It would be useful
if people email Santander to protest at their outrageous behaviour and ask them
if they are happy depriving the Al Tafawk Children’s Centre of vital funding.
Email addresses I have for the bank are:
Nearly
a year ago I wrote about
how the Police and the Security Services were using money laundering
legislation, introduced to stop serious crime, to target Palestine solidarity
supporters, including myself.
As is
normal these days with the Terrorism Act 2000, legislation introduced for one
purpose is being used for another purpose, in this case attacking peaceful
direct action groups and opponents of Genocide.
It is
Financial Terrorism because it is intended to frighten and deter people from
taking action against the British State which is actively complicit in the Genocide
in Gaza. The State faces an uphill battle to convict me in a trial starting at
Kingston Crown Court on August 18th for ‘inviting support for a proscribed organisation (Hamas)’. This
despite the fact that we have a hostile Judge Plashkes KC presiding over it.
Ironically I Received This From Santander Today!
Hence
the attempt to intimidate me. The question that springs to mind is whether
those responsible for contacting the banks are engaged in trying to pervert the
course of justice.
The message I get when I log on
In the
past two years I have been debanked by three banks – Nationwide, which is an anti-Palestinian bank, HSBC and First Direct. No reason has ever been given
but it’s not hard to work out what was going on. The Financial Ombudsman
Service, to which I complained, has proved itself a completely toothless
lapdog.
I Received This Yesterday From Santander!
The
Police and the National Crime Agency have decided to attack the finances of Palestine solidarity
groups. Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Greater Manchester Friends
of Palestine have both had their bank accounts frozen because of an alleged link to Palestine Action,
even before thelatters unlawful proscription.
Unity
Trust Bank, which is supposed to be a progressive bank, since it’s owned by the
trade unions, confirmed at a meeting with Scottish PSC that the freezing of
their account was at the behest of the NCA. It seems that ‘serious crime’ today
is not robbing a bank, money laundering or human trafficking – it is opposing
Genocide in Palestine.
The NCA
is one of these organisations that are accountable to no one but wield a great
deal of power because their remit is serious crime. However Palestine
solidarity has been redefined as ‘anti-Semitism’ and ‘terrorism’ so the NCA has
become the State’s instrument of choice in the attempt to criminalise
solidarity with the Palestinians.
It is
not only in this country that the State is employing financial terrorism.
Francesca Albanese, the UN Rapporteur for Palestine, has been a target of the
Trump regime. Her bank accounts, credit cards and finances have been frozen,
all because she has been an outspoken critic of the West’s role in financing
and arming Israel’s genocide.
Albanese’s
reaction to US
sanctions sums up my attitude – ‘What
a mafia. But they will not break us.’ The Trump and Starmer regimes
are just that – mafia bosses in suits. At least though Trump doesn’t claim to
be a human rights lawyer unlike Starver.
The Judges of the
International Criminal Court were also targeted by Trump’s sanctions, which
include travel bans, asset freezes and denial of services from US companies,
for having had the temerity to press war crimes charges and issue a warrant
against Netanyahu, the Hitler of our age. The idea of indicting war criminals
is not one that our leaders take very kindly given that they may be next in
line.
As Ashifa Kassam wrotein respect ofKimberly Prost, a Canadian Judge at the
ICC:
For
years, she has sat as a judge at the international criminal court, weighing
accusations of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity; now she is on
the same list as terrorists and those involved in organised crime. “It really was a moment of a bit of
disbelief,” she said.
And
that is the reality of the financial sanctions that I and others face in
Britain. A government which had an iota of morality or principle, would have
condemned outright the US sanctions on Albanese and ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan, which
the Trump Junta imposed in
February 2025.
Starmer
and the ‘Labour’ Government said nothing and quietly went along with everything
Trump decreed, ending up with Charles Mountbatten being sent to Washington to flatter
Trump.
Capitalism
is now run by politicians who owe more to Al Capone than Thomas Paine and the Rights of Man. This is the context in which I have once again
been faced with anonymous allegations, the nature of which I am not allowed to
see or know, being used to freeze my accounts and those of the charity of which
I’m a trustee.
For the
past year Santander has intermittently carried out 3 investigations into the
accounts of the Brighton Trust and related organisations. It found nothing but
I always suspected that their justification of ‘getting to know their customer’
was simply a pretext.
