She Wanted to Protest the War in Gaza. Now She's in Prison Indefinitely.
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When four police officers showed up on Clare Rogers' doorstep in North London with a search warrant for her daughter's bedroom last August, she was in complete shock. They told her that her daughter Zoe, who was about to start her first year of university, was in a police station in Bristol. While this might have come as a complete surprise to most parents, Clare quickly put two and two together.
Clare told Slate that one thing to know about Zoe, 21, is that she has always had a 'massive social justice streak.' When Israel's war on Hamas escalated in Gaza, her daughter couldn't look away from videos about the conflict on social media. She went to marches across the U.K.but told her mother she felt nothing was changing.
Then Zoe found Palestine Action, a U.K.-based pro-Palestinian protest network, and began talking about direct action. 'Zoe said, 'Protesting is like asking the government to dig a well. Direct action is just digging the well, and daring the authorities to stop you,' ' Clare recalled. 'At that time, she clearly decided that she was not afraid to go to prison.' In August 2024, Zoe, alongside a group from Palestine Action, hired a repurposed prison van and rammed through the gates to break into a factory in Filton, Bristol, run by Elbit Systems, Israel's largest arms manufacturer. The 'Filton 18,' as they have become known, used sledgehammers and axes to cause over $1 million in damage. Seven of the protesters, including Zoe, were arrested on site.Since then, she has been in prison—and will be for the foreseeable future.
Hundreds of Brits have been involved in direct-action protests with the group, including hacking holes in factory roofs and parking trucks full of manure outside of factory gates, and dozens have been arrested. One recent action saw a man scale Big Ben and fly a Palestinian flag for 16 hours. 'Free the Filton 18,' the protester screamed.
Elbit—which has advertised their weapons as 'battle-tested' in Gaza and the West Bank—has drawn the ire of the group due to their presence in the U.K. and the fact that they are the primary arms producer for Israel. Cargo documents show exports to Israel from at least four companies associated with Elbit Systems U.K. since the war began, including from the Filton site. Sam Perlo-Freeman, research coordinator at the political advocacy group Campaign Against Arms Trade, told Slate that one of Elbit's subsidiaries 'has a very steady stream of licenses, described as being of a component for targeting equipment.' He added that 'although we don't know exactly what equipment this is going to, it is very likely that this is being used by Israeli forces in the West Bank and Gaza.'
The protests seem to be having the impact they intended: Nine U.K. companies have cut ties with Elbit since October 2023. It was revealed last month that the landlords of an Elbit site in Leicester sold the premises and no longer work with the company. In November, Elbit lost its largest arms contract, worth over $2.5 billion, after the Ministry of Defence scrapped a drone program with Elbit subsidiary UAV Tactical Systems. Elbit Systems U.K. did not respond to Slate's request for comment.
'You can't put the genie back in the bottle now,' Huda Ammori, co-founder of Palestine Action, told Slate. 'There's so many people involved in Palestine Action now that it's unstoppable at this point, no matter what the state tries to do.'
In the U.K., protesters have paid the price for their actions. The imprisonment of Elbit protesters under anti-terrorism charges has caused widespread outrage. Some Filton protesters were initially denied access to legal representation and classified as high-security prisoners with a terrorism connection. Nearly 45,000 people have signed a petition calling for the British government to stop using counterterrorism powers against pro-Palestinian protesters. Last month, a human rights expert appointed by the United Nations wrote to the British government with concerns about the charges.
In a statement, a government spokesperson for the U.K. Home Office told Slate that 'criminal activity against legitimate businesses should always be taken seriously, but it is up to the operationally independent police force and judiciary to decide what action is necessary in any individual cases.'
Clare did not hear from her daughter Zoe, who has autism, for two weeks after she was arrested. She had been placed in solitary confinement. 'One, two, three days went by, the phone call never came,' Clare said. 'It was literally disappearing her.'
