsonist were paid for by Russian state actors.

im very interested who might have been influencing these people.

As I thought

Yes it is a good response, which I am starting to expect from her.

This question is never answered but it really needs to be by those who think the attack was justifiable.

@Twiglets1 - I wanted to be fair and show you that the above poster did answer the question very decisively. It was just that it was asked twice in quick succession.

Fair point - one person has answered it. Many others who express support for the activists avoid answering the question though.

Who has justified this attack on the policewoman @Twiglets1?

People can be appalled at this brutal attack and also be appalled at the brutality used by Israel.

Is that so hard for you to understand?

Do you think that Zack Polanski was appalled by this brutal attack?

Says it all!

Again - this thread is not about Israel it is about an attack that happened in the UK by UK activists, at a cost of over 1M to the UK and to a UK policewoman.

Those that support the activists without condemning the attack on the policewoman are tacitly justifying what happened to her.

I don't subscribe to the idea that criminal vandalism is justified if the place you are vandalising does something you think is immoral. It is pure vigilantism and is not acceptable in a democracy. What if I as a vegan think it's righteous to smash up a chicken farm? Or if a Catholic torches an abortion clinic? Would people support gender critical women going into a gender clinics with sledgehammers?

We are seeing it happen more and more that people tolerate criminal activity in the name of a cause people feel strongly about, particularly the sanctimonious left. But it leads to the violent and self-righteous tyrannising the majority.

Nonsense. No one has justified it and you know that. Trying to say otherwise is just clutching at straws.

In this case the vigilantes are always suspiciously selective. They always go for Israeli/Jewish companies. Chinese and American owned businesses are exempt for some reason. Saudi Arabia have behaved appallingly in Yemen, resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths of innocent people. They also own numerous assets in the UK, including Newcastle football club and Heathrow Airport, none of which have been trashed in 'protest'.