Israeli Embassy’s Interferes in UK Palestine Action Case

It’s been revealed that the Attorney General’s office gave contact details of the CPS and counter terror police, to the Israel government, during an investigation into protests at an Elbit Systems arms factory. The revelations come at a time when protest is being criminalised and dissenting voices shut down. Mike Small reports.

Today, The Guardian revealed that the Israeli government is directly interfering in ongoing legal cases involving Palestine Action activists, with evidence pointing to the Filton 18 as the primary targets [Police and prosecutors’ details shared with Israel during UK protests inquiry]. These revelations emerged following a series of Freedom of Information Act requests submitted by Palestine Action. The Guardian’s Haroon Siddique writes:

“The UK government shared contact details of counter-terrorism police and prosecutors with the Israeli embassy during an investigation into protests at an arms factory, official documents suggest, raising concerns about foreign interference. An email was sent on 9 September last year by the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) to Daniela Grudsky Ekstein, Israel’s deputy ambassador to the UK, with the subject matter “CPS/SO15 [Crown Prosecution Service/counterterrorism police] contact details”.”

In September last year, the Attorney General’s Office shared the contact details of the CPS and SO15 (Counter Terrorism Command) with the Deputy Israeli Ambassador. This exchange followed a meeting to introduce the newly appointed deputy Israeli ambassador and they presumably discussed the Filton 18, who had just been remanded into custody.

This high-level political interference by a foreign state, a state currently engaged in a live-streamed genocide, reflects the well-established and documented lobbying operations of the colonial outpost in occupied Palestine. In this case, the clear aim was to exert pressure on UK law enforcement to act against Palestine Action. More broadly, these lobbying efforts have sought to suppress the anti-war movement and bolster the expansion of arbitrary state powers.

Through interference in policing, manipulation of the judiciary, and the weaponisation of antisemitism, there has been a concerted attempt to poison political discourse in the UK and push for increasingly authoritarian laws — a legal infrastructure first erected under the banner of the so-called War on Terror.

Clare Rogers, mother of Zoe Rogers who took action to destroy weapons on the 6th August at the Elbit Filton site in Bristol:

“My 21-year-old daughter Zoe has been in prison for 8 months without trial and counting. She took action against Elbit because she couldn’t sit on her hands and do nothing while her government committed war crimes by supplying arms to Israel. 

It’s sickening to learn that the brutal repression she and the Filton18 are experiencing was planned in secret conversations between our government and the Israeli embassy. It seems our government is prioritising a foreign weapons manufacturer over the rights of ordinary citizens. 

In a just nation, the Filton18 case would be thrown out as soon as this political interference came to light.”

Anas Mustapha, Head of Public Advocacy at CAGE International, said:

“The Zionist regime’s interference in British policing and the judiciary is not an isolated act — it is part of a broader, dangerous campaign to criminalise dissent, suppress the anti-war movement, and entrench authoritarianism in order to protect the Western colonial outpost that is Israel.”

“This evidence of political interference is deeply concerning and amounts to an abuse of process. Every additional day the Filton 18 remain detained is a violation of their fundamental rights. They must be freed, and the case against them must be dropped immediately.”

These extraordinary revelations show the level of collusion between the British and Israeli states, and gives context to the efforts to shut down dissenting voices – such as the Irish band Kneecap – who have been smeared and under attack by none other than Sharon Osbourne, Brendan O’Neill, Uri Geller and John Swinney. This is part of an ongoing attempt to blur the line between legitimate protest and dissenting culture and terrorist activity, both in Britain and elsewhere, particularly in the USA.

Haroon Siddique tells us that in November last year, four UN special rapporteurs wrote to the UK government expressing concern about the “apparently unjustified use” of terrorism legislation against protesters. People arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000 can he held for up to 14 days without charge. The letter from the human rights experts said those arrested in August were initially held for 36 hours, without access to legal representation, before being detained for a further seven days under powers contained in counter-terrorism legislation.

The letter said: “Counterterrorism legislation, including the Terrorism Act 2000 and the Terrorism Act 2006, appears to have been increasingly used in the context of domestic support for Palestinian self-determination and political activism against the United Kingdom’s foreign policy on the conflict in the occupied Palestinian territory of Gaza.

“In particular, members of Palestine Action – a grassroots movement that organises direct actions against Israeli weapons factories in the United Kingdom – have reportedly been arrested under counter-terrorism legislation for conduct that appears to be in the nature of ordinary criminal offences and does not appear to be genuinely ‘terrorist’ according to international standards.”

Responding to the attempts to have them banned and censored, Kneecap issued the following statement:

“They want you to believe words are more harmful than genocide.”

“Establishment figures, desperate to silence us, have combed through hundreds of hours of footage and interviews, extracting a handful of words from months or years ago to manufacture moral hysteria. Let us be unequivocal: we do not, and have never, supported Hamas or Hezbollah. We condemn all attacks on civilians, always. It is never okay. We know this more than anyone, given our nation’s history.”

“We also reject any suggestion that we would seek to incite violence against any MP or individual. Ever. An extract of footage, deliberately taken out of all context, is now being exploited and weaponised, as if it were a call to action. This distortion is not only absurd – it is a transparent effort to derail the real conversation.”

“All two million Palestinian people in Gaza are currently being starved to death by Israel. At least 20,000 children in Gaza have been killed. The British government continues to supply arms to Israel, even after scores of NHS doctors warned Keir Starmer in August that children were being systematically executed with sniper shots to the head. Instead of defending innocent people or the principles of international law, the powerful in Britain have abetted slaughter and famine. This is where real anger and outrage should be directed towards. To the Amess and Cox families, we send our heartfelt apologies, we never intended to cause you hurt. Kneecap’s message has always been — and remains — one of love, inclusion, and hope. This is why our music resonates across generations, countries, classes and cultures and has brought hundreds of thousands of people to our gigs. No smear campaign will change that.”

Censorship of music and culture should have no place in contemporary Scotland. The British state’s repression of legitimate protest against the slaughter in Palestine is more evidence of their authoritarian nature and its collusion with the war machine that is Israel.