Latest news with #directAction
Telegraph
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
The anti-colonial ‘witch' behind Palestine Action recruitment drive
An anti-colonial artist whose work is inspired by 'folklore, witchcraft and mythology' can be unmasked as a ringleader behind Palestine Action 's recruitment drive. Gamze Sanli was the speaker at a 'direct action workshop' in which new members were instructed on how to attack targets across the country, including RAF bases. During the workshop, which was accessed by The Telegraph, Ms Sanli told recruits they would be part of a new, sustained wave of attacks on military sites and discussed tactics such as attacking machinery with a 'sledgehammer'. Ms Sanli said that plans to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist group were 'draconian and dangerous' and the organisation would 'continue to operate' even if designated as a terror group. It can now be disclosed that the Turkish-Cypriot activist is a graduate from King's College London and holds an MA in human rights from University College London. In a biography on her website, Ms Sanli, who describes herself as a multidisciplinary artist and performer, says that 'her craft weaves folklore and mythology, abolition and political resistance, death and witchcraft'. The biography adds: 'Moving through different mediums, including experimental film and performance, documentary, illustration, embroidery, poetry and music, she reimagines and reframes the world with a queering, anti-colonial lens.' Ms Sanli, who is thought to have lived in an expensive central London neighbourhood near Hyde Park, also says she is the founder of 'Scattered Seeds', a collective of diasporans, migrants and internationalists focusing on anti-colonial, abolitionist, feminist resistance with radical pedagogy, archiving, and art. She works on projects within the intersection of migration and queerness in Belgium as part of a project called 'Queers on the Move'. During the meeting for new recruits, Ms Sanli discussed tactics for breaking into factories and urged people to hit 'everything you can find with a sledgehammer'. She advised them on how to set up autonomous cells able to target military bases without detection. A slide in the call identified three RAF bases most suitable for attack: RAF Cranwell and RAF Barkston Heath, both in Lincolnshire; and RAF Valley, in Anglesey, North Wales. The Telegraph has passed details to police. In 2022, Ms Sanli was one of two Palestine Action protesters who squirted tomato ketchup onto a statue of Arthur Balfour in the members' lobby of the House of Commons. The protest was timed to coincide with the 105th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration – the controversial declaration by the British government in 1917 that became a core component of the British mandate for Palestine. As the protesters sprayed the ketchup, which the group described as fake blood, one said: 'Palestinians have suffered for 105 years because of this man, Lord Balfour – he gave away their homeland and it wasn't his to give.' The two protesters glued themselves to the statue after squirting the ketchup, before revealing a miniature Palestinian flag and shouting 'free Palestine'. Ms Sanli was charged with criminal damage but, following a week-long trial at Southwark Crown Court, she was found not guilty in a unanimous verdict on Dec 18 2023. Speaking at the time, Ms Sanli said: 'We wanted to show that this is not a faraway geopolitical conflict. 'We're talking about apartheid and settler colonialism, violations of the human rights of a whole people, and we need to see that through the lens of British complicity.' During the workshop, Ms Sanli also gave legal advice to new recruits on what they themselves should do if they were arrested. Recruits were warned that if they were arrested, Palestine Action would not pay their legal fees but would offer 'support'. An 'arrest support group' would be on hand to help those detained and recruits were told that if they did not have enough money to pay legal costs, they could rely on legal aid. Ms Sanli also advised them on what potential sentences they would likely get for a range of offences, including criminal damage, trespass and burglary. She did not mention the fact that if Palestine Action is proscribed, anyone who is a member of the group or expresses support for it would face sentences of up to 14 years in prison. Outlining the various strategies for attacking targets, Ms Sanli said that the plan for new recruits was to carry out sustained, serious disruption. In the past, the group had focused on carrying out 'accountable' attacks with the aim of getting caught and raising publicity. The focus for the new cohort was on carrying out covert actions and escaping undetected. They were told not to take phones on raids and to hand over their belongings to neighbours in case their homes were searched if they were arrested. On Friday, four people were arrested by counter-terror police in connection with a break-in at RAF Brize Norton last week. A woman, 29, of no fixed abode and two men, aged 36 and 24 from London, were arrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism, contrary to Section 41 of the Terrorism Act 2000. Another woman, 41, of no fixed abode, was arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender. Footage posted online by Palestine Action following the incident showed two people inside the RAF base in Oxfordshire. The clip showed one person riding an electric scooter to an Airbus Voyager air-to-air refuelling tanker and spraying paint into one of its jet engines. Two planes were damaged. The Metropolitan Police has been contacted and asked to confirm if it is investigating the direct action workshops and whether those delivering them may have committed any criminal offences.
