Four Palestine Action Activists Jailed in UK After Vandalizing Elbit Factory

Four activists from the pro-Palestinian group Palestine Action have been sent to prison in Britain after storming an Elbit Systems factory in Bristol in 2024, causing extensive damage worth more than $1 million and clashing with police. The four, convicted last month of criminal damage, are Samuel Corner, 23, Charlotte Head, 30, Leona Kamio, 30, and Fatima Rajwani, 21.

Corner received eight years and eight months in prison. Head and Kamio were each sentenced to six years, while Rajwani got five years and eight months. More than 10 activists from the anarchist, anti-Semitic group arrived at the site in August 2024 in a commercial vehicle that rammed through the fence, carrying axes and hammers.

According to footage the group itself published, the activists were seen damaging property. Several workers tried to stop them, but were attacked, and one worker was hit in the head. Police officers were also assaulted with hammers. Six people were arrested at the time, while the rest of the attackers fled.

The Bristol case came after another breach in June 2024, when pro-Palestinian activists broke through security at Elbit Systems offices in Kent and entered a building containing military technology. Palestine Action describes itself as a network of groups and individuals formed against Elbit Systems sites and other companies it says are complicit in Israeli apartheid, and it has called to shut down all such locations.