I first
found out what was happening when Stripe, who handle payment processing for the
Chuffed crowdfunder which we set up to appeal for donations to the Al Tafawk Children’s Centre in Jenin sent me a cryptic message saying that ‘A recent payout to your connected
bank account failed’. It soon became clear why it had failed.
Without any warning
Santander had frozen a total of 8 accounts. The only one spared was that of my
son, which I administer. When I contacted the bank no one would speak to me
from the department in question.
It was not until June 5, three days after the
freezing of my accounts that they sent me an email, which said nothing other
than that ‘We will arrange for a
specialist complaints manager to contact you at their earliest opportunity.’
They still have not contacted me.
It is as if they were
too ashamed to even try to defend their decision.
It means that I have
had to take emergency action to ensure that funds raised for the children of
the Al Tafawk Centre are secured. To attack the ability to operate of a charity
raising funds for a children’s centre is despicable. They suffer enough at the
hands of the terrorist IDF without facing the terrorism of the British state
acting via its banking system.
The faceless men who
run the National Crime Agency in conjunction with tame bankers are, like their
counterparts in the Metropolitan Police, devoted to supporting the Genocide in
Gaza and ethnic cleansing underway in the West Bank.
I am taking legal
advice over my next steps and without giving anything away I will not hesitate
to challenge the freeze in court if necessary. I intend to force Santander to
justify their actions and to release the money. To do this I will need to raise
money so I ask people to contribute to my Legal
Crowdfunder. As Chuffed
is based in Australia it is beyond the reach of Starver’s mafia and his police
state mates.
However this whole
debanking exercise needs to become a political issue. Banking is essential for
anyone to function in the modern economy. To take peoples’ banking facilities
away because they don’t conform to the state’s expectations is financial terrorism.
Banks need to be forced to justify any attempt to debank someone.
The ideal solution would be for the banks to be nationalised.
They are too important to be left in the hands of the private sector. When they
get into trouble, as was the case in 2008, then they come running to the state to
bail them out. If they are ‘too big to fail’ which is how they were able to
secure billions of pounds from the state in a bailout, then they are too big to
be owned by private shareholders.
Ivor Caplin caught by a sex sting
I have no doubt that
these dirty tricks tactics by the state are intended as a prelude to my trial
at Kingston Crown Court. But whilst the Secret State is targeting my bank
accounts and those of other opponents of genocide, paedophiles like Ivor Caplin
– former Defence Minister and former Chair
of the Jewish Labour Movement go scot free.
Caplin was the subject
of a sting in January 2025, when he tried to liaise with a
young boy for the purposes of sex. 18 months later he still has not been
charged. Of course the police have form over this as Jimmy Saville might
testify. As do Sussex Police which turned a blind eye
to Saville and another prominent paedophile and Charles
Mountbatten’s friend, the Bishop of Lewes Peter Ball.
Ivor Caplin arrested for attempt to meet 15 year old boy
However Sussex Police did arrest
a friend of mine, Greg Hadfield, a former journalist on the Sunday Times and
Daily Mail, for exposing
Caplin’s predeliction for hard core pornography and sex with young boys on
Twitter.
Jeremy Scahill on
Sky TV About Israel's Burning Alive of Children
It can't be often that a Perjurer is Given a Police Award!
Hadfield was the subject of a complaint by a leading
Brighton Zionist Fiona Sharpe, friend of Sussex Chief Constable Jo Shiner, who
was awarded
a top police award. Sharpe cannot but have been aware of Caplin’s extra-mural activities
as he advertised them on X. Another who clearly knew was his ex-boyfriend and
now Trade Minister, Peter Kyle the MP for Hove. Corruption
But whatever dirty tricks the Police and National
Crime Agency get up to between now and my trial they will not deter me. As
should be obvious from my arrest
at the Nakba demonstration for defying Mark Rowley’s ban on the use of the
words Globalise the Intifada.
So when we hear of two-tier policing we should
remember that the Police and the Crown Prosecution Service, have always
protected the rich and the powerful. That is why Andrew Mountbatten was able to
get away with raping trafficked girls without as much a whisper from the Metropolitan
Police. Their only concern is leaked documents.
