It’s difficult to report on Palestine Action (PA), partly because they have carried out so many actions (at least 24 since our last issue), and partly because their website has suffered from sabotage.
The big victory the direct action group has claimed since our last issue is the closure of a Tamworth factory owned by Elbit Systems, the Israeli drone manufacturer.
The first major policy announcement of the British general election campaign came from the Conservative prime minister. Rishi Sunak announced his intention, if re-elected, to set up compulsory ‘National Service’ for 18-year-olds.
This would involve either 12 months’ full-time military service (for perhaps 30,000 young people, who would be selected) or 25 days’ voluntary work in the community over a year for the other 90 percent of 18-year-olds.
Most climate direct action recently seems to have been carried out by Just Stop Oil (JSO), and most of the court cases also involve them, including three acquittals and a professional suspension. Here is some of what’s been happening.
On 15 May, three JSO activists were convicted under the Section 7 of the new Public Order Act 2023, which bans interference with ‘key national infrastructure’, including roads.
Hastings-based ‘Grieving for Gaza’ has been coming to Central London to perform tableaux vivants (‘living pictures’) to confront passers-by with the pain Palestinians are experiencing. New performers, leafleters and banner-holders welcome: grievingforgaza (at) proton.me
On 15 May, the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement’s executive secretary Yurii Sheliazhenko set fire to a draft card at the start of the group’s online gathering for International Conscientious Objectors’ Day. UPM said: ‘[D]espite some fair judgments in favor of conscientious objectors and pacifists... the majority of judicial practice in Ukraine illegally condones political repressions.’ Yurii himself is facing an unjust prosecution (see PN 2671). In the UK, there were events in Bury St Edmunds, Edinburgh, Leicester, Liverpool, and Manchester.
Yemen continues to be one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, on the edge of famine, with something close to a frozen war and a feeble peace process which is not getting much international support – but which has just produced a helpful prisoner release.
Britain could be ending arms sales to both Saudi Arabia and Israel for their war crimes. Those would be the most useful ways of supporting the peace process in Yemen and pressing for an end to Israel’s war in Gaza, which is escalating conflict in and around the region.
Scottish artist Jane Frere, with dozens of volunteers, many from Highlands Palestine, has created two banners with hundreds of hand-written name tags carrying the names of Palestinians who’ve died in Gaza since 7 October. The second SewTheirNames memorial banner (above), which has nearly 2,500 names on it, is on display in Venice as part of an exhibition dedicated to Palestinians.
After right-wing Israeli activists stopped an aid convoy to Gaza, destroyed food supplies, set two trucks on fire and beat up a Palestinian driver, a Jewish-Arab peace group called ‘Standing Together’ mobilised hundreds of supporters on 19 May to protect the aid trucks, which all got through. Standing Together believe their ‘Humanitarian Guard’, which included a convoy of cars, forced the police to take stronger action.
The Gaza Freedom Flotilla Coalition has two missions on. The main ‘Break the Siege’ effort involves one large cargo ship, the Anadolu (Anatolia), and a ferry, the Akdeniz (the Mediterranean).
The Anadolu is trying to break the illegal Israeli siege on Gaza by delivering 5,000 tons of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
The Akdeniz is said to be carrying hundreds of participants from over a dozen countries including Australia, Indonesia, Ireland, Malaysia, New Zealand/Aotearoa, South Africa, Türkiye, the UK and the US.
On 25 April, Chris Cole and Virginia Moffat went on trial at City of London magistrates court as a result of their action on 29 December at Downing Street protesting against the UK government for being ‘complicit with this slaughter’ in Gaza (PN 2670). They had poured red poster paint on the gates and made bloody handprints, and read the names of children killed by Israel and Hamas.
The two Christian peace activists were found guilty of criminal damage despite making legal as well as moral arguments (details on the PN blog).
Student activism on Gaza has transformed the debate in the US and has grown enormously in the UK.
The first ‘Gaza Solidarity Encampment’, or tent occupation, was at Columbia university in New York City on 17 April.
It lasted until 4 May, when police cleared tents off the campus lawn for the second time, arresting dozens of people.
Owain Parry, Thomas Bell and Mark Redfern carried out a 14-hour rooftop occupation of the Solvay factory in Wrexham, Wales, in November 2021 (the action was co-ordinated by Palestine Action). They accused Solvay of manufacturing components for the Israeli military.
This was admitted by the company at the recent five-day trial of the Solvay Three at Caernarfon crown court. The firm said that it supplied components for Israeli F-35 fighter jets.
PN has raised £13,400 for Medical Aid for Palestinians, by giving away badges for a donation, mostly at the national Gaza marches in London – including on 30 March, 27 April and 18 May.
We’ve added two more designs, ‘Stop Arming Israel’ and ‘Stop Starving Gaza’, available along with the original ‘Ceasefire Now’ badge on the PN website.
International peace group World Beyond War rented eight bus stop advert slots around the White House in Washington DC (6 May – 5 June), to present this message. It took a lot of fundraising and a lot of pressure on companies to allow ‘political’ advertising.
From 13 – 25 July, there will be an international peace camp at USAF Lakenheath to protest against the plan to bring US nuclear weapons there. The camp is being organised by over a dozen groups in the Lakenheath Alliance for Peace (LAP).
LAP was launched on 26 March when eight women including Angie Zelter ‘crossed the line’ onto base territory at USAF Lakenheath, insisting on delivering a letter to the base commanders.
