The ‘Hastings Three’ are in court next week for protesting outside an arms supplier to Israel

Huge crowds are expected next week at the trial of the “Hastings Three”, who were charged nearly a year ago for their part in protesting Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

The Hastings Three: up in court

NHS worker Clem McCulloch, 33, artist Thomas Delves, 25, and retired train driver Laurie Holden, 72, were arrested at General Dynamics arms factory on February 29 last year during a peaceful protest organized by the Hastings & District Palestine Solidarity Campaign (HDPSC) and supported by a coalition of community groups including Jewish groups, social justice and climate justice groups, parent groups, and political parties.

All three will plead not guilty to charges of aggravated trespass when they come before a district judge at Brighton Magistrates Court on Wednesday 22 January.

The charge carries a maximum tariff of a three-month jail term and £2,500 fine.

They are expected to be joined by a large number of supporters as local groups across the county – including Brighton Stop the War, University of Sussex Friends of Palestine and Brighton and Hove Palestine Solidarity Campaign (BHPSC) – have called a ‘solidarity rally’ in support of the three men.

Ahead of the trial, BHPSC’s executive committee released a statement:

BHPSC is a sister PSC branch to Hastings & District PSC, and have followed the case of the #Hastings3 with great interest – not least because we in Brighton know too well the indignation caused locally by having an arms factory based in our city – an arms factory (like General Dynamics in Hastings) that is deeply complicit in the ongoing genocide being perpetrated by Israel upon the people of Gaza.

The statement went on:

The executive committee of BHPSC sends our solidarity to the three defendants whose case will be heard here in Brighton on the 22nd of January.

Our many local members and supporters will be outside the court in large numbers on the 22nd to voice our support for our Hastings comrades, who are on trial for doing nothing more than exercising their right to peaceful non-violent protest.

Compared with the appalling crimes against humanity being facilitated by the General Dynamics factory in Hastings and other weapons manufacturers in the UK, the actions of the #Hastings3 register as expressions of conscience rather than crimes.

General Dynamics: complicit in genocide

General Dynamics is the fifth largest global arms manufacturer and is responsible for all the MK80 bombs being dropped on Gaza.

Laurie Holden, from Burwash, said:

It is appalling that ordinary people like myself are in the dock instead of General Dynamics, which is making a killing from genocide. This will be the sixth time our case has come before the court, representing a disgusting waste of taxpayer’s money. Meanwhile, General Dynamics made $3.3 billion profit in 2023.

“The Hastings Three are not guilty” said Grace Lally, twinning officer for the Hastings & District PSC:

General Dynamics is guilty of profiting from war crimes and genocide. Two thousand pound bombs made by General Dynamics have been dropped on families sheltering in tents in the so-called safe zone of Al Mawasi, where our friends live and our community has deep connections. Nothing can justify this.

General Dynamics has come under sustained pressure from concerned locals for its part in Israel’s 15-month campaign in Gaza.

Hastings & District PSC has led more than a dozen actions to the two arms factory sites in Hastings since November 2023, including die-ins, marches, pickets and a 48-hour peace camp and the sites have also been subject to regular and spontaneous ‘pop up’ protests.

Supporting the Hastings Three

Mum-of-one Olivia Cavanagh said:

We don’t want this weapons manufacturer here in our town, making money from slaughtering innocent Palestinians, making us complicit in war crimes.

A legal fighting fund for the three men has raised nearly £5,000 but still has some way to go to cover all their legal costs.

“The outrageous and expensive pursuit of the #Hastings3 does not stand in isolation but forms part of a nationwide clamp down on peaceful protest” said Katy Colley, HDPSC Chair:

Our friends are good men of conscience who, like the rest of us, cannot bear to see the wholesale destruction and annihilation we are witnessing in Gaza. The majority in this country stand against genocide, ethnic cleansing and apartheid. For fifteen months, people up and down the country have protested the UK’s complicity in the worst crime of our time, demanding that the UK stops arming Israel. Yet our government refuses to listen and those who speak out are smeared, defamed and persecuted.

There are now over 46,000 confirmed dead in Gaza – mostly women and children – though a report this month in the Lancet estimated the real death toll to be at least 40% higher with the number of deaths in the first nine months alone estimated to be over 64,000.

A year ago, the International Court of Justice put Israel in the dock for acts of genocide and last month, reports from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Medecins Sans Frontieres all concluded that Israel is guilty of carrying out a campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza.

The rally at Brighton Magistrates Court begins at 9.30pm and donations to the legal fighting fund can be made here.

Featured image via Emily Lister