Free all Palestine Action Protesters – Preventing War Crimes is Not A Crime

The Public Order Act 2023 which Starmer Supported is Intended to Criminalise All Effective Protest

Brighton & Hove Protest in Support of Palestine Action Prisoners

As people may know I together with 3 other Defendants am awaiting sentence after having been convicted of ‘intent to cause criminal damage without lawful excuse’ to the Shenstone Elbit factory of Israeli arms factory, Elbit.

The Judge ruled out all lawful excuses holding that there were no lawful excuses, thus leading inevitably to our convictions.

All five Defendants, including one whom the jury was deadlocked on, have issued the following statement:

When Justice is Neither Done Nor Seen to be Done

Statement from the Elbit 5

On March 9 2021 we were arrested by the Police before we could reach Elbit’s Shenstone factory where some of us intended to occupy the roof and decorate the factory with paint in the blood red colour of the victims of its drones. Elbit is an Israeli arms company.

On May 15 2023, after a 7 week trial, we were found guilty of intent to cause criminal damage without lawful excuse. Judge Michael Chambers refused to admit all lawful excuse defences under s.3 of the Criminal Damage Act 1971 or let us explain why it was that we had targeted Elbit. The jury was therefore left with the impression that our only purpose was to commit criminal damage.

At no point was the jury told that they have the right to reach a verdict based on whether it was unjust to convict and whether or not the use of the CDA in this case was oppressive. This is despite it being a longstanding feature of British jurisprudence since Bushell’s case in 1670, that a jury has the right to reach a verdict according to their conscience.

Patrick Devlin, a former Law Lord said that the right to bring in ‘perverse acquittals’ gives protection against laws which the ordinary man regards as harsh and oppressive . . . an insurance that the criminal law will conform to the ordinary man's ideas of what is fair and just. If it does not, the jury will not be a party to its enforcement.

Similarly Heather Hallett, a member of the Court of Appeal from 2005 to 2019 and who is now chairing the COVID Inquiry, said in her 2017 Blackstone lecture on the Role of the Jury, A jury may refuse to convict in spite of the law and the evidence because it concludes that the law is an unjust law. The jury passes its verdict on the law. Secondly, it ensures that the prosecution and the judge are on trial….

Israel’s recent attack on Jenin where 12 Palestinians, including 4 children, were killed is precisely why we targeted Elbit. We should have been allowed to use the defence of necessity whereby it is permissible to commit a smaller crime in order to prevent a far greater ill. However the courts have decided that the victims of Elbit’s drones are too ‘remote’ from Elbit’s factories in this country.

The ‘logic’ that was employed in our trial was that in order to avail ourselves of this defence it was necessary to identify the particular engine in the particular drone that killed the particular child. We believe that this is merely playing with words whilst people are dying. In practice it enables Elbit to avoid responsibility for the death of hundreds if not thousands of civilian victims, including children and allows it to evade legislation on the prevention of war crimes. Elbit are merchants of death plying their lethal trade with the protection of the law.

The International Association of Democratic Lawyers  in a statement calling for the release of Palestinian Action prisoners noted  how, on 21 June 2023, an Elbit drone extrajudicially assassinated three Palestinians in Jenin. This was a war crime as was the attack on Jenin where thousands of people were evicted from their homes and forced to wander the streets without food, water or shelter.

The International Criminal Court Act 2001 make the commission of war crimes by British nationals or residents, or being ancillary to war crimes, be they in this country or abroad, an offence. It would seem obvious that actions intended to prevent the production of Elbit Drones in this country must be lawful in so far as such actions are intended to prevent the commission of far greater crimes.

In the eyes of our judiciary, criminal damage against Elbit factories is more serious than the enabling of war crimes.

We are at the moment awaiting sentence and have been remanded for reports. HHJ Chambers has stated that our offences ‘cross the custody threshold’. The date of sentencing was originally intended to be on June 26. It was then postponed to July 10 and then August 11. The latest date is September 1 and we understand that it may be postponed again.

This continual delay in sentence is in itself a form of punishment as a cloud of uncertainty hangs over all of us. One of us lost his job due to the conviction imposed and finding other means of employment will be extremely difficult while there is no closure. Overall, this case has been hanging over us for more than two years and now it is being delayed again for reasons that we have not been given but which we understand to relate to the inability of the court to agree a date with our barristers."

We have therefore decided to issue this statement in order that people who have been following the trials and prosecution, some would say persecution, of Palestine Action activists, are made aware of what is happening in this case.

