From inside Israeli jails, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Movement has issued a statement demanding the freedom of Palestine Action prisoners held in British jails. Six activists from Palestine Action are currently detained, and over 100 more are facing custodial sentences, for disrupting the British manufacture of Israeli weaponry [1] [2].
On Wednesday 5th July, nearly 80 public figures including celebrities, activists, academics and lawyers issued a statement of solidarity saying “We demand the charges are dropped against those already incarcerated and at risk of prison over their work to disrupt the criminal production of Israeli weapons on British soil.” Signatories included musicians Roger Waters and British rapper Lowkey, Palestinian writer and activist Mohammed el-Kurd, Professor Rabab Abdulhadi, South African MP and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, Chief Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela, MEPs Mick Wallace and Clare Daly, and many others [3].
Palestine Action are calling for a day of action in support of the prisoners and the campaign to shut Elbit down on Saturday 22nd July [4]. Elbit Systems supplies 85% of Israel’s military drone fleet and land based equipment. Recently, Elbit drones were used to assassinate Palestinians in Jenin and Gaza [5].
There are currently approximately 5,000 Palestinian political prisoners, including 1,083 jailed without charge or trial under “administrative detention” [6]. Just as the arms industry of occupation is directly tied to the British weapons industry and colonialism in Palestine, the imprisonment of Palestine Action activists is part of the same framework of colonial repression. We urge all supporters of Palestine to follow in the footsteps of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Movement and push for the freedom of Palestine Action prisoners.
Full Statement of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Movement:
In the name of God, the most gracious, the most merciful;
A statement issued by the Palestinian Prisoners’ Movement on the British imprisonment of Palestine Action activists
The British government currently imprisons several members of the Palestine Action movement, which takes action to challenge companies that are directly complicit in the ongoing Zionist occupation of Palestine and the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people….
Accordingly, we affirm the following:
First: We express our sincere appreciation for the efforts made by the Palestine Action movement, which led to the closure of several sites belonging to Elbit Systems, which specialises in producing drones and weaponry supplied to the fascist Zionist occupation, in addition to confronting the supply chains of the company and others that supply bulldozers and weaponry to the occupation to demolish Palestinian homes.
Second: The Palestinian Prisoners’ Movement condemns Elbit Systems and all British and other companies marketing their weapons on the grounds that they have been “battle-tested” in the Gaza Strip and throughout occupied Palestine.
Third: We condemn the British authorities’ arrest of members of the Palestine Action movement and call on all international legal and human rights organizations to take a serious position, and to take official and popular action to pressure the British government to immediately release the remaining activists, as well as to bring an end to the British complicity with the Zionist apartheid regime, from the issuing of the Balfour Declaration in 1917 until the present day.