Palestine Action Trial of the Shenstone 6– Update – The British State is Intent on Criminalising Opposition to Elbit’s Death Factory

‘This is not a political trial it is a criminal trial’ – so sing Judge and Prosecution in harmony

I promised in my last blog to provide an update on the trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court in which I’m charged, together with 5 others, with having in my possession ‘articles with intent to destroy or damage’ property belonging to Elbit.

Overwhelmed as I am by messages of support (see comments) the supporters of Ben Gvir, Smotrich and Israel's genocidalists are crossing their fingers in the hope I will be locked up!

I was informed by my barrister, Danielle Manson from Garden Court Chambers that the reason why I am the lead defendant is because of my blog of two years ago!  A rare honour indeed. No doubt I shall be cross-examined on every word and past participle.

There is one theme that Judge Chambers and Prosecutor Deborah Gould are agreed on and that is that this trial has nothing to do with politics.  It’s only about criminal conduct and criminal damage in particular.

If Chambers and Gould are to be believed, then 6 people, most of whom did not even know each other beforehand, conspired to engage in a spot of vandalism on the morning of March 9^th for no other reason than that they felt in a destructive mood. Quite why we didn’t focus on breaking a few windows nearer home or vandalizing a phone box is one of life’s mysteries.

Six members of the German Jewish Resistance Group in Nazi Germany Who in May 1942 set fire to Goebbel's Soviet Paradise Exhibition in Berlin's Lustgarten. They had broken the law and were beheaded. According to Judge and  Prosecutor in the trial, adherence to the law is a supreme value

There is therefore a deliberate attempt to exclude or play down the real reasons for what happened, i.e. the role of Elbit in manufacturing drones such as Hermes 450 which has been responsible for the death of thousands of Palestinian civilians, to say nothing of its supply of drones to the Indian army for use in Kashmir and its supply of weaponry to the genocidal junta in Burma.

Herbert Baum - executed leader of the German Jewish anti-Nazi Baum Group - died under torture

Jo Wadsworth, the Blairite co-editor of the Brighton & Hove News published an article on the case today. No doubt she and the Editor of the Jewish Chronicle are salivating at the prospect of me being convicted!

Today the jury was whittled down from 18 to 12. It was thus only on the afternoon of the fourth day of trial that the Prosecution opened its case with lurid tales of conspiracies and plots. Factually she was all at sea despite copious amounts of information supplied by mobile phone companies on our whereabouts on the night of March 8/morning of March 9.

Thus I was supposed to have left Brighton at 5.30 when I picked up the van and arrived by 9.30. In fact I didn’t leave Brighton until about 7.30 and didn’t arrive until after midnight. Just a small point but it shows the sloppiness of the Prosecution despite the massive powers of search they have under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000.

Demonstration March 29th outside Shenstone's factory in Walsall

Thus tomorrow (Friday) the trial begins proper as the Prosecution opens its case. However as Judge Chambers has other business, sentencing a rapist and murderer in the afternoon, there will only be a short session from 10.00-12.00. 

Thus ends the first week. The second week will consist of only 3 days because of Easter and the third week will be four days because of Easter Monday so this trial is likely to continue into the third week of April.

However this also gives people time to mobilize around the issues in the case, which is the right to take action against those who deliberately flout international human rights law in search of profit. Britain is signed up to the UN and European Human Rights Conventions but they are observed in the breach and a blind eye is turned to arms exports by Britain.

In June 2019 the Court of Appeal held that the government’s export of arms to Saudia Arabia to be unlawful. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss blithely ignored the ruling and proceeded regardless. It was all a ‘mistake’ she said.  Not a defence I suspect we will be able to use.

Tony Greenstein 

This blog has been legally vetted and there are a number of things I have been forced to omit for legal reasons which will become clear later

Palestine Action Takes Action Against Death “R”Us Elbit Factory at Shenstone amid Nablus aggression

 Can you Identify this Racist Scumbag in Cheadle Who Attacked an Indian Man Today

Does anyone know who this racist scumbag is?

As you may know in the past 6 months Palestine Action has closed down 2 of Elbit’s 10 sites in Britain, at Oldham and their HQ in London. We have them on the run and now is not the time to let up.

·         On Sunday afternoon, a team of Palestine Action activists took to UAV Engines LTD. – a factory belonging to Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms company, descending on the site and inflicting significant damage to facilities.

·         Produced at the site are the components that make up Elbit’s military drones – including the Hermes 450 and 900, put to extensive use in surveillance and attacks on the captive population of Gaza, Palestine.

·         In recent months, site operations have been halted numerous times by Palestine action. The factory has long been a target by pro-Palestine activists, and is frequented by locals who protest the site’s operations weekly.

·         Also manufactured by Elbit is the Watchkeeper drone – modelled on the Hermes 450 and supplied to the British military, border force and other governmental agencies, at home the Watchkeeper is used for policing British citizens and monitoring migrants attempting to cross the English Channel.

On Saturday night, Israeli military forces raided Nablus, killing two Palestinians and injuring 9 others, armed with stun grenades and ammunition. Today, members of Palestine Action descended upon Israeli weapons company Elbit Systems’ factory in Shenstone, smashing and striking at the site exterior, throwing red paint, a message to the Israeli occupation and those who uphold it – the day has passed where your violence will go unchecked, prepare to be met with resistance every step of the way. Activists took action today seeking to dismantle an industry built on occupation, dispossession and warfare across the globe.

The site in question is UAV Engines LTD. and has faced extensive action in the past, owing to its manufacture of components used in Elbit military drones such as the Watchkeeper UAV. A direct action campaign for site closure has been fought for nearly two years under the #ShutElbitDown banner, and longer by activists taking sporadic action. It has been waged by dozens of activists who have faced arrest and loss of liberty, alongside mass support from locals who wish to see an end to a brutal industry that starts on our doorsteps. After huge successes for the broader campaign, its use of direct action and community organising culminating in the closure of two of Elbit’s sites in London and Manchester, Palestine Action is working to permanently close UAV Engines LTD.

Elbit’s clientele spans much of the world – its military goods are sold on and used for anything from violent repression en masse, to the surveillance of both sky and sea. For many years, the Hermes 450/900 drones have been a staple of life in Gaza. They hold a constant presence in the skies, made ever known by their distinct buzzing, the threat of bombing always lurking. As Elbit themselves have said, the drones are “battle-tested” on Palestine – inaugurated through testing on Palestine’s captive populations, then sold back to militaries across the world.

Elbit drones are sold on to Israel in huge numbers (Elbit drones make up 85% of Israel’s drone fleet) and used to keep entire populations living in fear, under permanent siege-mentality – 91% of children in Gaza suffering from PTSD. Today’s action has been taken in their name, with a promise of resistance until victory – an end to Britain’s complicity, and a Palestine free from the horrors of occupation and state terror.

A Palestine Action spokesperson said: “Elbit drones are made in Britain, tested on Palestine then sold back to the British military, amongst others. The British military hold deep ties with Elbit – Britain is an accomplice in an international industry built on occupation, one where technlogy is suited not to meet human needs, but to further repression and terror. We can only cut these ties with direct action taken by the masses – ordinary people, willing to make sacrifices in order to end our collective complicity.”

See After Israel Invades Nablus, Palestine Action Storms an Israeli Drone Factory

See Shut Down Elbit

Can You Identify this Racist Scumbag?

I saw this violent racist attack on an Indian man (who he kept calling a 'Paki') today on Twitter.  It needs to be given the widest publicity so that Cheadle Police are forced to arrest and charge him.