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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2024/11/08/palestine-action-support/">thecanary.co</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">We are all Palestine Action: UK's sharpest activists come together against Zionist lobby</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">The Canary</div>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time">November 8, 2024<br></div>
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<p><a href="https://www.thecanary.co/topics/palestine-action/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Palestine Action</a> has been so effective in its <a href="https://www.thecanary.co/?s=palestine+action" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recent campaigns</a>
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.</p>
<p>The groups write:</p>
<blockquote><p>As the genocide has intensified, Palestine Action has
also escalated its actions and they have come under frequent attack from
the Zionist lobby…</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p></blockquote>
<h2>What have Palestine Action done?</h2>
<p>Just last week, in a huge victory Barclays divested from Elbit thanks to a long campaign from Palestine Action. Here at the <em>Canary</em>, we <a href="https://www.thecanary.co/uk/news/2024/10/31/barclays-divest-elbit-palestine-action/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>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.</p></blockquote>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<h2>Who’s supporting the group?</h2>
<p>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:</p>
<ul><li><strong><a href="https://www.cage.ngo/articles/statement-of-solidarity-with-palestine-action" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CAGE International</a> </strong>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’.</li><li><a href="https://www.sistersuncut.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong>Sisters uncut</strong></a>
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.</li><li><a href="https://www.instagram.com/pymbritain/?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong>Palestinian Youth Movement</strong> </a>are a British chapter of a <a href="https://palestinianyouthmovement.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">broader movement</a>, who have come together with other groups across the world to fight for a free Palestine.</li><li><a href="https://www.parentsforpalestine.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong>Parents for Palestine</strong></a> are a UK-based collective of parents and caretakers coming together to call for an end to “the ongoing siege of Gaza”.</li><li><a href="https://elsc.support/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong>ELSC</strong></a>
are the European Legal Support Center and provide legal support for
supporters of Palestine, as well as strategic litigation when useful.</li><li><a href="https://axedrax.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong>Axe Drax</strong></a> take direct action against Drax which is a power station in Yorkshire that burns wood – Drax is the UK’s <a href="https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/drax-co2-emissions-biomass/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">single largest carbon emitter</a>.</li><li><a href="https://defendourjuries.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong>Defend Our Juries</strong></a>
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.</li><li><strong><a href="https://defendourjuries.org/free-political-prisoners-campaign-launches/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Free Political Prisoners</a> </strong>is
a campaign from Defend Our Juries which is a civil disobedience
campaign that looks to defend disruptive actions made with political
commentary.</li><li><strong><a href="https://juststopoil.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Just Stop Oil</a> </strong>take
direct action to call attention to the climate crisis and to end the
use of fossil fuels, with many of their members similarly <a href="https://www.thecanary.co/topics/just-stop-oil/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">harassed</a> by police.</li></ul>
<h2>Standing in solidarity</h2>
<p>These groups have come together to <a href="https://www.cage.ngo/articles/statement-of-solidarity-with-palestine-action" target="_blank" rel="noopener">say</a> of Palestine Action:</p>
<blockquote><p>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…</p>
<p>Palestine Action continues to put their liberty on the line for the liberation of Palestine.</p>
<p>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.</p></blockquote>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Everyone at the <em>Canary</em> stands in full solidarity with both the groups listed above, and Palestine Action.</p>
<p><em>Featured image via Palestine Action</em></p>
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