Inside the Palestine Action trial that could redefine protest as terrorism

Editor’s note: This piece was published in the days before the four Palestine Action activists were sentenced. In the end, the judge presiding over the case ruled that there was a terrorism connection to their offences, despite having withheld this information from the jurors. The activists were handed sentences ranging from four years and eight months to seven years and eight months.

A statement from The Filton 25 Defence Committee said: “The four protesters sentenced today destroyed over 40 Israeli weapons, including killer drones, which are used in almost every massacre of Palestinians in Gaza. By taking direct action, they saved lives. That is not terrorism, it is a duty. Today’s ruling will be appealed to correct this serious miscarriage of justice.”

Four Palestine Action activists may this week become the first protesters sentenced as terrorists in Britain – a decision that their supporters told openDemocracy would be an unprecedented escalation in the UK’s crackdown on Palestine solidarity movements.

Lottie Head, 29, Samuel Corner, 23, Ellie Kamio, 30, and Fatema Rajwani, 21, were last month found guilty of criminal damage after breaking into a site belonging to the UK branch of Israeli arms firm Elbit Systems in August 2024 and damaging equipment, including drones and computer systems. Corner was also convicted of grievous bodily harm over an injury a police officer sustained during the incident.

In England and Wales, you do not need to be convicted of a terrorism offence to be sentenced as a terrorist. A court can find that an ordinary criminal offence meets the definition of terrorism under the Terrorism Act 2000 – a broad definition that includes serious damage to property carried out for a political or ideological cause, where one purpose is to influence a government.