Palestine Action has been so effective in its recent campaigns that it’s attracted the attentions of the Zionist lobby. Now, some of the sharpest activist groups in the UK have come together to stand firmly behind the actionists.
The groups write:
As the genocide has intensified, Palestine Action has also escalated its actions and they have come under frequent attack from the Zionist lobby…
Following a series of hung juries and acquittals for Palestine Action actionists, there is now evidence emerging of steps being taken to prevent juries acquitting on account of their conscience.
To date, Palestine Action has 16 political prisoners in Britain, 11 of which have not yet faced trial. Actionists have been subjected to regular dawn raids, police harassment, stops at the airport and smear campaigns.
What have Palestine Action done?
Just last week, in a huge victory Barclays divested from Elbit thanks to a long campaign from Palestine Action. Here at the Canary, we reported:
Initial research published in July 2022 by Campaign Against Arms Trade, War on Want, and Palestine Solidarity Campaign showed the bank held shareholdings worth over £1.5billion in companies complicit with Israeli apartheid. Palestine Action adopted the campaign in October 2023 due to the bank’s investments in Elbit Systems — the group’s primary target.
Barclays has now sold all of its shareholding in Elbit Systems – Elbit are Israel’s largest weapons company. The kind of direct action Palestine Action have engaged in – consistent pickets, roadblocks, climbing onto buildings to halt operations – are clearly effective.
In fact, they’re effective enough that, as the group describes above, the Palestine Action activists who carry out this work are now subject to intense pressure from the government, the legal system, and police.
Who’s supporting the group?
That’s exactly why this group of activists and organisers are standing together to show that they are in full solidarity with Palestine Action. Each of these groups, whilst from a range of backgrounds, clearly understand the importance of direct action that disrupts – rather than marches that can be ignored:
- CAGE International are an advocacy organisation that challenge Islamophobic narratives of power, confront egregious state power, as well as research and campaign to dismantle the ongoing impacts of the ‘war on terror’.
- Sisters uncut are a feminist group that take action for survivors of domestic violence with a storied history of taking action for sex workers, those who’ve experienced abuse, and those facing intersectional oppressions including anti-Blackness, and Zionism.
- Palestinian Youth Movement are a British chapter of a broader movement, who have come together with other groups across the world to fight for a free Palestine.
- Parents for Palestine are a UK-based collective of parents and caretakers coming together to call for an end to “the ongoing siege of Gaza”.
- ELSC are the European Legal Support Center and provide legal support for supporters of Palestine, as well as strategic litigation when useful.
- Axe Drax take direct action against Drax which is a power station in Yorkshire that burns wood – Drax is the UK’s single largest carbon emitter.
- Defend Our Juries campaign for a fairer legal system whereby juries are not put under pressure to convict defendants, and to call attention to corporate connections and government dishonesty.
- Free Political Prisoners is a campaign from Defend Our Juries which is a civil disobedience campaign that looks to defend disruptive actions made with political commentary.
- Just Stop Oil take direct action to call attention to the climate crisis and to end the use of fossil fuels, with many of their members similarly harassed by police.
Standing in solidarity
These groups have come together to say of Palestine Action:
Every action which disrupts the supply chain of weapons being used in the ongoing genocide is the moral thing to do and worthy of support. Direct action has never been more necessary…
Palestine Action continues to put their liberty on the line for the liberation of Palestine.
We stand in full solidarity with Palestine Action and call on all people of conscience to show their support for the group. We are all Palestine Action.
Organised, state-sanctioned A-to-B marches and demonstrations are an important way for people to express their moral outrage. However, direct action carries much more severe consequences from the legal system.
In order for movements to be effective, they must centre around goals, rather than any one single person. This latest generation of actionists are exactly what’s needed to hold immoral and unaccountable government’s feet to the fire.
Everyone at the Canary stands in full solidarity with both the groups listed above, and Palestine Action.
Featured image via Palestine Action
