In the more than four years that Palestine Action have waged their campaign against Israeli arms producer Elbit Systems and its various suppliers and subsidiaries, despite several prosecutions the Crown has had only one successful outcome against co-founder Richard Barnard. At a six-week trial last year at Snaresbrook Crown Court the jury returned a guilty verdict (for criminal damage) on just one count, while multiple other charges resulted in acquittal or a split jury.
Palestine Action face the same sort of crackdown as that affecting peaceful climate protesters – vested interests pressuring the government to introduce new laws and ever more Kafkaesque ‘clarifications’ in the legal system. The authorities are making it almost impossible for defendants to explain to a jury the true context of an action, which in many protest-related cases often led to acquittals when it was previously permitted.
Those vested interests include the Israeli government, as revealed by Palestine Action in documents last week, and as covered previously here, those fossil-fuel and arms industry-funded ‘think tanks’ and ‘independent’ government advisors, such as Policy Exchange and Lord Walney.
Perhaps under that outside pressure, the Crown has laid three new charges against Barnard, arising from two speeches he gave ahead of that Snaresbrook trial last year. Unlike the recent case of six ‘actionists’ who were arrested and held under terrorism legislation, but later charged with a range of non-terrorist charges, it looks like the authorities are proceeding with this prosecution.
At the pre-trial hearing on Friday morning at the Old Bailey, a date and venue were set for a plea hearing on 13th December and a 5-day trial next year from April 14th, both at Manchester Crown Court.
Barnard is charged with ‘expressing an opinion or belief that was supportive of a proscribed organisation, namely Hamas, being reckless as to whether it encouraged support of that organisation’ contrary to section 12(1A) of the Terrorism Act 2000. Two other charges of encouraging the commission of criminal damage will also be heard.
Despite new laws and restrictions on defence, juries are still freeing brave activists who take action against the industry supplying aid to Israel’s rampage in the Middle East. Just last month at Bradford Crown Court, despite the four defendants being refused any defence in law, a jury was unable to reach a decision over criminal damage said to have cost more than half a million pounds to Teledyne Space and Defence Ltd in the Wirral, which supplies components for Israeli F-35 jets.
On the other hand, more activists are facing prison, being remanded for actions with long waits for trials. As Richard Barnard says in this Real Media interview, “When they crack down, when they repress people, more people step into that space, and more people become active. They don’t learn their lessons from history, whereas we do.”