On Friday 12 June, four Palestine Action activists were sentenced for a combined 25 years. They were told by Justice Jeremy Johnson that they would be sentenced for an ‘act of terrorism’ – for damaging Israeli drones that are used in the genocide in Gaza.
This verdict is a complete stitch-up from top to bottom. Earlier this year, they were found not guilty by the first jury! This led to the state to retry them a few months later, to get the answer they wanted.
Throughout this trial, the government has pulled out all the stops to try and keep the jury in the dark. Farcically, despite the clearly political nature of the alleged crimes, the defence was not allowed to mention anything in relation to genocide or Gaza.
In effect, the government acted to ban the activists from giving the context to their actions. Meanwhile, Yvette Cooper, the home secretary at the time, was allowed to write in The Observer about how the activists had a “terrorist connection”. The blatant hypocrisy is astounding.
Earlier this year Rajiv Menon, the barrister representing the activists, was himself charged with contempt of court for reminding the jury of their right to acquit the defendants according to their conscience.
Ironically, there is a plaque outside of the Old Bailey that commemorates the first time a jury went against the advice of the judge, and delivered a verdict according to their conscience. But what was once upheld as a shining example of Britain’s ‘democratic’ legal system is now seen as an inconvenience for the judiciary and this Labour government.
🚨 BREAKING: Four Palestine Action activists have been jailed for a total of 22 years for causing £1.2m worth of damage and fracturing a police woman’s spine at an Israeli weapons factory pic.twitter.com/x4s06ZpYwc
— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) June 12, 2026
Draconian measures
This trial is also the first time a set of protesters will be sentenced as terrorists. The nature of the sentence was egregiously kept secret during the trial – even from the jury!
Presumably, this was because the judge feared that the jury would not convict the activists had they known the severity of the sentence. But this is all perfectly above board, thanks to the Sentencing Act 2020, which allows judges to add extra sentences at the end of a trial for offences that have not been tried for.
Menon described the ruling as “dramatic and draconian” as well as an “invitation to chilling and creeping authoritarianism that undermines the very democratic fabric of our society”.
On top of this, last week the government overturned a ruling which will effectively reinstate the ban on Palestine Action, deeming it a ‘terrorist organisation’. The total number arrested for showing support for the organisation has now surpassed 3,000, most of whom are elderly men and women, who peacefully held up placards.
Ultimately this sentencing, and the broader ban on Palestine Action, sets a dangerous precedent by the government. It sends a clear message that any movement which challenges the interests of the British establishment, or uses direct-action methods to further their cause, could be charged as terrorism. This is a fundamental attack on our democratic rights!
It’s only a matter of time before such powers are deployed more widely and broadly: against workers organising to disrupt the arms industry; against anti-racist activists blocking roads to physically prevent far-right marches; against black and Asian youth mobilisation to defend themselves from race riots and pogroms; and so on.
Ramping up state powers
What is clear is that the British state is ramping up repression, carrying on where the Tory government left off with the Police, Crime, and Sentencing Act 2022 and the Public Order Act 2023.
These laws further strengthened police powers to arrest people for carrying items like cable ties, or to stop protests based on noise levels.
In April, a further Crime and Policing Act was passed into law, which expanded the powers of the police yet again – for example allowing them to arrest people with face coverings. These laws are clearly an attack on the Palestine movement, in which the keffiyeh is commonly worn as a symbol of solidarity and resistance.
Since 2019 there have been 286 cases against climate and Palestine protesters which have resulted in prison sentences. Collectively, they have been in jail for a total of 136 years.
These protesters are spending in most cases longer than six months in jail before trial. The ‘Filton 24’ spent up to 18 months in jail before trial. The standard pre-trial limit is only six months. Sometimes their prison sentences are shorter than the time they have already spent in jail waiting.
Holding these political prisoners in jail on remand for such lengthy periods of time is yet another example of encroachment upon our democratic rights.
Sign of weakness
This increasing repression against activists is not a sign of strength from the government. It’s a sign of weakness.
The usual methods of manufacturing consent through the media, education, or co-opting leaders have fallen on deaf ears. And therefore the government has been forced to resort to its most rudimentary methods of rule – using its armed bodies of men to violently detain those opposing its rule.
55 percent of Brits oppose the military actions of Israel. It is because of this overwhelming disgust that the British state has sought to resort to these anti-democratic methods: to try and set anSet featured image example, and attempt to demoralise those who wish to fight for change.
But this, in the long run, will not have the effect that the British ruling class wants. These actions are only educating workers and youth as to the real nature of ‘liberal, democratic Britain’.
As more of our democratic rights are trampled upon, the only path available will be to rise up, take these rights back for ourselves, and put the whole system on trial!
