Palestine Action activists sentenced as terrorists in UK

Four Palestine Action activists convicted of causing criminal damage to an Israeli arms plant in the UK have been sentenced as terrorists due to the blacklisting of their organization. Dozens of the group’s supporters were arrested outside the courthouse as the verdicts were read out.

The defendants took part in a raid on an Elbit Systems factory near Bristol in 2024. After ramming the gate with a decommissioned prison van, they destroyed computers, drones, and other equipment inside, causing around £1.2 million ($1.6 million) in damage.

Charlotte Head, 30, Samuel Corner, 23, Leona Kamio, 30, and Fatema Zainab Rajwani, 21, were found guilty of criminal damage last month, with Corner also convicted of inflicting grievous bodily harm on a police officer with a sledgehammer.

Handing down the sentences on Friday, Mr. Justice Johnson said that due to the “terrorist connection” of the offenses, all four would receive harsh punishment. None of the four were charged with terror-related offenses, and by sentencing them as terrorists, Johnson set a new precedent in British law.

“I am sure that one of the purposes of your offending was to influence the United Kingdom government… and was for the purpose of advancing a political or ideological cause,” Johnson told the defendants during Friday’s hearing.

Head and Kamio were jailed for six years, Rajwani for five years and eight months, and Corner for eight years and eight months.

Palestine Action, a protest group whose members have vandalized British military equipment and Israeli-linked sites, was declared a proscribed organization by the British government last July. The decision placed Palestine Action in the same category as Al Qaeda and the IRA, and criminalized public displays of support for the organization.

As the sentences were handed down, several hundred Palestine Action supporters protested outside Woolwich Crown Court in London. Police arrested more than 100 demonstrators for holding signs and placards endorsing the group.

The proscription was ruled unlawful by London’s High Court in February, although the designation remains in force pending a final judgment.