Shocking new report reveals what really drove the government’s crackdown on Palestine Action

The government won’t want you to read the new CAGE International report. That’s because it shows just how direct action has been integral for forcing Israeli arms dealer Elbit into crisis. And, the report demonstrates just why Keir Starmer’s government chose to ban Palestine Action (PA).

Arms manufacturer Elbit Systems provide 80% of the weapons and equipment for the Israeli military’s land forces. The company has been a vital cog in the machine of Israel’s genocide in Palestine.

Political repression in service of genocide

CAGE’s report explains that:

Elbit’s CEO Bezhalel Machlis boasted that the company is crucial to the ongoing genocide… it markets its products as “battle-tested” on Palestinians… Workers of the company have said in interviews that they consider themselves to be civil soldiers.

The report tracks how in 2020:

Palestine Action launched by storming Elbit Systems’ British headquarters, throwing red paint and spray-painting slogans.

As a British woman of Palestinian-Iraqi descent, co-founder of PA, Huda Ammori, had previously worked for years “on divestment campaigns, and trying to challenge the arms trade with conventional means”. But after Israeli occupation forces responded with lethal violence to the Great March of Return protests in Gaza from 2018 to 2019 and Western support for Israel remained intact, Ammori “realised that direct action was the only feasible solution”. In her own words:

All other attempts fell short… it wasn’t matching the reality of the urgency of the situation. Every day, Palestinians were being killed, imprisoned – surveilled under these drones 24/7. If the government were refusing to listen to the facts of the situation, and kept violating their own rules, then the only option seemed to be direct action – to stop the weapons going there.

As such, Palestine Action kept disrupting Elbit and its support network from there.

Palestine Action banned

Of course, what has ensued since then is the UK government’s proscription – banning – of Palestine Action under counter-terror laws. A number of direct actionists who worked in the group, and thousands of supporters have been arrested.

Currently, the case of the Filton24 is back in the news, because the trial of the first six has just begun, following 15 months in jail without a conviction. The story of the Filton24 began almost a year into the escalation of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, amid ongoing UK support for Israel despite its heinous war crimes. In August 2024, CAGE explains:

a group of six Palestine Action actionists allegedly broke into the newly built, secret site of Elbit Systems… in Filton, Bristol.

It adds that:

The case of the Filton24 is the first time Britain has attempted to equate property damage with terrorism, setting a dangerous precedent, which was later used to justify proscribing Palestine Action.

The report highlights “significant politicisation of policing and judicial processes” under the Conservative government in 2022, “signalling ministerial alignment with corporate interests”.

Additionally, the report says there is “evidence to suggest a potential breach… of the Code for Crown Prosecutors” which says there should be independence “without political interference” or “improper or undue pressure”. Numerous documents point to such a breach, and Keir Starmer’s Labour has been “redacting these documents and withholding other information”.

In 2022, after regular direct action, Elbit closed its site in Oldham in a “major victory” for actionists. The CAGE report says:

direct action has already achieved what it set out to do: to make it harder, slower and more expensive to arm and abet the oppression of Palestinians.

Huda Ammori concludes in CAGE’s report that:

Whatever the result of the Judicial Review, this ban has awakened the general public to the true design behind the Terrorism Act – to circumvent our human rights and to crush dissent.

Israeli genocide machine

This blistering report from CAGE is an important reference source for the facts surrounding the government’s approach to proscription. Ultimately, it exposes the state’s that exposed the state’s cosy relationship with the machine fuelling Israeli war crimes.

Author of the report and CAGE’s research director Asim Qureshi told the Canary:

This report sets out a simple truth: when institutions are complicit in genocide, a conscience-driven resistance will always break through the cracks. Direct action is the language of those who refuse to be silent in the face of atrocity.

And, Huda Ammori, founder of Palestine Action, said:

The future of the proscription of Palestine Action may be at a crossroads, but what is certain, is the ability for ordinary people to shut down the Israeli weapons industry. Banning one group cannot stop direct action.

Featured image via the Canary