But we should never forget that this is about the British
State continuing to support war crimes such as the burning alive of people in
tents as Israel bombs them mercilessly or the targeting of hospitals in Lebanon
- three of which have been attacked in the last week. Attacking a state’s
health facilities is a speciality of the barbarous ‘Jewish’ state.
According to Mark Rowley Saying
‘Globalise the
Intifada’ is anti-Semitic Whereas Saying 'Fuck Islam' is Not
A Problem
'I HOPE THEY CHARGE ME FOR THE SIGN' - Greenstein defiant after arrest
I went to the Ulm 5 Demonstration outside Stammheim Prison in Germany on May 11. There is a
remarkable similarity between the repression that the Filton 24 faced and the situation of the Ulm
5.
In both cases they entered the factories
of Elbit and decommissioned weapons used to murder children and civilians. The defendants in the Ulm 5 case have been held in custody since September and
face an equally hostile judge to Jeremy Johnson, who rigged the Elbit trial.
In Germany calling for
a free Palestine is illegal. German Police approached me and I was detained for
about one and a half hours whilst they took my details. I do not know whether
any charges will follow but if they do I will be more than happy to meet my Nazi
accusers. German Nazis now profess their love for Jews when they mean Zionists.
UK activists criminalized for trying to stop war crimes
The attack on Palestine
solidarity and Jewish anti-Zionists in Germany is indicative of the fact that
Germany never deNazified. The Judges who served under the Nazis continued in
post in West Germany and received their pensions.
The
closest advisor to Germany's first Chancellor Konrad Adenaeur was Hans Globke, who was charged with implementing the Nuremberg
Race Laws of 1935 which Gerard Reitlinger
described as ‘the most murderous legislative instrument known to European history’.
It was Globke who proposed that Jewish men be given the name Israel and
Jewish women Sarah. As Derek Scally wrote:
Globke drafted the legal commentary on the 1935
Nuremberg laws, legalising the exclusion of Jews from public life, the theft of
their assets... It was Globke’s idea to put a “J” in every Jewish citizen’s
identity papers,.... After the war, Globke confessed that he knew all about the...
industrialised murder of European Jews.
Globke interpreted
the Nuremberg Laws to criminalise sexual relations between ‘Aryans’ and
‘non-Aryans’ even outside Germany. As part of their post-war deal for
reparations and arms shipments, David Ben-Gurion, Israeli Prime Minister ensured
that his name was kept out of the Eichmann trial.
The Nazi state had a consistent pro-Zionist policy
up till 1939 and even beyond. In August 1933 the Nazis and the German Zionist
Federation signed the Ha’avara trade agreement
which broke the Jewish Boycott of Nazi Germany. On 28 January 1935 Reinhard
Heydrich, the Chief of
the Security Police and deputy to Himmler issued a directive stating that:
The
activity of the Zionist-oriented youth organisations that are engaged in the
occupational restructuring of the Jews … lies in the interest of the National
Socialist state’s leadership. (These organizations) are not to be treated with
that strictness that it is necessary to apply to the members of the so-called
German-Jewish organizations (assimilationists).
The result was that the Zionist groups were treated with ‘more
benevolence’ than non-Zionist Jewish groups. The Gestapo and the SD ‘place(d) no restrictions on Zionist
organisations.’
In May 1935 Schwarze Korps,
paper of the SS,
wrote that:
the Zionists adhere to a strict racial position
and by emigrating to Palestine they are helping to build their
own Jewish state.... The assimilation-minded Jews deny their race and insist on
their loyalty to Germany or claim to be Christians because
they have been baptized, in order to subvert National Socialist principles.
Why has the German State been so supportive of the Israeli
state? Because, as Angela Merkl explained, Israel was Germany’s Staatsräson
(reason of state). The alliance with Israel eased the incorporation of Germany into
the Western Alliance and NATO.
Germany is the second largest supplier of the
weapons used by Israel to commit genocide. By associating itself with Israel’s
genocide Germany has come to terms with its own genocides. Germany has an
invidious record – the Maji Maji genocide (1905-7) in
East Africa, the Herero/Nama Genocide (1904-8), Turkey’s Armenian Genocide
at which German officers were present and integrally involved,
the Nazi holocaust and now the Israeli holocaust in Gaza.
The Armenian Genocide
It is not guilt but the German state’s interest in
demonstrating that the Nazi Holocaust was not exceptional that leads them to
support Israel. If the ‘Jewish’ State has embarked on a program of extermination
perhaps the Nazi holocaust too was understandable.
