OVER a thousand people gathered outside Woolwich Crown Court, near Belmarsh, in south east London yesterday, as supporters rallied ahead of sentencing in cases linked to direct action against the arms trade and complicity in Israel’s war on Gaza.
Over 100 were arrested during the protest.
Chants of ‘Palestine ’48, one state, Palestine’ and ‘resistance is glorious, we will be victorious’ rang out from the crowd, alongside calls of ‘long live direct action’ and ‘direct action saves lives’.
Fiona Parker, who travelled from France to attend the demonstration, said she had come to support the defendants. ‘Those young people who had the courage to take action over Palestine, what they risk is a sentence which doesn’t fit the “crime”.
‘Any one of us protesting here could be arrested and designated as terrorists. Direct action is not terrorism.’
Mike and Jessica Bradley, who travelled from forty miles north of Aberdeen, said the British government bore direct responsibility for genocide.
‘Our government has full legal responsibility for supporting what is clearly genocide. This has already been established by an independent commissioner appointed by the UN,’ they said.
Nadia, who came to support the Filton group, said ‘I’m absolutely appalled by genocide. They could be our children. I fully support the people who carried out this courageous action,’ she said.
Kim Taylor, representing the Keysight 3 campaign, said she was there in solidarity with the Filton 25 and all political prisoners who had taken direct action over Palestine.
The Keysight 3, named Ian, Steve and Joy, have been held at HMP Wandsworth since the middle of April on remand, accused of causing around £2.4 million in criminal damage.
Their trial is not due until next July, leaving them facing more than a year in custody before it even begins.
Kim Taylor said yesterday’s hearing was to determine how long the three would remain in prison.
They had already faced the maximum sentence available for criminal damage alone, she said, but a terrorism charge was now expected to be added – one the jury had not been told about when reaching its verdict, believing it was convicting on criminal damage alone. ‘They could be serving up to ten years for saving lives,’ she said.
Fashion designer and activist Katharine Hamnett told News Line the case could set a dangerous precedent. ‘This sentencing is hugely important, it might set the most appalling precedent for criminalising protest in the UK.
‘We have to fight it with everything we’ve got,’ she said. If the defendants were sentenced under terrorism legislation it would be an outrage, she argued, given their actions involved spraying paint and dismantling drones used by the Israeli military.’
Hamnett noted that the courts had de-proscribed Palestine Action but were continuing to sentence people under it, and called for compensation for those affected.
‘If their sentence is for terrorism, we should appeal it immediately and make a huge stand on it,’ she said.
