The British authorities are continuing their crackdown on the Palestine Action organisation with counter-terrorism police raiding and arresting ten more activists in connection with the ongoing targeting of an Israeli weapons manufacturer.
5Pillars has been informed that most of the activists who were arrested are Muslim, four being Muslim women.
Photos of smashed doors and police searching of the suspects’ homes have been published on Palestine Action’s X account.
A Palestine Action spokesperson said: “The British state are wielding counter-terrorism powers against those they accused of being engaged in direct action against Israel’s weapons trade. They are acting to protect the interests of a foreign genocidal regime, over the rights and freedoms of its own citizens. The only ‘terrorists’ here are those assisting and arming Israel’s genocide. Palestine Action will not bow to this repression.”
The fresh arrests are linked to the Filton 10 case which has seen police arrest and detain ten people since August 6.
Palestine Action supporters broke into Israeli arms company Elbit Systems’ arms research and development hub in Filton, Bristol.
Despite being arrested under the Terrorism Act, which allows police to detain suspects up to 14 days without charge, the activists were all charged with non-terror offences, such as criminal damage and aggravated burglary.
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Naila Ahmed, Head of Campaigns at CAGE International, condemned the arrests as “authoritarian.”
“The British government continues to build an infrastructure of authoritarian laws. This is beyond a question of complicity; the UK police are now acting as an extension of a genocidal entity, abusing and exploiting any and every power at their disposal to intimidate and crush resistance to the mass killing of humans in Gaza… We stand in solidarity with Pal Action and all those who take a stance against injustice.”
The Filton 10
The Filton 10 are activists, aged between 21 and 40, who destroyed weapons allegedly intended for use in Gaza at a facility belonging to Israel’s largest arms manufacturer, Elbit Systems, in Bristol.
Elbit Systems, founded in 1966, is an Israeli military technology company and defence contractor supplying land-based equipment and drones to the Israeli military.
Six of the activists caused over £1 million in damages to Elbit Systems and were arrested on site in August.
According to the Palestine Action website, after six were arrested at the scene, four more were rounded up by armed counter-terrorism police, in different parts of the country. One of them at gunpoint.
All ten are now remanded in prison. Whilst under arrest, each of the ten were detained without charge for approximately a week and interrogated repeatedly under the Terrorism Act. Each were eventually charged with non-terror offences.
Further crackdown
The latest arrests come a month after counter terrorism police raided the home of pro-Palestine journalist, Asa Winstanley.
Reportedly, a letter addressed to Winstanley from the Metropolitan Police counter terrorism command said that it was investigating possible offences of “encouraging terrorism.”
According to his employer, the Electronic Intifada, an officer told Mr Winstanley the investigation was connected with social media posts.
Winstanley has more than 100,000 followers on Twitter/X, where he focuses on Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people, British government support for these crimes, and the Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation, apartheid and genocide.
His most recent investigative article, “How Israel killed hundreds of its own people on 7 October,” details Israel’s use of the Hannibal Directive – a secret order that allows Israeli forces to kill their own citizens rather than allowing them to be taken captive.
On August 29, police raided the home of a well-known pro-Palestine activist, Sarah Wilkinson, reportedly over allegations relating to her online posts discussing the October 7 attack on Israel.
A family member, Jack Wilkinson, explained on X what happened the day she was arrested.
“The police came to her house just before 7.30am. 12 of them in total, some of them in plain clothes from the counter terrorism police. They said she was under arrest for ‘content that she has posted online.’ Her house is being raided & they have seized all her electronic devices.”
Wilkinson, 61, has been highly active in the UK’s pro-Palestine activism scene for many years.
On the same day, a co-founder of direct action group Palestine Action, Richard Barnard, was charged with three offences for comments made in two speeches.
He is accused of supporting a proscribed organisation under the Terrorism Act (2000), and encouraging “criminal activity.”
Back in July 2024, a pro-Palestine Muslim activist, Majid Freeman, was charged with the encouragement of terrorism and supporting a proscribed organisation.
Mr Freeman, 36, was at the forefront of exposing Hindutva extremism and violence in Leicester a few years ago and has been a stalwart supporter of the Palestinians amid the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza.
5Pillars understands that the charge relates to social media activity concerning the Palestinian group Hamas.
More recently, a Jewish academic who grew up in Israel was arrested by London’s Metropolitan police following a speech he gave at a pro-Palestine demonstration in the British capital, during which he said that Israel “cannot win against Hamas.”
Haim Bresheeth, a child of Holocaust survivors, was arrested during a demonstration outside the residence of Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely in north London on November 4.
Gaza killing fields
The death toll in the Gaza Strip from the 13-month-old war between Israel and Hamas has surpassed 44,000 according to the local health ministry.
The Gaza Health Ministry declared on November 21 that 44,056 people have been killed and 104,268 wounded since the start of the war.
The ministry added that more than half of the fatalities are women and children.
Their death toll update also claimed the real toll is higher because thousands of bodies are buried under rubble or in areas that medics cannot access.