As Moshe Feiglin, a former Likud MK, observed
on Israel’s Channel 12 News:
'Hitler said, 'I can't live if one Jew is left,'
we can't live here if one 'Islamo-Nazi' remains in Gaza'
This is the main reason why Germany is virulently hostile
to the Palestinians.
In a 1982 interview
with Il Manifesto, Primo Levi stated, "Everyone is somebody’s
Jew." As his interviewer Filippo Gentiloni quipped: "And
today the Palestinians are the Jews of the Israelis".
The Cop Who Arrested Me
My Globalise the Intifada Placard That the Metropolitan Police Took Objection To
Last Saturday at the Nakba demonstration in London I
held a placard ‘Globalise the Intifada’.
I did this because Mark Rowley declared
that he would arrest anyone who displayed a placard or uttered the words ‘Globalise the Intifada’.
I wanted to make it clear that the job of the Police
is to implement the law not make the law. It is no business of London’s racist anti-Palestinian
Police Commissioner to declare that certain slogans are illegal. When the
Police start deciding what you can and cannot say we are on the road to a
Police State.
‘it is possible to protest in support of
Palestinian people without intimidating Jewish communities or breaking the
law.’
Of course the demonstrations have never been intimidating to Jews. They have included thousands of Jews and a Jewish Bloc but by framing Palestinian demonstrations in this way Rowley was implying that all Jews support the Gaza genocide and that the marches were intimidating
or threatening to Jewish communities. In the process anti-Zionist Jews were made invisible.
It was interesting what the cops who took me to
Hounslow police station, where I was interviewed and bailed, believed Intifada
meant. One told me that it meant ‘kill all
the Jews’. That is the depth of ignorance in the Metropolitan Police.
These were the same police who
stood by as Islamophobic comments poured from the platform in Trafalgar Square. This is the racism that Mark Rowley protects under the guise of fighting 'anti-Semitism'.
Rowley also blatantly lied by suggesting
that the demonstrations deliberately passed synagogues. Rowley combines anti-Semitism with anti-Palestinian racism.
The anti-Semitism he purported to deplore is caused,
overwhelmingly, by the association of Jews with Israel’s genocide. Rowley knows
what he is doing. He is using Jews as colonial pawns in the State’s war against
Palestine solidarity. This is not the first time Jews have played this role and
as in Algeria they have not come off well.
Rowley and the Met are the last people to define who
is and who is not anti-Semitic. The Met have twice been declared institutionally
racist first by the MacPherson Inquiry
and then Baroness Casey’s Report
in March 2023. In the 1930s they were riddled with members and sympathisers
with Oswald Moseley’s anti-Semitic British Union of Fascists.
I was arrested under s.5 of the Public Order Act
which governs the use of threatening or abusive words/signs. It applies if the
conduct is committed within the sight or hearing of someone likely to be caused
harassment, alarm, or distress.
I hope that the Crown Prosecution Service doesn’t
bottle out as they did with Peter Tatchell who was arrested
in January. Charges were later dropped.
I look forward to confronting these charges in a court however I fear they will
be dropped as any semi-literate lawyer, even of the Starmer variety, will see
that there is little chance of a prosecution succeeding.
I was arrested in October 2023 for comparing Israel
to the Nazis and using the phrase, Israel is Hitler’s Bastard Offspring.
I am currently bring legal action against the Met. In due course I hope to do
so again.
Three White Girls Mock Muslim Women in a Hate Fest The Police Had No Problems With
Contrast the Attitude of the Police Towards the Palestine Demonstration with that of the Fascist Unite the Kingdom
The decision of the Police to allow Tommy Robinsons
festival of hate to command the centre of London demonstrated where their
sympathies lay. They had no problem with this virulently Islamophobic demonstration.
Overt anti-Muslim racism was smiled upon by London’s police.
I will end Judaism.
Jews need to leave the UK if they don't obey & assimilate.
⬆️ Hate speech, right?
I should be on a list & banned from leading protests, right ?
