The UK's Crackdown On Pro-Palestine Activists Has Reached New Orwellian Levels.

The UK Government In Taking A Step Further In Their Crackdown On Pro-Palestine Speech.

Background

For years, the UK government has attempted to crack down on the activist group “Palestine Action”, due to their disruption of the Israeli arms manufacturing plant Elbit Systems, which manufactures weapons used to slaughter civilians in Gaza.

The UK government has consistently coordinated with officials from Elbit Systems to assure them that it will crack down on pro-Palestine protests.

As the Guardian has reported , because many court cases have led to “Palestine Action” activists being “acquitted for in the past with human rights defenses” UK government officials met with representatives of Elbit Systems to “reassure” them that they would crack down harder on the protests.

As the independent outlet Declassified UK reported, in 2022, “then home secretary Priti Patel met privately with Martin Fausset, the CEO of Elbit Systems UK, to ‘discuss protests and security’, Home Office documents revealed that the purpose of the meeting was to ‘reassure… Fausset that the criminal protest acts against Elbit Systems UK are taken seriously by the Government'”.

As journalist Kit Klarenberg reported, soon after this meeting, a UK court “ruled that human rights defenses could only be relied on in cases of vandalism of public property, not in cases where criminal damage has been caused to private property. Because Elbit is a private company, the Attorney General’s Office used this determination to dramatically increase prosecutions of Palestine Action activists.”

The Guardian also reported that this meeting with Elbit Systems was “attended by a director from the Attorney General’s Office, said to be representing the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).”

Tim Crosland from the Defend Our Juries group said “These disclosures, despite the extensive redaction, are the smoking gun on what has been obvious for a while: the government has been trying to put a stop to juries acquitting those who expose and resist corporate complicity in violations of international law and mass loss of life. Such political interference is a national scandal that goes right to the top – the corruption of democracy and the rule of law by those with wealth and power”.

The UK federal government has also coordinated with local police in an attempt to crack down on Palestine Action protestors, even giving a direct line of communication between Elbit Systems and UK police.

As Declassified UK reported, after “Palestine Action” activists disrupted an Elbit Systems drone factory in Leicester in 2023, “Britain’s policing minister Chris Philp held a briefing with Leicestershire police’s deputy chief constable regarding the ‘ongoing protests’”.

Notes from the meeting state that there were “Pushes for remand of those arrested and supports proactive action, show of police and clear[ly] expects us to be taking action against those that commit crime. Focus not on peaceful protestors and facilitating that but on the company”.

Another police file showed that Elbit Systems even shares intelligence on protestors with UK police, as Declassified UK reported, “Elbit Systems UK has ‘its own intelligence cell and shares[s] information with the Police across the country on a two weekly basis’, a police file observes.”

Along with Elbit Systems, the Israeli embassy in the UK has pressured the UK government to crack down on Palestine Action protests.

As the Guardian reported in August of 2023, “Israeli embassy officials in London attempted to get the attorney general’s office to intervene in UK court cases relating to the prosecution of protesters”.

The Guardian found that “The papers, obtained through a freedom of information (FoI) request by Palestine Action, indicate that embassy officials pressed for the director general of the attorney general’s office (AGO), Douglas Wilson, to interfere in cases related to protests on UK soil.”

Since the genocide in Gaza began, the UK government has gone further with its crackdown on Palestine Action activists.

In August of 2024, UK police arrested and charged 10 Palestine Action activists for entering an Elbit Systems facility in Filton, Bristol.

Documents have strongly suggested that the Israeli embassy interfered in the investigation into the Filton activists arrested.

As the Guardian reported in early September of 2024, the head of international law at Britain’s Attorney General’s Office, Nicola Smith, sent the contact details of the CPS (Crown Prosecutorial Service) and Britain's counter terrorism police (SO15) -who investigated the Filton case- to the deputy Israeli ambassador to the UK, Daniela Grudsky Ekstein.

Three months after these contact details were shared in November of 2024, eight other activists were arrested over the break-in at the Filton Elbit Systems facility.

In August of 2024, the co-founder of Palestine Action, Richard Barnard, was arrested not over the break-in at Filton but over political speech, with the UK police accusing him of “expressing an opinion that is supportive of a proscribed organisation contrary to section 12 of the Terrorism Act 2000”.

