Eurasia Press & News
Exclusive: Elbit Systems pushed for retrial after charges against Palestine Action co-founders were dismissed, new documents show.
Israel’s largest weapons company, Elbit Systems, lobbied the Home Office for a retrial after criminal charges against Palestine Action’s co-founders were dismissed, Declassified can reveal.
Jurors at Snaresbrook Crown Court acquitted six pro-Palestine activists of nine charges in December 2023, while failing to reach a decision on 23 other charges.
Now, a letter seen by Declassified shows that Elbit’s UK security director, Chris Morgan, wrote to Britain’s then policing minister Chris Philp on 15 January 2024.
He noted that “the founders and controlling minds of the Palestine Action criminal group, Richard Barnard and Huda Ammori, were on trial for a multitude of offences”.
Morgan added: “Whilst Barnard was found guilty of criminal damage at one of our sites, the jury failed to reach a verdict on seven other charges for them both – including two counts of burglary which took place in 2020”.
To this end, Morgan raised concerns that “a re-trial is not a certainty” and suggested “it is very much in the public interest for this trial to be re-heard at the earliest opportunity”, emphasising “the prolific and serious nature of Palestine Action’s offending”.
The letter provides further evidence of Elbit Systems pressuring the British authorities to crack down on Palestine Action, which the UK government has said it will proscribe.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) subsequently ordered a retrial for the activists, which is scheduled for 2027.
One of the activists described the wait for a retrial as a “form of psychological warfare on defendants, because it’s another year and a half where we can’t progress with our life – you can’t make long-term decisions, or get jobs. The consequences go way beyond just waiting for this trial”.
Crackdown on Palestine Action
This is far from the only evidence to indicate Elbit’s proximity to the UK government.
In August 2020, just one month after Palestine Action was launched, then UK foreign secretary Dominic Raab met with Orit Farkash-Hacohen, Israel’s former minister of strategic affairs.
Farkash-Hacohen pressed Raab on direct action protests against Israeli companies in Britain, noting how “the London offices of Elbit Systems” had been attacked for the fourth time in as many weeks.
Raab told her that “he and the British government were committed to stopping such events”, according to a report in Israel National News.
Two years later, Britain’s then home secretary Priti Patel met privately with Martin Fausset, the CEO of Elbit Systems UK, to “discuss protests and security”.
Home Office documents revealed that the purpose of the meeting was to “reassure… Fausset that the criminal protest acts against Elbit Systems UK are taken seriously by Government”.
In the meeting, Patel was told how Palestine Action’s protests against Elbit “were getting more and more severe”, and the activists were “well organised, funded and trained”.
She became “deeply concerned about everything she heard”, and produced a number of suggested actions. That list remains redacted in its entirety.
‘Significant damage’
At the time of Patel’s meeting with Fausset, the British authorities had not managed to secure any convictions against Palestine Action.
But one month after the meeting, Britain’s then attorney general Suella Braverman referred a case of four activists cleared of toppling slave trader Edward Colston’s statue to the court of appeal.
This rare move was criticised at the time by defence attorney Raj Chada, who said it was “extremely disappointing and should give everyone who cares about the integrity of our legal system cause for concern”.
The ruling that followed stipulated that “conviction for causing significant damage to property during protest” would fall outside the protections of the European Convention of Human Rights.
This provided the British authorities with a wider remit to prosecute Palestine Action activists, and the convictions duly followed.
Elbit’s ‘Intelligence cell’
In Spring 2023, Palestine Action launched a campaign against UAV Tactical Systems, a drone factory in Leicester owned by Elbit and Thales, a French arms firm.
In the midst of that campaign, Philp held a briefing with Leicestershire police’s deputy chief constable regarding the “ongoing protests”.
A police report which was disclosed in court offers details of what was discussed.
“17:00 Brief Policing Minister and Home Office Team”, it notes. “Real push to support company legitimate business. Suggest proactive work with Meta Facebook and Instagram”.
The document continues: “Pushes for remand of those arrested and supports proactive action, show of police and clear[ly] expects us to be taking action against those that commit crime. Focus not on peaceful protestors and facilitating that but on the company”.
The Home Office was thus seemingly instructing the police to prioritise the interests of the company and remand activists rather than facilitate freedom of assembly and expression, liberties enshrined in the Human Rights Act.
Other documents seen by Declassified indicate how the Israeli arms firm has taken matters into its own hands in Britain.
Elbit Systems UK has “its own intelligence cell and share[s] information with the Police across the country on a two weekly basis”, a police file observes.
Elbit did not respond to a request for comment.