Tommy Robinson said it about Muslims 3 days ago. 👀
Badenoch Has No Objection to Tommy Robinson's Islamic Hate March But Wants Bans on Palestine Marches
Not one person was arrested for racism. British
Establishment, creatures like Badenoch are perfectly
happy with Islamophobia whereas ‘anti-Semitism’ upsets her. Bad Enoch seems
to be a perfect name for this Coconut Extraordinaire.
We had one woman with a ‘Fuck Islam’ poster. Imagine someone had had ‘Fuck Judaism’ on a poster. Their feet wouldn’t have touched the ground. We had 3 White Trollopes dress up in a Burkas before revealing themselves as true Aryans after chanting something like ‘Jihad’.
Posie Parker - From Transphobia to Anti-Muslim Racism - Wants Islam Out Of 'Our Country'
Posie Parker, the transphobic bigot or, as she is now known, Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull,ranted that we ‘have to get Islam out of every place of authority’. This was not the religion she was talking about. It is Muslims. Kemi Badenoch is a liar. She knows this full well. Imagine Parker had said that about Judaism or Jews. Tommy Robinson made similar remarks but the Police under Rowley did absolutely nothing.
Mark Rowley - Racist Head of the Metropolitan Police Snake
Despite this the fascist march was significantly smaller
than last year, about 40,000 at most. It barely filled Parliament Square. The
Palestine solidarity march was in contrast about 250,000 strong.
The ‘Ulm 5’ are facing prison time
over a break-in at an Israeli weapons firm, in a case experts warn could set a
precedent for criminalizing direct action.
Leandra Rollo
seen behind a glass screen at the trial of the Palestine Action 'Ulm 5,'
charged with breaking into Elbit's offices in southern Germany, at the
Stammheim prison complex near Stuttgart, April 27, 2026. (Ignacio Rosaslanda)
In the early hours of Sept. 8,
2025, a group of activists wearing black hoodies that bore the red and white
logo of Palestine Action broke into the offices of Israeli arms manufacturer
Elbit Systems in Ulm, southern Germany.
Once inside the compound,
according to prosecutors, they damaged and partly destroyed furniture, windows,
and technical equipment with axes; sprayed slogans on the walls; lit
pyrotechnics; and chanted “Free, free Palestine” and “Germany finances, Israel
bombs.” As visible from the activists’ own filming of the break-in, no one was harmed during the action. They
remained on site and called the police, who later detained them.
Since their arrest, the five
activists — Daniel Tatlow-Devally (an Irish citizen), Leandra Rollo (a Spanish
citizen), Crow Tricks and Zo Hailu (British citizens), and Vi Kovarbasic (a
German citizen) — have been held in pre-trial detention in separate prisons
across southern Germany.
Relatives and lawyers have raised
concerns about the “highly problematic” conditions in which the activists have
been held, including strict monitoring of phone calls, visits, and
correspondence with the outside world. Four of the five are held in their cells
for up to 23 hours a day. Access to books, exercise, and communal activities is
severely restricted.
After nearly eight months in these
conditions, the highly anticipated trial against the activists who have come to
be known as the “Ulm 5” began this Monday. It is taking place in Stammheim, the
high-security prison complex outside Stuttgart that has become synonymous in
Germany with the 1970s trials of the so-called Red Army Faction (RAF).
Stammheim is a highly symbolic
choice of venue, not least because in the crackdown on pro-Palestine speech and
activism of recent years, many Germans see echoes of the repressive climate surrounding the so-called
Radikalenerlass (Radicals Decree) of the RAF era — a West German policy
targeting the left, in which public sector applicants and employees were
screened for constitutional loyalty and often lost the right to practice their
jobs.
In a joint statement earlier this
month, lawyers representing the activists argued that holding the trial in
Stammheim amounts to “a pre-judgement of the defendants” and gives little
confidence for a fair trial. Benjamin Düsberg, who represents the Irish
activist Tatlow-Devally, points to what he sees as a broader ideological layer
shaping the case, tied to what is known in Germany as Staatsräson, its doctrine
of near-unconditional support for Israel.
“This is about sending a signal: that direct action — especially
when it targets the military-industrial complex — will be met with the full
force of the state,” Düsberg told +972. “In a normal case, you wouldn’t see months
of pre-trial detention for property damage and trespassing.”
Attacks on Elbit facilities have
occurred in several countries, with some linked to Palestine Action organizations in the UK or
other parts of Europe. The British government proscribed Palestine Action as a terrorist organization last July, a
decision later ruled
unlawful by British courts....
