In Manchester, two Palestine Action trials take place this week for defendants who have plead ‘not guilty’ for their actions at the sites of Israel’s arms trade and their facilitators. They appear in court to state that Israel’s largest arms firm, Elbit Systems, is guilty: those resisting genocide are not.
Palestine Action: in the dock for saving lives
On Monday 2 and Tuesday 3 December, one Palestine Action activist will stand trial in Manchester Magistrates Court for a 2023 action in which they occupied the overhang of the Deansgate offices of Fisher German.
Fisher German were, at the time, landlords for the Elbit’s Staffordshire drone engine factory, UAV Engines – known to export arms components to Israel. Fisher German have since publicly cut ties with UAV Engines and Elbit after the months-long campaign of disruption.
As part of an ongoing campaign against those complicit in Elbit’s business-of-bloodshed, Palestine Action has targeted Fisher German dozens of times.
The real estate company was first targeted back in 2021 – with an occupation of the roof of their Birmingham offices (Vine Property Management in Harborne) which also saw the site covered in paint. Three activists were eventually found not guilty in court of the resulting charges.
These same offices were then hit with five covert actions over 2022, with activists breaking windows and dousing the property in red paint, marking it with a symbol of the blood shed by the company’s Israeli business partners:
Fisher German temporarily abandoned the Birmingham premises in August 2022.
Similar actions took place at Fisher German offices across the country throughout the two year campaign. Most recently in 2023, a single activist occupied the roof of the entrance to Fisher German’s Manchester offices, which had also been occupied by a coalition of trade unionists, who also demanded that Fisher German cut ties with Israel’s largest arms company:
It is this activist which is facing trial this week.
‘The accuser, not the accused’
Then, from Wednesday 4 to Friday 6 December, that same activist and one other will appear in Minshull Street Crown Court charged with criminal damage and aggravated trespass in relation to an action at the Elbit Systems ‘Ferranti’ factory in Oldham, Greater Manchester in February 2021.
As the Canary reported at the time, protesters from Palestine Action and Extinction Rebellion, armed with banners and red paint, said their early-morning raid on the Israeli-owned Elbit Ferranti factory in Oldham, Greater Manchester, is because they “will not accept an economy based on devastation, occupation and war”:
After relentless direct action at the site, the Elbit Ferranti factory – which formerly produced imaging technology for Israel’s drones – has been shut down for good since 2022.
The two activists facing trial at Minshull Street have had all defences ruled out by the judge – meaning that they will not be permitted to speak on Palestine, Elbit Systems, the genocide in Gaza, or any of the substantive reasons why their action proved necessary.
Regardless, Palestine Action said in a statement that:
they appear in the court as the accuser, not the accused, in the knowledge that Elbit System’s criminal enterprise will not last in Britain.
Featured image and additional images via Palestine Action