Tony Greenstein

Jeremy Parker

Ibrahim Samadi

Alex Waters

Helen Caney (not convicted)

 

Mike Lynch White (centre), cofounder of Scientist Rebellion was sentenced to 27 months in prison at Chester Crown Court 

I seem to recall a saying that Justice Delayed is Justice Denied. This was first coined by Sir Edward Coke, the greatest jurist of the Elizabethan and Jacobin periods, who was variously Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas and King’s Bench as well as Attorney General.

In the Case of Proclamations and Dr. Bonham's Case, Coke declared the King to be subject to the law, and the laws of Parliament to be void if in violation of "common right and reason". Cases which foreshadowed Bushel’s Case of 1670 where a jury decided not to enforce a tyrannical statute.

A week ago, Saturday 22 July, was Prisoners’ Day of Action. There are currently 7 supporters of Palestine Action in prison for taking action to disrupt the production of Israeli weapons on British soil.

Four of them are detained after dismantling American weapons factory, Teledyne Labtech in Wales. Teledyne are the largest listed exporters of weapons from Britain to the Apartheid State of Israel. Two others are in prison for occupying APPH, a Canadian weapons factory, and supplier of parts for Israeli Elbit drones and fighter jets.

Over 100 more face trials for taking direct action against a range of weapons companies, mainly Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons firm. Elbit supply the majority of Israel’s military drone fleet, land equipment and munitions. Their weapons are used against the Palestinian people, and then marketed as “battle-tested” and sold on to other oppressive regimes across the world. Using the captive population of Gaza as a laboratory is a crime against humanity. All strikes against that industry are not only legitimate but essential.

The British State’s complicity with the colonisation of Palestine goes back all the way to the Balfour Declaration when, in the words of Arthur Koestler ‘“One nation solemnly promised to a second nation the country of a third.”  

Palestine Action  to date have shut down two Israeli weapons factories and cost Elbit hundreds of million pounds in lost contracts. By imprisoning activists, the British state is demonstrating that it prioritises protecting the military supply chain of a foreign apartheid state over the freedom of its own citizens.

In addition to handing down prison sentences, the State has imprisoned activists without trial and on occasions the Crown Prosecution Service have reintroduced previously dropped charges, after Elbit asked for a review. In reaction to both growing public support for direct action and the number of ‘perverse acquittals’ by juries, especially the Colston acquittals the Court of Appeal ruled, on reference from the Attorney General, that ‘lawful excuse’ defences such as Necessity (preventing a greater crime) and Human Rights defences of proportionality did not apply to cases of criminal damage.

For further information see Palestine Action Prisoners Day of Action on Saturday 22nd July

Almost 80 public figures, including members of the European Parliament, screenwriters, lecturers, musicians, writers and journalists, have signed an open letter calling on the UK to release detained Palestine Action protesters who "sacrificed their liberty to challenge colonial violence".

The protesters were arrested while obstructing the entrances to several sites belonging to Israel's largest weapons manufacturer, Elbit Systems, in the UK. Elbit, the letter says, manufactures "an array of weaponry, including drones equipped with payloads", and "profit from the captive population of Palestine — they have turned civilians into a human laboratory where experimental weaponry can be tested, improved on, and then marketed as "field-proven" and branded as "battle-tested" surveillance technology and components for tanks and fighter jets."

The signatories, who include Palestinian writer and activist Mohammed El-Kurd and musicians Roger Waters and Lowkey, added:

We demand the charges are dropped against those already incarcerated and at risk of prison over their work to disrupt the criminal production of Israeli weapons on British soil.

We stand with those who have sacrificed their liberty to challenge colonial violence and we call on others to do the same until they, and the Palestinian people, are free.

Palestine Action demo outside Newcastle Crown Court

Steps taken by Palestine Action, the letter continued,

have resulted in the closing down of two of Elbit's sites, and the loss of millions of pounds through the severance of MoD contracts. Palestine Action has inspired local communities across the country to rise up against these immoral factories which profit from the business of war and destruction.

In spite of this, the UK government

has decided to prioritise its interests in protecting the military supply chain of a foreign apartheid state by incarcerating its own people.

The heroes who have taken courageous action to expose and dismantle Britain's role in the colonisation of Palestine should be celebrated and rewarded, not imprisoned. We therefore call for the release of all Palestine Action political prisoners, and for the charges to be dropped.

Signatories to the letter also include British-Palestinian filmmaker Farah Nabulsi, lawyer and winner of the Palestine Book Award 2019 Academic Award, Professor Noura Erakat, and 2020 Creative Award Winner Susan Abulhawa, in addition to CAGE Director Moazzam Begg, MEPs Mick Wallace and Clare Daly and academic David Miller, who was fired from Bristol University following a campaign by the Israel lobby over his criticism of the Zionist state.