None of the five defendants has a
prior conviction. But now they face charges of trespassing and property damage
estimated at more than €1 million and using the symbols of unconstitutional
organizations — including “From the river
to the sea, Palestine will be free,” which was classified by the German
Interior Ministry as a Hamas symbol and banned.
Central to the case is a fourth
charge: membership in a criminal organization, prosecuted under Section 129 of
the German Criminal Code. Although Palestine Action has not been outlawed in
Germany, the use of Section 129 allows the state to deny bail and justify
extended pre-trial detention on the grounds that the accused pose a threat to
society. If found guilty, the invocation of Section 129 could pose prison
sentences of five years for the accused.
A protester holds a sign criticizing Germany’s complicity in the
Gaza genocide, Berlin, Germany, September 27, 2025. (Oren Ziv/ActiveStills)
Paula
Zimmermann, an expert on freedom of expression and assembly at Amnesty
International Germany, told +972 there were “serious
human rights and rule-of-law concerns” about the use of this section of the
criminal code in this trial.
“What is
being prosecuted here is not just property damage and trespassing, but
political dissent colliding with a state doctrine,” Düsberg said. “These are people seen as incompatible with
this society. They are constructed asenemies,
as antisemites, as ‘Hamas supporters’ — which makes it easier to treat them not
as legal subjects, but as adversaries.”
A verdict
against the five activists is expected by late July.
‘Authoritarian methods’
After the
five defendants entered the courtroom in handcuffs, the trial started Monday
with a tense standoff between the 11-member defense team and presiding judge
Kathrin Lauchstädt over courtroom conditions and due process. Members of the
legal team argued the trial’s setup — including a thick glass barrier
separating the defendants from their lawyers — made communication impossible
and was incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.
“The court is using authoritarian
methods to prevent the defense from exercising fundamental rights,” defense lawyer Matthias Schuster
told +972 after the hearing, arguing that the state seeks to portray the
defendants as a threat to justify both the severity of the proceedings and
their continued detention.
Judge
Lauchstädt repeatedly curtailed the defense’s ability to speak, at one point
stating she would no longer accept any of the motions raised at the outset of
the trial. “The defense was effectively
deprived of its most important right and silenced,” Schuster said.
The judge
also asserted her sole authority over the trial record: “You do not decide what goes into the protocol — only I do,” she
told defense lawyer Anna Busl, setting a dynamic the defense team later said “undermined the core principles of a fair
trial.” The legal team collectively left the courtroom and has since filed
a recusal motion against the presiding judge.
When the
trial continued after a two-hour-break, the defense lawyers took seats where
their clients’had been sitting behind thick security glass in an act of protest
against the separation. Schuster called this an attempt to push back against a
trial setup that “needlessly obstructs
the defense” and carries a “stigmatizing
effect.” Lauchstädt gave them five minutes to move to their assigned seats,
threatening to remove them from the case entirely. When they didn’t, the court
adjourned the session.
The defense team sits in protest behind the glass intended to
separate them from their clients, April 27, 2026. (Hanno Hauenstein)
Zimmermann,
of Amnesty International Germany, described the trial’s influence as “extraordinarily far-reaching,” telling
+972 that its precedent “risks placing
legitimate civil society engagement in proximity to organized crime.” She
added that the trial could have “significant
chilling effects” within German society, potentially deterring people from
exercising their rights to freedom of expression and assembly out of fear of
these new prosecution norms.
The Ulm site
itself used to be owned by the German radio and television producer Telefunken,
which was acquired in 2004 by Tadiran, an Israeli defense electronics firm that
was later integrated into Elbit — a lineage that reflects the long-standing
integration of German electronics companies into Israeli military
technology.
Shir Hever,
an independent researcher specializing in the Israeli occupation, emphasized
that two pieces of technology produced in Ulm — the software-defined radio
(SDR) and laser targeting system — are particularly essential to Israel. The
SDR forms the backbone of an internal communication network referred to as “blue
force tracking” that updates military units about the whereabouts of others in
real-time.
“It effectively turns the
battlefield into a video game,” Hever told +972. Millions of hours of video, audio, and
electromagnetic data feed into what is known as the “Alchemist” database — a central repository
underpinning the Israeli military’s AI systems like Lavender and Gospel — which
enables large-scale target generation in Gaza.
