https://www.councilestatemedia.uk/p/palestine-action-is-securing-major
Companies are deciding support for genocide is not worth it
Nov 03, 2024

Palestine Action has scored two major victories in recent days, causing disruption to Israel's arms supply chain. The thing about capitalists is their support for genocide has nothing to do with principle, it's simply about profit. If you hurt them in the pocket, they will drop the genocide like a stone. Another way of looking at it is the genocide is only ongoing because people are making money. Stop them making money and you stop people dying.

A PR firm called APCO Worldwide has just dropped Elbit Systems as a client after Palestine Action activists locked themselves to its HQ, holding a banner which read: "Stop lobbying for Genocide. APCO Drop Elbit." The activists splashed the premises with red paint to represent the blood of Palestinians.

Palestine Action also successfully pressured Barclays to divest from Elbit Systems after breaking the windows of the bank's branches and splashing the premises with red paint. It looks like morality wasn't a good enough reason to divest from genocide but inconvenience was. Say what you want about direct action but it works.

Four members of Palestine Action were recently in court for locking themselves to the gates of Elbit's Leicestershire drone factory. This is the place where rotary engines are manufactured for Hermes drones to be used to kill Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

When people say we're only a small part of Israel's supply chain, it's bullshit, we're an essential part of the supply chain. If David Lammy did his job and cancelled all arms licences with Israel, the genocide would grind to a halt. But war criminals like Lammy are never arrested, the people who stand up to them are.

The four members of Palestine Action were convicted of Obstructing Lawful Business, however, the judge felt they were acting out of desperation and gave them non-custodial sentences. The judge said: "I’m satisfied you took these steps out of desperation, for people trapped in suffering not of their own making."

Sixteen members of Palestine Action are currently detained for disrupting Israel's arms supply chain, yet the group says it has no shortage of volunteers and actually has to turn people away because it has too many.

The behaviour of Palestine Action is interesting from a legal perspective. My position on resistance is that I fully support legal methods of resistance. I guess the things Palestine Action does technically aren't legal. Does that mean police will break down your door if you express support for them? I've honestly no idea, but nothing would surprise me in this country, especially given what's happened to Sarah Wilkinson and Asa Winstanley.

Among the naughty behaviours of Palestine Action are stealing sculptures of Israel's first president, Chaim Weizmann, from the University of Manchester. This was part of a string of disruptive actions the group planned for 2nd November - Balfour day. Palestine Action destroyed a painting of Lord Balfour earlier this year, slashing it and spraying it red. I'm sure some would call these actions criminal damage, theft, and perhaps even anti-Semitism.

Palestine Action would argue the presence of the Weizmann sculptures and Balfour painting were as offensive to them as the Colston statue was to the black community of Bristol. It's a fact of life that sometimes a person's morals can collide with the law. When young people feel strongly enough about an issue that they're prepared to risk prison, they're not coming from a place of immorality, they're coming from a place of deeply-held principle and conviction.

Palestine Action justified its actions on Twitter, saying: "Weizmann secured the Balfour Declaration, a British pledge written 107 years ago, which began the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by signing the land away."

Police are investigating a potential "hate crime" after Palestine Action splashed red paint over the windows of the London office of the Jewish National Fund. Palestine Action says the JNF raises "funds to demolish Palestinian homes and build settlements on top of stolen Palestinian land - a recognised war crime." In other words, trying to stop war crimes is considered a hate crime.

I guess Palestine Action's methods are illegal in the same way as toppling the Colston statue was illegal or the direct action of groups like Just Stop Oil are sometimes illegal. If I was a juror in a case against Palestine Action, I couldn't bring myself to convict the accused in the same way I couldn't convict those who topple a slaver statue or glue themselves to roads to save us from climate destruction. I guess they did a naughty thing, but they did so in defiance of an incredible evil - genocide - and they are only in this position because their government is violating British and international law to arm a genocidal regime. Is committing a small crime to stop a much bigger crime wrong? Surely the people committing the much bigger crimes should be arrested? If they were, none of this would be happening.