Palestine Action was started in July 2020 with the aim of using direct action to disrupt U.K.-based companies supplying weapons to Israel. Later that year, five members climbed onto the roof of an Elbit factory in Staffordshire and spent three nights using hammers and tools to break it before police hauled them down.
In 2022, the group had two big victories. After relentless attacks on Elbit's London headquarters, the firm abandoned its office. And after targeted action on its factory in Oldham, Manchester—which caused the sites to be closed for weeks at a time and caused millions in damages—Elbit sold off one of its subsidiaries in the U.K.
Following the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023, though, Palestine Action 'saw a huge increase in people who wanted to take direct action, and it's only continued to grow,' Ammori said. Across the U.K., members of the group have performed direct actions such as conducting a raid in Filton where activists broke in and smashed weapons, breaking down the walls of an Elbit drone factory in Staffordshire on Christmas Day, and spraying red paint on the offices of Allianz, which provides insurance to Elbit.
The protests have also been taking place in the U.S. In Boston, Palestine Action collaborated with the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement to protest weekly at an Elbit facility in late 2023. In August, Elbit confirmed it had shut down the facility. The FBI also reportedly opened an investigation into Palestine Action last year following protests against Elbit's factory in Merrimack, New Hampshire.
While Elbit has not publicly confirmed that the protests are the reasons for the closures, Palestine Action and other pro-Palestinian advocates say that this is proof that their activism has worked to hinder the work of the company. 'It hasn't yet stopped them from operating in the U.K., but clearly it does seem to be a very effective form of direct action,' said Perlo-Freedman from the Campaign Against Arms Trade.
Regardless, it's clear that Elbit is at least feeling the pressure. In 2022, members of the British government, including former Home Secretary Priti Patel, met with Martin Fausset, CEO of Elbit Systems U.K., to discuss Palestine Action, according to documents obtained by the Freedom of Information Act and seen by Slate. During the meeting, Patel reassured Fausset that 'the criminal protest acts' against the company were being taken seriously by the government.
Since they began their efforts, there have been 118 court convictions of Palestine Action activists, with 33 others found not guilty, and 24 more court hearings listed this year.
Activists are typically charged by police with offenses such as criminal damage, violent disorder, grievous bodily harm, and aggravated burglary. But some of the activists, including Zoe, were rearrested while already in custody under the Terrorism Act, a controversial law that allows law enforcement to further detain and interrogate suspects and delay their rights to legal support. The mother of another Filton demonstrator was arrested under the act and held incommunicado for five days.
The Counter Terrorism Policing South East and Regional Organised Crime Unit confirmed to Slate that those 'arrested in connection with this incident were arrested under terrorism legislation,' but said they cannot comment further due to active legal proceedings. The Crown Prosecution Service, the principal public agency for conducting criminal prosecutions in England, told Slate, 'Our decision to submit to the court that these alleged offenses have a terrorist connection is based on our independent assessment of the evidence available and the relevant legislation.'
'There is an irony of using terrorism legislation against people who are trying to stop arms being used against a civilian population,' Tim Crosland, a coordinator with the campaign group Defend Our Juries, told Slate.
The moves by the U.K. government have been widely criticized—even drawing the ire of international bodies. A U.N. panel has demanded that the U.K. government 'explain the factual and legal grounds justifying the alleged arrest and detention of the activists under counter-terrorism laws.'
Ammori, co-founder of Palestine Action, said that activists have experienced seemingly never-ending raids at their homes. 'They are intense police raids,' said Ammori. 'If you are going to arrest people, just arrest them, but the way they have gone about it has shown that they have significantly upped the amount of state resources to try and stop Palestine Action.'
For Zoe, the end is not in sight. Her next court date is in November 2025, and the second in May 2026. Clare visits her daughter in the women's prison once a week, which is two hours away from her home. She remains haunted by the image of her child being led away in court back in August, when she was denied bail.
'It was the most traumatic moment of my life, being in the courts, seeing her through two layers of glass and hearing the judge say 'No,' ' Clare said. 'I just sobbed at the top of my voice.'
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