Undercover with Palestine Action: ‘Damage as much as possible'

Times

27-06-2025

It was only 24 hours after the home secretary had announced that Palestine Action will be proscribed as a terror group when its latest training course got under way on Zoom.
The host, dressed with a keffiyeh wrapped around her face, told the group of a dozen new members and an undercover Times reporter that this was a 'critical moment in every sense' as she opened a 'crash course on direct action'.
She admitted that she and her Palestine Action 'comrades' were 'all flummoxed at the moment' and 'things are a little intense' following the government's decision to add them to a list of terrorists alongside Al-Qaeda and Isis.
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But the woman, who did not give her name for 'security reasons' and only showed her face after each attendee introduced themselves and agreed to show themselves on camera, said Palestine Action's sustained action of vandalism and criminal damage against companies 'complicit' in Israel's war crimes will be 'continuing as normal'.
And then began a two-and-a-half-hour webinar talking through the new members how they could take part in direct action themselves.
The session, a daily webinar it hosts as part of a recruitment drive ahead of the group formally being proscribed as a terror group next week, revealed a secretive organisation paranoid about the threat of undercover police, where information given to those taking direct action is on a 'need to know basis' — one of the ten commitments all members must sign up to.
Guidance says what activists should do during and after arrest, then through their trial and how to recruit fellow prisoners if they are thrown in jail. A list of the different criminal offences they could expect to be charged with was shown on screen along with their maximum sentences. They ranged from crimes such as locking-on offences, aggravated trespass and obstruction of a highway to the 'high-level' offences such as criminal damage over £5,000 or non-domestic burglary.
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The more serious offences were lauded by the Palestine Action host, making clear that activists are encouraged to cause maximum damage. 'We hope you'll be causing damage of over £5,000,' the host told the group.
But she urged attendees not to be put off by the threat of the maximum sentences they could face from the offences, which carry up to ten years in prison.
Serious charges were often diluted or dropped altogether by police and prosecutors, she said. Palestine activists tend to get off lightly at sentencing, she claimed as she ran through a series of recent cases in which her 'comrades' had avoided lengthy sentences or been acquitted by the jury altogether.
'We're seeing people not get charged with the things that they should get charged with,' she said. Jury trials offered the best chance to avoid punishment, the host said, because 'the public is on our side'.
'Remember that being acquitted can happen and we're seeing it happen now. If you get a jury that decide, 'OK, smashing up a rooftop was a fair response to a genocide', then you may well be acquitted by that jury.'
The host said her 'favourite case of all time' was the 'absolute legend' who walked into the aerospace company Arconic's factory in Birmingham, causing £500,000 of damage on his own, and was acquitted at trial.
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Other Palestine Action activists lauded during the session who escaped punishment were the 'Leicester two', who were charged with criminal damage of over £5,000 and faced a maximum sentence of ten years in jail after their protest at an Elbit Systems factory in Leicester shut it down for six days. Both were acquitted at trial.
Those who are sent to jail are referred to as 'political prisoners' by Palestine Action and there are currently 19 of the group's activists in jail.
'The resistance goes further than just the action,' the Zoom attendees were told. 'The resistance continues right the way through to the trial. If you end up in prison, on remand, you can take the resistance into prisons.'
Activists on the course were told how Palestine Action criminals continued their resistance in prisons, recruited fellow prisoners and were hailed as heroes. The host quoted one Palestine Action activist who declared: 'I am bringing the intifada into the prison.'
'We've seen prisoners being released from prisons and you've heard the entire inside of the prison shouting, 'Free Palestine!'' the host claimed.
One of those hailed as 'heroic' for spending time inside was Francesca Nadin, who describes herself as a former 'political prisoner' and spoke at the Glastonbury Festival in the Greenpeace area on Thursday. She said that 'everyone who goes to prison becomes more radicalised' and going to prison was 'not the end of the world'.
Those on the course were asked to share their 'barriers' to taking direct action and were told that 'comrades' would contact them on Signal after the session to help them overcome their concerns.
A couple expressed concerns about being sent to prison and the impact it would have on their lives, their health and mental wellbeing. An American said she feared how it would impact her ability to extend her visa in the UK.
Another said they feared having a criminal record as it would show up in DBS checks, to which the host explained how she had feared the same when she first took part in direct action. She said it was a 'really valid' concern and something that was raised constantly by potential recruits.
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But she claimed it had helped, not hindered, her career working with vulnerable people. 'I've always been lucky enough that I've worked for private people or companies or clients or whatever and as soon as I've told them why it is that I've got a conviction, they're like, 'Please come work for us more'. So it's different for everybody's circumstances.'
A large chunk of the course focused on legal advice, albeit unofficial, and guidance on how to behave during and post-arrest. A slide setting out guidance advised members to 'never talk to police' before outlining the items to take and those to avoid taking during direct action.
Among the few items activists were told to take: a book. 'It's crazy what books they allow in,' the host said. She told of how one had taken in a book titled How to Blow Up a Pipeline, a book advocating direct action, which argues that climate activists should abandon their longstanding commitment to absolute non-violence.
It was made clear that Palestine Action would not be able to cover legal fees, nor be able to offer formal legal advice. But the group offers a lot of advice on how to exploit the use of legal aid. Those who do not qualify are urged to either self-defend or crowdfund, which Palestine Action helps publicise through its social media accounts. The host claimed that almost all crowdfunding campaigns raise the necessary funds to cover the legal defence.
Members were told throughout to remember Palestine Action's fundamental belief that 'we are literally the people that are upholding international law'.
'We all know that. We're not guilty and that's why we plead not guilty. We're not the guilty ones.'
What Palestine Action does offer is a comprehensive support network. A 'station support' team is dispatched to greet activists when they are released from police custody with instructions on how to get their personal items back and help with getting them back home.
The support continues throughout any court trial, Palestine Action supporters attending court hearings and trials.
'You'll have people that come and wave a flag and show support and knit you little Palestine flag hearts and stuff like that,' the host said. 'It's a really beautiful community of people that really support Palestine Action and show up day after day after day to support people that do direct action. It's a real family.'
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These supporters act voluntarily and nobody is paid, Palestine Action said. The group accepts donations on its website and has an online shop but insists that all legal costs are covered through crowdfunding campaigns.
A crowdfunding campaign launched to fight the government's plans to proscribe the group as a terrorist organisation has raised £150,000 within four days.
In response to Yvette Cooper's announcement, Palestine Action this week said her statement had made 'a series of categorically false claims'. It added: 'This is an unhinged reaction to an action spraying paint in protest at the UK government arming Israel's slaughter of the Palestinian people. We are teachers, nurses, students and parents who take part in actions disrupting the private companies who are arming Israel's genocide, by spray-painting or entering their factory premises. It is plainly preposterous to rank us with terrorist groups like Isis, National Action and Boko Haram.'
This week, Areeba Hamid, Greenpeace UK's co-executive director, said the move to proscribe Palestine Action 'would be a grave mistake'.
Following its break-in at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire last Friday, which was swiftly followed by the home secretary's proscription announcement, the group has identified three further RAF bases suitable for action: RAF Barkston Heath and RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire and RAF Valley in North Wales, the Telegraph reported.
As the webinar drew to a close, after nearly two and a half hours, the host claimed that the government's move to proscribe Palestine Action had sent membership soaring.
'I especially want to thank you all for coming to this group tonight, because I know that this potential threat of proscription is probably going to put a lot of people off,' she said. 'But we've actually seen support go through the roof and I think that you guys are extra, extra-legends for coming along tonight and basically putting your finger up against the government who are trying to silence us.'