The laser
targeting system, used by both the Israeli military and the German Bundeswehr,
has dual uses. Offensively, it allows real-time target designation: “This gives soldiers the power to look
around and with their eyes decide who they want to kill or what they want to
destroy,” Hever explained. It is also used defensively to intercept
threats, including from the CH-53 “Yas’ur” helicopter, which both countries use
despite reports of their failure in combat.
Uncovered records further indicate that
Elbit’s Ulm facility shipped military goods, including laser and radio systems,
to Israel at least seven times in 2025 — both before and after the Palestine
Action break-in. These shipments included components for systems used for
“acquiring targets and engaging fire from long ranges,” as well as laser
warning systems and military communications equipment.
Israeli soldiers operate a drone manufactured by Elbit Systems
during a training exercise, August 5, 2013. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
‘Everything about
this case is political’
From detention, the defendants have called for an investigation into Elbit Germany’s alleged complicity in
war crimes and genocide in Gaza. Their lawyers assert that the activists acted
with a legitimate goal: to prevent the ongoing genocide of Palestinians.
Whether — and how — this motivation will be considered is likely to be a
central point of contention at the trial.
Germany is Israel’s second-largest
arms supplier after the United States and is
itself in a phase of massive re-armament that further tightened its alignment
with Israel. In 2023, Berlin agreed to
purchase Israel’s Arrow 3 missile defense
system for €3.6 billion, later
expanded by an additional €3.1 billion —
the largest arms deal in Israel’s history.
“Israel is Germany’s most
important partner outside of NATO and the EU,” the Interior
Ministry stated on the
occasion of a new cybersecurity agreement between the two countries earlier
this year. All of this comes despite mounting international condemnations —
from courts, legal scholars, and human rights organizations — of Israel’s
conduct in Gaza, the West Bank, and the wider region.
Unsurprisingly, German officials
have united against the action on Elbit. Israel’s ambassador to Germany, Ron
Prosor, strongly condemned it, arguing on X: “These attacks are terrorist acts – they must be clearly named
and severely punished.” He added: “Antisemitism and terror must have no place
in Germany.”
Several German politicians and
media outlets echoed this line. Germany’s biggest newspaper, Bild, dubbed the
group the “terrible five.” Martin
Rivoir, a Social Democratic politician in Ulm, said during a solidarity visit to Elbit that the activists’ “violent
actions are reminiscent of the worst antisemitic atrocities in German history.”
The indictment against the five —
spanning 100 pages — barely engages with the political motivation of the
action, namely, Israel’s German-backed destruction of Gaza. Instead, in
addition to property damage and trespassing, it casts the defendants as
belonging to a criminal organization driven by the aim of opposing Israel’s
“alleged ‘genocide’” and denying its “right to exist.”
Vi Kovarbasic seen behind a glass screen at the trial of the
Palestine Action ‘Ulm 5,’ charged with breaking into Elbit’s offices in
southern Germany, at the Stammheim prison complex near Stuttgart, April 27,
2026. (Ignacio Rosaslanda)
The term “existenzrecht,” meaning
Israel’s right to
exist, appears five times and is
described as “clearly antisemitic” if rejected. Meanwhile, the word “genocide,”
when used for Israel’s conduct, appears exclusively in scare quotes, framing it
as an outlandish or unfounded claim.
Such framing runs throughout the
indictment. It claims the defendants promote anti-Zionist views that “portray
the aspirations of Jews (i.e. for their own state or its defense) as a
colonialist project” and thereby “equate” the State of Israel with Judaism. How
exactly such an equation is meant to occur is not further explained throughout
the remaining pages, leaving the impression that the indictment itself performs
this equation, rather than the activists.
“I honestly have no idea how a
court, without hearing evidence from the defence, can make statements about the
nature of an action and the motivation for it,” Mimi Tatlow-Golden, mother of
Daniel Tatlow-Devally, told +972. “This seems absolutely bizarre and raises
fundamental questions about the principle of innocence until proven guilty.”
The indictment also relies on
assessments by the state-funded antisemitism watchdog group RIAS, whose
methodology has faced
sustained criticism in recent
years for opaque research methods and a tendency to collapse the distinction
between criticism of Israel and antisemitism. In fact, it even classified a
speech by Jewish-Israeli historian Moshe
Zimmermann as an antisemitic incident.
