Sainsbury's BDS sticker activists found not guilty

On Thursday 30 October, three Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) anti-Zionist activists were found not guilty of criminal damage after charges brought in a dragged-out case by the state were dismissed. The BDS activists from Belfast were charged with the offences for putting stickers on SodaStream products in Sainsbury’s – warning customers the product was Israeli, and therefore complicit in genocide.

However, the result appears to have been largely ignored by the UK ‘mainstream’ media. Marty Rafferty, one of the accused, spoke to cheering supporters afterwards:

Sainsbury’s and the state: preposterous

The BDS Belfast group said in a statement:

Today was the final day of a long running attempt by Sainsbury’s, the police and justice system to put an end to an extremely effective form of direct action that highlights Sainsbury’s complicity in the ongoing genocide in Palestine.

An activist from BDS Belfast had been charged with criminal damage for placing boycott stickers on soda stream boxes in the store 16 months ago. In that time other activists have faced similar charges and many more have received banning orders from Sainsbury’s to try and prevent activists continuing the campaign of making customers and staff aware of Sainsbury’s complicity in the genocide.

Time and again the police have attempted to harass and intimidate activists, both in the Sainsbury’s store and at activist’s homes. The justice system has consistently attempted to undermine our defence team by making decisions regarding the case without consulting our legal team, constantly adjourning the case, 11 mentions in court over a period of 16 months.

Unheard of in such a low level charge and then today allowing the only prosecution witness to give their testimony behind a screen and then, when the witness refuses to come to court not once, but 3 times, the judge allowed the witness statement to stand.

It is only in very extreme cases that a witness can give their testimony behind a screen and virtually unheard of for judge to accept the testimony if the witness refuses to turn up at court. All these tactics have not stopped our activists from continuing the campaign for the same reason that the state has deployed such draconian measures to try and stop our campaign.

THE REASON IS THIS. Because the campaign is working and the campaign is spreading!

Farmers and producers of goods in the Zionist “state” have reported how their products are being rejected for sale throughout Europe, and how importers throughout Europe are being told by their customers that they don’t want any goods from Israel because they don’t want protests in their stores.

That is as a direct result of the actions we take here in Belfast and others throughout Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales and throughout Europe take as part of the wider BDS campaign.

The Starmer regime and the UK state continue to wage a ‘lawfare’ war against support for Palestinians and opposition to Israel’s genocide. As BDS Belfast note, that is because it works – damaging the finances of colluding businesses and shredding the public image of collaborator politicians like Starmer and their Israeli sponsors, along with that of the whole Zionist project.

Featured image via the Canary