The United Kingdom government will soon be a step up and declare Palestine Action, a movement of young people with a conscience, a terrorist organization. Some of its members are already in prison, while others are awaiting sentencing or facing trials. Tens of thousands of people have sung “We are all Palestine Action” across the nation despite the “terrorist” label and the threat of imprisonment.
If the government’s goal was to silence people and prevent British involvement in the genocide from continuing unchecked, it has grossly miscalculated. According to a recent poll, 55% of Britons oppose Israel’s occupation of Gaza. 82 percent of those opposers claimed that Israel’s actions were genocide. Fundamentally, something is altering. There is a gaping gap between the media’s narrative and the views of ordinary people who reject ministerial nonsense and the portrayal of fascist and oppressive government policies.
I was once labeled a terrorist, just like the Palestinian Action’s rebellious youth. I joined the United Black Youth League in 1981. Although we knew it was “wrong” to build petrol bombs, we still believed in our constitutional right to defend Bradford’s population from fascist threats, whether through armed means or not. In the case known as the Bradford 12 case, I was detained alongside 11 others and charged with terrorism with a life sentence.
While our struggle was against local fascists, Palestine Action’s campaign is more successful: putting an end to the genocide committed by Israel’s neo-fascist regime with British support. They haven’t reportedly taken up arms, unlike us. Palestine Action used only nonviolent direct action in response to British complicity in genocide, where we used crude weapons in self-defense against immediate violence. I understand their outcry, and I’ve already screamed incessantly about a genocide. How many children must be shown that something is wrong? To maintain an apartheid state, how many starving families must be slaughtered?
Knowing that British weapons are used to murder Palestinians makes the pain worse. Even more repulsive is watching hypocritical politicians sway words like Keir Starmer’s defense of the genocide and the hollow phrases “Israel’s right to defend itself” now. However, as Francesca Albanese and many others have repeatedly stated, “Israel has no right to defend itself against those it occupies,” according to UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine.
Anyone associated with Palestine Action will be labeled a “terrorist” if the UK government succeeds. We were painted the same way throughout the Bradford 12 trial. We fought for a more just and just world in our own time, just like Palestine Action activists did.
The endless protests that demanded an end to a never-ending war and justice for Palestine failed to lead to Palestine Action. According to them, Palestine Action is a direct action movement that is committed to end Israel’s genocidal and apartheid regime. We target Israeli military-industrial complex supporters with disruptive strategies, making it impossible for them to profit from Palestinian oppression.
The police failed to protect us from fascist violence, giving birth to us, the Bradford 12. In a coordinated community defense, we committed armed self-defense. The greater crime would have been to ignore what had happened. Similar actions are required to stop UK complicity in genocide. It is morally necessary to disrupt the war machine, not to make it illegal.
Zehns of thousands of people mobilized to demand our acquittal at our 1982 trial in Leeds Crown Court. They understood the state’s lies because they knew that if we were found guilty, there would be repression against youth movements, trade unions, and anyone fighting for justice. What kind of world do you want to live in if you can’t find these men to be guilty of murder? We would do it all over again, according to my testimony in front of the same threat. If Palestine Action is criminalized, we run the risk of entering a lawless society where genocide is the norm rather than the norm.
We were found innocent, setting a precedent for self-defense in an armed community. Because its actions are already grounded in legality, morality, and nonviolence, Palestine Action lacks any precedent to support its cause. It serves as a moral compass, not as a threat. Instead of outlawing it, the UK must follow it.