Times
6 days ago
- Politics
- Times
Undercover with Palestine Action: ‘Damage as much as possible'
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. • Pro-Palestinian protesters clash with police in London — as it happened 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. • Cost of damage by Palestine Action could hit £55m 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. • Palestine Action group shows no signs of slowing down 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. • Palestine Action leader ordered to attend court on terrorism charge 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.' • Watch: Palestine Action saboteurs storm Israeli arms giant's UK site 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.'
Al Jazeera
25-06-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Palestine Action are not terrorists. Israel is
The generation that marched in record numbers against the Iraq war learned one thing clearly: respectable protest alone does not work. On the issue of Palestine, too, the power elite has repeatedly ignored the popular will. The media pays little attention to hundreds of thousands marching, and the government remains unmoved despite public polls showing a majority support for an arms embargo on Israel. This democratic deficit in Britain makes direct action seem the only powerful way to oppose Western war‑mongering in the Middle East. And Britain's ongoing military support for Israel's genocide in Gaza is why I support Palestine Action – the group the Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, is planning to proscribe as a terrorist organisation after its activists vandalised a Ministry of Defence aircraft. I, too, have felt morally compelled to take direct action. In summer 2014, when Israel bombed Gaza for 51 days – killing more than 2,200 Palestinians – I was a member of the original London Palestine Action group. We occupied the roof of a drone‑engine factory owned by Elbit Systems, halting production for two days. It remains one of my proudest moments. But our group burned out and became dormant until relaunching under a different name in 2023. By contrast, the nationwide Palestine Action, founded in 2020, has mounted a sustained campaign against Elbit Systems, taking far greater personal risks. Inspired by Smash EDO, the Raytheon Nine, and the 1996 action that decommissioned Hawk jets to stop Suharto's bombing of East Timor, Palestine Action has destroyed millions of pounds' worth of military equipment. They have become a serious thorn in the side of the military–industrial complex. Many – often young women, queer people and people of colour – have been imprisoned, sacrificing their freedom as political prisoners. Crucially, Palestine Action has never harmed a human being. Their actions – non‑violent yet disruptive – have saved lives. By contrast, Israel's genocide in Gaza has killed or maimed at least 200,000 people, including tens of thousands of children. This constitutes state terror by any standard. These brave activists are acting to prevent it because their government refuses to. If the British government had never armed Israel, or had stopped doing so at any time in the past decade, Palestine Action would have had no target and might not have existed. Perhaps then, as I write, Israel would not be committing genocide in Gaza either. But Britain's attitude towards Palestinians has been rooted in colonial arrogance for over a century, originating with the Balfour Declaration. Palestine Action's direct intervention has exposed the contradictions in Britain's position on Israel. The Home Secretary's plan to proscribe the group as a terrorist organisation reveals the authoritarian nature of the current Labour government and the racialised social control underpinning the 'war on terror'. By branding non‑violent resisters as 'terrorists', the UK has taken a leaf directly from Israel's playbook. Just this month, Israel did the same to the Palestinian rights group Addameer. This tactic is increasingly used by authoritarian states around the world. It is the road to fascism – and it threatens to further erode the democratic freedoms we still have in Britain. But this tactic will not work. You can ban a group, but not a movement or an idea. Palestine Action has engaged acclaimed lawyer Gareth Pierce to challenge the proscription in court. And even if the ban stays in place, direct action will persist as long as Britain supports Israel's genocide. Yet direct action alone cannot end this atrocity. It will take all of us, from within and beyond institutional politics, pressuring Britain from every angle. It won't happen overnight, but it can happen. And when Palestine is free, history will remember clearly: Keir Starmer and his government as enablers of genocide, and Palestine Action as heroic peace activists who laid down their liberty – and their bodies – to oppose state terror. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.
