UK charges pro-Palestine group members under terrorism law

Palestine Action members are accused of burglary, violent disorder at building belonging to Israeli defence firm Elbit.

British counterterrorism police have charged seven people with violent disorder over a break-in at a building belonging to Israeli defence firm Elbit in southwest England.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said on Tuesday that seven people, aged between 20 and 51, have been charged with criminal damage, violent disorder and aggravated burglary over an incident at the Elbit Systems premises in South Gloucestershire on August 6.

“On the facts of this case, the CPS will be submitting to the court that these offences have a terrorist connection,” the CPS said in a statement.

Members of Palestine Action were due to appear at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court later on Tuesday.

Avon and Somerset Police said the group forced its way into the building and “seriously assaulted” staff after smashing the gate with a vehicle and driving into the compound.

Palestine Action rejected allegations of violence against police and security staff and said the authorities had launched a “smear campaign” to prejudice the outcome of the trial and “lay the groundwork for the police unjust use of authoritarian powers”.

“We refuse to be intimidated into allowing a genocide to happen,” it said in a statement.

On its website, the group describes itself as aimed at “dismantling British complicity with Israeli apartheid”.

It adds that “direct action against Elbit aims to disrupt this: targeting the source of colonial violence and genocide against the Palestinian people, undermining Elbit’s profiteering from Israel’s daily massacres”.

Israel’s largest arms manufacturer is known to supply some 85 percent of the land and air munitions used by its military.

Elbit says on its website that its United Kingdom subsidiary employs 680 people at 16 sites, working on multiple programmes for the British military.

Since its formation in 2020, Palestine Action has forced the permanent closure of Elbit’s Oldham factory and pushed the company to abandon its London headquarters.

In 2022, the group’s protest action led to the dissolution of contracts worth 280 million pounds ($358m) between the UK Ministry of Defence and Elbit Systems and prompted several British and European companies to cut ties with Elbit permanently.