Two Palestine Actionactivists have been acquited of conspiracy to commit criminal damage charges in a trial at Leicester Crown Court for an action against a Leicester drone factory complicit in Israel’s Genocide in Gaza. The trial commenced on 2 December, concluding yesterday.

The activists were arrested less than a month into the Genocide, on 18 October 2023, after a dynamic action which shut down the UAV Tactical Systems factory operated by Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons company The action took place less than 12 hours after at least 500 wounded, starving, and displaced Palestinians were massacred at Gaza’s Al-Ahli Arabi Baptist Hospital in a targeted missile strike.

A van was driven through the barriers of the factory, positioned so the gates could not be closed. The activists then took to the roof of the vehicle, lighting flares, and unfurling banners and Palestinian flags. The factory entrance was covered in blood-red paint, while the activists shouted,/ the war criminals are in that factory. Elbit Systems is guilty of war crimes. And exclaiming “Sunak is the real criminal”.

During the action, the main gate was damaged and security hub, as well as a number of Elbit and security vehicles. While the factory was shut down, one of the Actionists said:

We need to be as determined as the Palestinian people, who never stop digging through the rubble to find survivors…Thousands of people are dying, what else are we supposed to do? We have to act now.

Her comrade said:

Israel has stolen 1,700 children’s lives in the last 7 days. If you condemn the Holocaust, where are you now? ‘Ethnic cleansing’ is too clean of a word for what Israel is doing.