by Brendan O’Neill, spiked
The clearing of the Palestine Action activists gives a greenlight to Israelophobic mania.
So now we know: you can do pretty much anything you like in the name of Palestine. You can seemingly trespass on other people’s property. You can apparently damage things. You can seemingly carry a sledgehammer around. And a court will let you off. Your devotion to the cult of Palestinianism, your adherence to the bourgeois ideology of Israelophobia, will guard you from the consequences us lesser mortals would likely face if we behaved in a similar way for causes we believe in. There can be no doubt now: the elitist loathing for Israel is the most privileged ideology in 21st-century Britain.
I am referring, of course, to the clearing of some of the Palestine Action activists at Woolwich Crown Court yesterday. Six members of that aristocratic mob of Israel-haters that cosplays as a progressive movement were on trial for aggravated burglary following a break-in at an Elbit Systems factory in August 2024. Elbit Systems is frequently the target of the blind fury of the keffiyeh classes because it is a key provider of weaponry to that Jewish State they hate with such curious and venomous intensity.
The six were accused of aggravated burglary, criminal damage and violent disorder. The prosecution alleged that the activists were dressed in red boiler suits and carrying sledgehammers. It was also alleged that they used a van as a ‘battering ram’ to gain entry to the factory. There were claims that members of the gang used a sledgehammer against a police officer and then whipped a security guard – allegedly with a literal whip. The prosecution described their actions as ‘meticulously organised’. Video footage was submitted to the court allegedly showing the six engaging in trespassing and threatening behaviour.