Section 12 of the terrorism act makes it a criminal offense to say anything supportive of a “proscribed terrorist organization”.

Because Palestinian resistance factions are officially labeled as “proscribed terrorist organizations” in the UK, authorities have weaponized this law to arrest and, at times, charge pro-Palestine journalists and activists over political speech.

Elbit Systems seems to have attempted to interfere in this case as well. As Declassified UK has reported, in December of 2024, “Keir Starmer’s government held a private meeting with Elbit Systems”, which was “attended by three representatives from Elbit Systems and three officials from Yvette Cooper’s Home Office.”

The Campaign Ramps Up

Recently, the UK government has taken this crackdown even further, actively attempting to officially designate the “Palestine Action” activist group as a terrorist organization.

After the group broke into the RAF Brize Norton military base and “spray-painted two military planes red”, the UK’s “Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has said she will proscribe Palestine Action under anti-terror law.”

As the BBC noted, “The move effectively brands the group a terrorist organisation and, if passed in Parliament, would make membership of and support of the group illegal.”

As of today, Yvette Cooper has officially published an order to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organization, which will go to Parliament this week.

In order to increase the likelihood that the proscription passes, Yvette Cooper has added the “Russian Imperial Movement” and the “Maniac’s Murder Cult” which is “connected to the com/764 pedophilia network” has “solicited attacks on homeless people, Jews, and other racial minorities” and has a leader who has attempted to“poison Jewish children by handing out tainted candy while dressed as Santa Claus” alongside Palestine Action in the proscription legislation.

As journalist Richard Medhurst noted, “She (Yvette Cooper) has made sure to include two other groups on the list, ‘Maniacs Murder Cult’ and ‘Russian Imperial Movement’, to increase the chances of it passing. Needless to say those groups bear no resemblance to the direct action PA (Palestine Action) are engaged in to prevent war crimes and genocide.”

By placing Palestine Action alongside a clearly sick death cult -literally called the ‘Maniacs Murder Cult’- Yvette Cooper is attempting to ensure that the legislation proscribing Palestine Action as a terrorist group will pass.

The ban on Palestine Action, was heavily pushed by the British Israel lobby and cut-outs of the Israeli embassy in London.

As journalist Asa Winstanley reported :

Meanwhile, the Israel lobby is happy.

“We welcome the decision to proscribe Palestine Action,” said Phil Rosenberg, the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews. The Board admits in internal documents to having a “close working relationship with the Embassy of Israel” and the Israeli military.

“This is the right decision and we strongly welcome it,” Labour Friends of Israel said. LFI is a front group for the Israeli embassy in London.

The Campaign Against Antisemitism, another group with deep ties to Israel, admitted to lobbying Cooper for the ban. ‘We are pleased that the Home Secretary has listened to our representations over the last week,’ they posted.

Another aspect certainly influencing this decision is the fact that pro-Israel lobby groups have donated over 600,000 pounds to Kier Starmer’s cabinet, 215,000 of which went to Yvette Cooper herself.

Yvette Cooper’s relation with the Israeli embassy in the UK is undoubtedly playing a role as well.

She has been pictured smiling alongside an Israeli ambassador to the UK named Tzipi Hotovely, who has called for expanding Israel’s borders into Syria and Jordan and defended the idea of Israel killing 600,000 civilians in Gaza.

This legislation -proscribing ‘Palestine Action’ as a terrorist group- will allow the British state to arrest all activists affiliated with the organization and even all people who have said anything supportive of the group, given the fact that it is a criminal offense to say something supportive of a proscribed terrorist organization.

Amnesty International UK has noted that “proscribing a direct-action protest group like Palestine Action risks an unlawful interference with the fundamental rights of freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly” and said “It should be remembered that proscribing Palestine Action not only makes membership of the organisation a criminal offence, through broadly worded speech offences such as ‘glorification’ it puts at risk the free speech rights of many other activists who are deeply concerned about the plight of Palestinians in the context of Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.”

If this legislation passes, it will officially be a criminal offense to say something supportive of an activist group whose only “terrorism” has been to spray paint and damage property used to mass slaughter civilians in Gaza.

This prosription -if passed- will turn the already pro-Zionist police state in Britain into something far worse.

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