From inside Israeli jails, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Movement has issued a statement demanding freedom for Palestine Action prisoners held in British jails, including four in Wales.
By George Mills. Cover image: Palestine Action entering the Teledyne Labtech factory in Powys.
Six activists from Palestine Action are currently detained in Britain, and over 100 more are facing custodial sentences, for disrupting the British manufacture of Israeli weaponry.
Four of them have been imprisoned since December 2022 for taking action to dismantle Teledyne Labtech, a Welsh factory belonging to American-owned Teledyne, the largest exporter by volume of weapons from Britain to Israel.
On Monday 26th June, at Mold Crown Court, three of the four were sentenced to 23 months in prison, whilst the other was given a sentence of 27 months.
Issuing the call of solidarity, the Palestinian Prisoners; Movement applauded the activists for “confronting the supply chains of the company and others that supply bulldozers and weaponry to the occupation to demolish Palestinian homes.”
“The Palestinian Prisoners’ Movement condemns Elbit Systems and all British and other companies marketing their weapons on the grounds that they have been “battle-tested” in the Gaza Strip and throughout occupied Palestine,” the prisoners group said.
They went on to “condemn the British authorities’ arrest of members of the Palestine Action movement” and called on people to take “popular action to pressure the British government to immediately release the remaining activists..”
The call comes after nearly 80 public figures, including ,Ghada Karmi, Mohammed El-Kurd, Lowkey, Paul Laverty, Roger Waters, Alexei Sayle and others, signed an open letter demanding that charges were dropped “against those already incarcerated and at risk of prison over their work to disrupt the criminal production of Israeli weapons on British soil.”
Signatories also included South African MP and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, Chief Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela.
The four Palestine Action activists who dismantled the Teledyne Labtech factory in north Wales were found guilty of ‘conspiracy to commit criminal damage.’
The action, which took place on 9th December, saw the ‘Teledyne 4’ enter and halt production at the factory, with two stationed in the roof and another two inside, allegedly causing up to £1.2 million worth of damage, as previously reported by voice.wales.
Three activists pleaded guilty to the charges after being threatened with harsher sentencing if they did not comply.
One activist however, Ruth Hogg – a PhD student, was sentenced for 27 months after fighting the case.
The sentence came after Judge Rowlands refused to allow evidence of Israel’s war crimes to be heard at court, and would not allow the defence to make the argument that their actions ‘prevented a greater crime’ or ‘acted to save lives’.
Despite this however, Hogg argued that any damage caused would disrupt the flow of British made weaponry to Israel, and ultimately would slow the Israeli war machine for some time.
The defendants are expected to spend half their sentence in prison, whilst having already served 7 months after being held on remand since the action took place.
During the trial, Teledyne representatives that were called to the stand argued that they had no knowledge that the equipment they were manufacturing was used to supply Israeli weapons systems.
But this was contradicted by one of the managers, who admitted that the components from the factory were used in a variety of weaponry, and also listed a multitude of companies that Teledyne work with for such production, including BAE Systems, Leonardo, and Raytheon.
On the day of the action, Teledyne removed the evidence of these connections from their website, which had previously been publicly promoted by the firm.
Teledyne have been supplying drones to the IDF (Israeli Defence Force) since at least 1973 and are the largest listed UK exports to Israel.
The Powys-based factory specialised particularly in manufacturing a variety of tech components for military use, such as weapons systems, military radar systems, missiles, and fighter jets.
Earlier this month the horror of the occupation made global news, as twelve Palestinians, including three children, were killed following an Israeli air raid of a refugee camp in Jenin.
Following the sentencing, Palestine Action said: “The four activists are the longest serving prisoners for taking action with Palestine Action to disrupt the war machine. Their incarceration demonstrates Britain prioritising the interests of an arms industry which facilitates the genocide of the Palestinian people, over the freedom of its own citizens.
The necessity to take direct action is derived from the criminal actions of our government, who have remained complicit in the colonisation of Palestine for over a century. The four activists who put their liberty on the line to break this chain of complicity should be upheld as the heroes they are, not imprisoned.”
As well as the four Teledyne activists, two others have been handed 16 and 23 month sentences, after they shut down the premises of Canadian-owned weapons factory, APPH in Runcorn.
Palestine Action says that APPH manufactures drone landing gear for Israel’s Elbit Systems, which supplies 85% of Israel’s military drones.
The group continues to disrupt the supply of arms to Israel from Britain despite facing jail. On 11 July, the group announced it had used concrete to block the sewage pipes of Leicester’s Elbit weapons factory. “It’s been two days since we blocked their pipes, leaving them clueless to the reasons behind their messy disruption,” they wrote on Twitter.
The group also celebrated the news that charges have been dropped against six other activists who besieged the same factory in May 2023.
An online event is due to be held on Sunday to build support for the release of the prisoners.
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