"To hear the birds, the drones must be silent."

Abridged from source. URL in title.

[Opinion. Note that the UK guarantees trials by judge and jury. By withholding from the jury information to be used in sentencing, the judge has made a crucial legal error.]

Palestine Action activists sentenced as terrorists

The ruling marks the first time in UK legal history that protesters convicted of criminal damage face a 'terrorism connection' upon sentencing

Katherine Hearst

Middle East Eye: 12 Jun 2026

A British judge has sentenced four Palestine Action protesters as terrorists, handing them custodial sentences ranging from four to eight years.

The unprecedented ruling came despite jurors convicting them of criminal charges not connected to terrorism during the prosecution.

Last month, jurors convicted Leona Kamio, Samuel Corner, Fatema Rajwani, and Charlotte Head of criminal damage in connection with a raid on an Elbit Systems UK plant near Bristol on 6 August 2024.

Two other activists, Jordan Devlin and Zoe Rogers, were cleared of the charges.

Elbit Systems is an Israeli arms manufacturer whose UK headquarters are based in Bristol.

On Friday, the presiding judge, Justice Jeremy Johnson, added a “terrorism connection” to their offences.

In a preliminary ruling in March 2025, Johnson found an "appearance" of a terrorism connection in the case, as he said the activists were attempting to influence the Israeli government by restricting their access to weapons. This information was withheld from the jury who convicted them.

This marks the first time in British legal history that the designation has been applied to direct action protesters who were not convicted of terrorist offences or of causing intentional violence.

As she was led out, Kamio quoted a line from Palestinian poet Marwan Makhoul: "To hear the birds, the drones must be silent."