[News] We are all Palestine Action: UK's sharpest activists come together against Zionist lobby

[Anti-Imperialist News]

thecanary.co
<https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2024/11/08/palestine-action-support/>
We are all Palestine Action: UK's sharpest activists come together against
Zionist lobby
The Canary
November 8, 2024
------------------------------

Palestine Action <https://www.thecanary.co/topics/palestine-action/> has
been so effective in its recent campaigns
<https://www.thecanary.co/?s=palestine+action> that it’s attracted the
attentions of the Zionist lobby. Now, some of the sharpest activist groups
in the UK have come together to stand firmly behind the actionists.

The groups write:

As the genocide has intensified, Palestine Action has also escalated its
actions and they have come under frequent attack from the Zionist lobby…

Following a series of hung juries and acquittals for Palestine Action
actionists, there is now evidence emerging of steps being taken to prevent
juries acquitting on account of their conscience.

To date, Palestine Action has 16 political prisoners in Britain, 11 of
which have not yet faced trial. Actionists have been subjected to regular
dawn raids, police harassment, stops at the airport and smear campaigns.

What have Palestine Action done?

Just last week, in a huge victory Barclays divested from Elbit thanks to a
long campaign from Palestine Action. Here at the *Canary*, we reported
<https://www.thecanary.co/uk/news/2024/10/31/barclays-divest-elbit-palestine-action/>
:

Initial research published in July 2022 by Campaign Against Arms Trade, War
on Want, and Palestine Solidarity Campaign showed the bank held
shareholdings worth over £1.5billion in companies complicit with Israeli
apartheid. Palestine Action adopted the campaign in October 2023 due to the
bank’s investments in Elbit Systems — the group’s primary target.

Barclays has now sold all of its shareholding in Elbit Systems – Elbit are
Israel’s largest weapons company. The kind of direct action Palestine
Action have engaged in – consistent pickets, roadblocks, climbing onto
buildings to halt operations – are clearly effective.

In fact, they’re effective enough that, as the group describes above, the
Palestine Action activists who carry out this work are now subject to
intense pressure from the government, the legal system, and police.
Who’s supporting the group?

That’s exactly why this group of activists and organisers are standing
together to show that they are in full solidarity with Palestine Action.
Each of these groups, whilst from a range of backgrounds, clearly
understand the importance of direct action that disrupts – rather than
marches that can be ignored:

   - *CAGE International
   <https://www.cage.ngo/articles/statement-of-solidarity-with-palestine-action>
   *are an advocacy organisation that challenge Islamophobic narratives of
   power, confront egregious state power, as well as research and campaign to
   dismantle the ongoing impacts of the ‘war on terror’.
   - *Sisters uncut* <https://www.sistersuncut.org/> are a feminist group
   that take action for survivors of domestic violence with a storied history
   of taking action for sex workers, those who’ve experienced abuse, and those
   facing intersectional oppressions including anti-Blackness, and Zionism.
   - *Palestinian Youth Movement*
   <https://www.instagram.com/pymbritain/?hl=en>are a British chapter
of a broader
   movement <https://palestinianyouthmovement.com/>, who have come together
   with other groups across the world to fight for a free Palestine.
   - *Parents for Palestine* <https://www.parentsforpalestine.org/> are a
   UK-based collective of parents and caretakers coming together to call for
   an end to “the ongoing siege of Gaza”.
   - *ELSC* <https://elsc.support/> are the European Legal Support Center
   and provide legal support for supporters of Palestine, as well as strategic
   litigation when useful.
   - *Axe Drax* <https://axedrax.uk/> take direct action against Drax which
   is a power station in Yorkshire that burns wood – Drax is the UK’s single
   largest carbon emitter
   <https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/drax-co2-emissions-biomass/>.
   - *Defend Our Juries* <https://defendourjuries.org/> campaign for a
   fairer legal system whereby juries are not put under pressure to convict
   defendants, and to call attention to corporate connections and government
   dishonesty.
   - *Free Political Prisoners
   <https://defendourjuries.org/free-political-prisoners-campaign-launches/>
*is
   a campaign from Defend Our Juries which is a civil disobedience campaign
   that looks to defend disruptive actions made with political commentary.
   - *Just Stop Oil <https://juststopoil.org/> *take direct action to call
   attention to the climate crisis and to end the use of fossil fuels, with
   many of their members similarly harassed
   <https://www.thecanary.co/topics/just-stop-oil/> by police.

Standing in solidarity

These groups have come together to say
<https://www.cage.ngo/articles/statement-of-solidarity-with-palestine-action>
of Palestine Action:

Every action which disrupts the supply chain of weapons being used in the
ongoing genocide is the moral thing to do and worthy of support. Direct
action has never been more necessary…

Palestine Action continues to put their liberty on the line for the
liberation of Palestine.

We stand in full solidarity with Palestine Action and call on all people of
conscience to show their support for the group. We are all Palestine Action.

Organised, state-sanctioned A-to-B marches and demonstrations are an
important way for people to express their moral outrage. However, direct
action carries much more severe consequences from the legal system.

In order for movements to be effective, they must centre around goals,
rather than any one single person. This latest generation of actionists are
exactly what’s needed to hold immoral and unaccountable government’s feet
to the fire.

Everyone at the *Canary* stands in full solidarity with both the groups
listed above, and Palestine Action.

*Featured image via Palestine Action*
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