Further, the slogan “From the
river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is classified as a Hamas symbol and,
by extension, as antisemitic. The indictment also labels graffiti reading “baby
killer” and the term “intifada,” which were sprayed on a wall and chanted
during the action, respectively, as antisemitic.
For Düsberg, the indictment’s
repeated emphasis on Hamas, antisemitism, and slogans like “From the river to
the sea” serves to delegitimize the defendants’ motives as such. “It’s about
constructing a narrative in which their motivations can be dismissed entirely —
where you no longer have to engage with questions of arms deliveries or
political responsibilities.”
Finally, the indictment describes
“Palestine Action Germany” as a group modeled on its UK counterpart, repeatedly
invoking the UK ban despite it being declared unlawful by the British courts.
“The underlying state classification does not constitute a reliable basis for
assessments or conclusions in German criminal proceedings,” Zimmermann stated.
Michael O’Flaherty, the
Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, also explicitly warned
against such blanket classifications in a
recent report. In it, he urges German authorities to refrain from broad bans on
slogans, symbols, or other expressions of solidarity with Palestine, and
instead to clearly distinguish between protected political speech and actual
antisemitism.
“Everything about this case is
political,” Tatlow-Golden said.
‘The wrong people are in the dock’
Tatlow-Golden is concerned about
the conditions under which Daniel — who uses they/them pronouns — is held.
According to her, they are locked in a cell with frosted windows for 23 hours a
day, limited to two 30-minute visits a month (in which they are not permitted
to discuss the case), and the rest of the time have almost no human
contact.
“I am unable to speak, write, or
talk with Daniel about their motivations,” Tatlow-Golden said, describing them
as “an incredibly principled person, whose work has focused on ecological and
decolonial questions, and profoundly motivated by human rights.”
For the first months, visits had
to take place behind a floor-to-ceiling glass partition — which she described
as “effectively a glass box.” Only after sustained pressure, including from Irish parliamentarians Richard Boyd Barrett, Barry Ward, and Duncan Smith, was this
restriction lifted. “Just to be able to put your arms around your child — I
can’t tell you the difference it makes.”
Josey, Vi Kovarbasic’s partner
whose full name has been omitted to protect her privacy, told +972 that the
past few months have been “very destabilizing.”
“You spend hours on the phone just
to book a visit and then travel 15 hours for a half-hour visit once a month,”
she said. The prison services also confiscated letters written to them in
languages other than German. “One time, they showed Vi 20 letters and said: ‘18
are partly in English, so you can’t have them.’ To show Vi that there are
people who care for them, and then to withhold that — it’s just psychological
torture.”
The defense’s strategy relies on
what Düsberg describes as a “nothilfe” (emergency) argument, referring to a
doctrine in German criminal law under which otherwise illegal acts may be
justified to prevent greater harm. “Our aim is to show that the wrong people
are in the dock here,” Düsberg said. “Not those supplying weapons during an
ongoing genocide — but those who tried to stop it.”
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul and Israeli Foreign
Minister Gideon Saar hold a joint press conference at the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs in Jerusalem, March 10, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
The argument rests on a causality
the defense aims to establish in court: that Israel’s conduct in Gaza amounts
to genocide, that Germany, through its continued arms exports, is complicit in
genocide, and that Elbit Systems Germany, as a supplier to the Israeli
military, plays a concrete role in enabling it.
Düsberg insists the Ulm case is an
uncommonly straightforward application of the “nothilfe” argument, which
is commonly invoked by
climate activists. “I have
never seen a case that lends itself so clearly to this kind of argument,” he
said.
The prosecution’s reliance on the
charge of forming a criminal organization under Section 129 allows the case to
be tried collectively. By framing the defendants as members of a criminal
organization, prosecutors can seek sentences of up to five years, and justify
the extension of pre-trial detention. “Without the Section 129 charge, none of
this would be possible,” Düsberg reflected.
In other words, the ongoing trial
reaches far beyond Ulm, testing whether acts of direct action — particularly
those targeting Germany’s military-industrial complex — can be framed as
legitimate intervention in the face of genocide, or are instead prosecuted as
organized extremism.
Elbit Systems Germany did not
respond to multiple requests for comment.
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