Here is the full statement calling for the release of Palestine Action prisoners

Solidarity from Greece

Solidarity from Greece for the actionists imprisoned in British jails for disrupting Israel’s military supply chain #FreeTheActionists pic.twitter.com/edQiE8zcof

— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) July 25, 2023

Banner Drop Manchester

Activists drop a banner in Manchester calling for the freedom of Palestine Action prisoners, incarcerated for taking action to disrupt the Israeli weapons trade in Britain.

#FreeTheActionists pic.twitter.com/TYLooZxPwT

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) July 22, 2023

Dabka in Leicester

Liverpool Protest

Huge support in Liverpool for the fight to free Palestine Action prisoners and all Palestinians #FreeTheActionists pic.twitter.com/CSVHmC8fiI

— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) July 22, 2023

Leicester Keysight Technologies

BREAKING: Palestine Action shatter a key supplier to Leicester’s Israeli weapons factory, on the 82nd day of the siege #ShutElbitDown pic.twitter.com/vwlLPfm70y

— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) July 22, 2023

What do you do when the Judge and the Prosecution Work in Harmony?

The latest instalment of the Shenstone 5 Palestine Action Trial as the State is Determined to Criminalise Protest Actions

This is now the third week of the trial of the Shenstone 5. The Prosecution finished its case last Wednesday and the Defence case began on Tuesday April 11 when my Cross Examination began.

Judge Silas Reid - like Judge Chambers he is a second Prosecutor

Despite Judge Chambers doing his best to rule out all my attempts to explain the reason behind the action at Elbit as ‘political’ I managed to convey to the jury the reasons behind our actions – the war crimes carried out by Elbit.

During the first week I had fallen ill with gastro-enteritis but despite my barrister applying for me to go home and lie down, Judge Michael Chambers refused the application without giving any reason. I was not needed in the trial as it was then being taken up with legal arguments and my barrister, Danielle Mason from Garden Court Chambers argued that she did not need me to instruct her.

At that point I simply walked out and called Chambers bluff. In the end no warrant for my arrest was issued despite threats to do so.

This Tuesday Danielle began my Evidence in Chief and then Deborah Gould, the humourless Prosecution barrister began cross-examination.

It did not go well for Gould as she tied herself down in knots trying to prove that Palestine Action was one vast conspiracy aimed at targeting the benevolent Elbit Systems whose drones she alleged had purely civil and commercial purposes.

As Skawkbox details Gould was eventually reduced to pleading that I could have written to the local MP, in ignorance of parliamentary procedure that you can only write to your local MP, that I could have petitioned Elbit to be nicer, that I could have submitted a Subject Access Request under the GDPR, ignorant of the fact that this would only apply to information they held on me (highly unlikely) or submit a Freedom of Information request which you can only do to a public body not a private company.

Tony Greenstein

She even asked if I had asked Elbit what they were producing that week and who their customers were!  Presumably Elbit, which goes to extraordinary lengths to hide the names of customers like the regime in Myanamar, would have willingly handed over the information!  In fact kosher pigs are more likely to fly first.

I testified that one of the defendants, Helen Caney, was discernibly distressed and anxious and that I had offered to take her back in the minibus to her home in Reading. When she declined the offer I agreed to take her to the nearest railway station. Gould then asked me if I had consulted the rail timetables, (!) had I informed the Police who had arrested her along with us about her condition and implied that I had not fulfilled my duty of care even though it is the Police who have that responsibility not me. Especially since I was under arrest.

Helen, along with one other protestor who had decided not to take part in the action, sat with me at the front of the van. The three protestors who were intent on occupying the roof of Elbit were dressed in red boiler suits. Those at the front were not.

That should have been enough but Gould is convinced that that was just a ploy and that all 6 of us were determined to take part in the action. Gould is determined to wrongfully convict all 5 of us despite the fact that I too had no intention of entering the factory because

a)      the minibus was due back at the rental hire company at 5 pm the following day

b) because aged 67, having had a liver transplant I was incapable of scaling 8 foot metal fences.

At one point I was asked if I had mentioned Helen’s mental state and distress to my barrister, at which point my barrister rose to her feet to object as it was a clear and obvious breach of client-lawyer privilege. Quite amazingly Judge Chambers overruled the objection without giving any reason. Presumably this was on the basis that Chambers has a rule whereby he consistently overrules all defence lawyers’ objections whilst upholding all objections made by Prosecution counsel! His usual style is to cut them off in mid-sentence without even bothering to hear them out.

