Palestine Action activists acquitted in Israeli defense firm break-in, drawing criticism from British Jewish leaders
The Board of Deputies of British Jews wrote that it was “concerned by the troubling verdicts acquitting members of Palestine Action”
Supporters gather outside the Old Bailey in solidarity with the Palestine Action prisoners being accused under counter terrorism powers of destroying Israeli weaponry being made at Elbit Systems’s Filton facility in Bristol. Photo by Martin Pope/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(JTA) — A British jury has acquitted six activists from the British group Palestine Action who were charged with breaking into the U.K. site of an Israeli defense company, eliciting criticism from British Jewish groups and leaders.
The defendants — Charlotte Head, 29, Samuel Corner, 23, Leona Kamio, 30, Fatema Rajwani, 21, Zoe Rogers, 22, and Jordan Devlin, 31 — were accused of driving a prison van into Elbit Systems’ factory, an Israeli-based military technology company, on Aug. 6, 2024, and causing damage to the building’s property and using sledgehammers as weapons.
After deliberating for 36 hours and 34 minutes, the jury said on Wednesday that it was unable to reach verdicts for criminal damage charges against all six defendants.
The jury was also unable to reach a verdict for charges faced by Corner, who was accused of causing grievous bodily harm with intent for hitting a police sergeant with a sledgehammer.
The incident took place nearly a year before the defendants’ organization, Palestine Action, was banned under the Terrorism Act in July after its activists broke into a Royal Air Force base and spray-painted two planes to protest Britain’s support for Israel. Now, people expressing support for Palestine Action or participating in its activism can be charged with terrorism.
The ruling drew praise from some British lawmakers and the Irish rap group Kneecap, whose member was charged under the Terrorism Act in May for displaying a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London last year.
But Jewish groups and figures in the United Kingdom lamented the acquittal.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews, the largest Jewish organization in the United Kingdom, said in a statement that it was “concerned by the troubling verdicts acquitting members of Palestine Action.” Alleging that the group had targeted “businesses linked to the Jewish community in London and Manchester,” the group called for a retrial on the charges in which the jury did not reach a verdict.
“While it is important to respect the integrity of the judicial process, there is a serious danger of perverse justifications being used as a shield for criminality,” the statement continued. “It cannot be the case that those who commit serious criminal acts, including violent assaults, are able to evade the consequences of their actions.”
In an op-ed published in The Telegraph titled “The Palestine Action acquittals are telling British Jews they have no future here,” former Jewish Chronicle editor Stephen Pollard argued that “the message of the case is this: you can smash the spine of a police officer and so long as you are doing it because of ‘Palestine’, you can walk home free.”
“That decision, I believe, may come to be seen as the single most significant case in the history of Anglo-Jewry since 1945,” continued Pollard. “It shows that the game is up. We can no longer rely on the criminal justice system. And when the law is no longer there to protect us, who or what will?”