To most people the Blue Badge is clearly visible but to Prosecutor Deborah Gould it was too big!

Yesterday we had the Affair of the Blue Badge. Gould thought she had found the smoking gun when she asserted in cross-examination that my badge had been found in the back of the van.  Clearly I had intended to go into the factory.

Clive Ponting's Prosecution in 1985 is famous because the Judge directed he be convicted and the Jury refused

I pushed back on this and said it was impossible since I hadn’t been in the back, where bags containing sledge hammers and a crowbar were stored in sealed bags. But Gould was insistent that that was where they had been found citing a police witness statement. The only problem was that when the Chambers examined what the policewoman had actually said in cross-examination she said she couldn’t remember where she had found it! It was only when she was referred to the statement she made at the time that she had listed all the items found as being located in the back of the van.

However Helen Caney then gesticulated to the court from the dock that she had found a police photograph of the van and sure enough my blue badge was there, on the dashboard. However Gould was not to be thwarted. She asserted that it was too big, even though it was on the dashboard and was blue.

As I finished my cross-examination I walked out to a standing ovation from the public gallery which resulted in a warning from Judge Chambers that he would clear the gallery in future.

However overnight she had asked the police to look into the matter further and sure enough they came back with a wrapper that said it found in the front. No apology was forthcoming from Gould however.

Towards the end of today’s session Gould, who had been badgering away at the second defendant, Ibrahim Samadi, trying to prove that we had been engaged in an operation of military efficiency then questioned him on a phone call I had apparently made to my wife, with my mobile phone, whilst in police custody at 4.30 a.m on the 9^th March.

The only problem with this was that I didn’t have my mobile on me in police custody and furthermore the Police had prevented me making any calls in custody, in breach of the custody rules. At which point I shouted out that it was a lie and my barrister got to her feet to object. If Gould was going to question anyone on a phone call I had allegedly made then the person to question was me but she had declined to do so yesterday for reasons best known to her. It resulted in a blazing row between Gould and my counsel after Chambers had ended the day’s session!

The obvious thing for Gould to do tomorrow would for me to be called back to the witness box to give evidence to that effect but I suspect Gould will try to wriggle out of that as it would not serve her purposes of obtaining a wrongful conviction by any means necessary.

As I have previously documented British judges, who have always been the most loyal and subservient members of the Establishment, are determined to help the Tories in their attacks on defendant’s right to a free and fair trial.

Before the pivotal case of Bushell’s Case in 1670 juries had been little more than creatures of the judges. They were termed the Judges 13 voices. In 1670 a jury had refused to convict William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania and a prominent Quaker and William Mead, of preaching to an ‘unlawful and tumultuous’ assembly.

The jury was then locked up for 2 days without food, water or a chamber pot. The jury was then fined but Edward Bushell refused to pay the fine and was imprisoned for contempt. He then petitioned for habeus corpus and the Court of Common Pleas under Chief Justice Vaughan established that juries could not be punished for their verdicts.

Thus began the independence of the jury and it is this that Judge Silas Reid and other judges like Michael Chambers are now challenging. As the Tories introduce measures to even prevent people attending a demonstration, the Judges are rushing to fall into line.

There are a number of Palestine Action trials coming up. I urge people to attend wherever possible and to go to the Palestine Action site for further details of the nearest trial to you.

Elbit 9

Date           Apr 17 - May 5, 2023 9:00 am - 5:00 pm

Venue        Bristol Crown Court

Location   9 Small St, BS1 1DB Bristol

Tamworth 2

Date           Apr 17 - 21, 2023, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm

Venue         Stafford Crown Court

Location             The Combined Court Centre, Victoria Square, ST16 2QQ Stafford

UTACS 7

Date         Apr 18 - 26, 2023

Time          9:30 am - 5:00 pm

Venue:       Nottingham Magistrates Court

Location: Carrington Street, NG2 1EE Nottingham

The New Arab

Elbit Systems vs Tony Greenstein: A shining example of the UK's crackdown on Palestine activism

SKWAWKBOX 02/04/2023

Judge denies ill Greenstein permission to leave box during ‘non-political’ Elbit trial

Skwawkbox 12 April 2023

Exclusive: Greenstein testifies at trial of Shenstone Palestine Action protesters

Skwawkbox 12 April 2023

 ‘Key plank’ of prosecution case falls in Greenstein trial – and further farce ensues