Six activists linked to the pro-Palestinian advocacy group Palestine Action made a dramatic procedural move on Wednesday, choosing to represent themselves during their trial over an August 2024 raid on an Israeli-owned Elbit Systems manufacturing facility near Bristol’s Filton area. The group, facing charges of criminal damage for the break-in, said court rulings left their defence lawyers unable to continue representing them, forcing them to deliver their own closing remarks to the jury. Only one defendant, 23-year-old Samuel Corner, retained his legal counsel; Corner faces an additional additional charge of grievous bodily harm with intent for allegations he struck a police officer with a sledgehammer during the incident.
Many of the activists spoke through tears, their voices shaking with emotion as they laid out their motivations directly to the jury. In her address, 29-year-old Charlotte Head explained that court decisions left her barrister unable to continue her representation, and warned the jury that planned UK government reforms seek to eliminate jury trials entirely. “They are afraid of the power you hold as a jury,” Head told the assembled court.
Head has pleaded not guilty to the criminal damage charge, arguing her actions were legally justified because the facility produced weapons. Though the court ruled that events following October 2023 are irrelevant to the proceedings, Head referenced the ongoing conflict in Gaza implicitly, tying her actions to the broader crisis. She described her prior experience volunteering with migrants and refugees in the Calais refugee camp in France, where she said she witnessed violence that she believes was funded by UK government money. Extending that argument, she claimed the UK is complicit in the Gaza crisis by allowing Israeli weapons manufacturers to operate on British soil.
“The devastation I had witnessed in Calais was happening on an exponential scale,” Head said. “Watching a genocide live-streamed on my phone, I couldn’t sit back and do nothing when I knew once again our government was directly involved.”
Head told the jury she exhausted all conventional channels of political advocacy before joining the Palestine Action action: she wrote to her Member of Parliament, receiving only an automated reply, and joined mass national protests, even as civilian areas in Gaza continued to be destroyed. She became involved with the group during a protest encampment outside London’s Hackney Town Hall, where activists called on the local council to divest from Israeli arms companies. After months of peaceful campaigning that produced no change, she said, “I had no other choice, no other options were available because we tried them all.”
In her own closing address, 22-year-old Zoe Rogers echoed Head’s argument, pointing to evidence presented during the trial that confirmed Elbit Systems manufactures weapons for Israel on UK soil, and that British research and development has played a critical role in the Israeli military. She noted that the Filton facility targeted in the raid has been visited by the Israeli ambassador and holds official export licenses to ship weapons to Israel, framing the company as the “backbone of the Israeli military.” Like Head, Rogers said she and her co-defendants had tried every legal, democratic avenue to end UK support for Israeli arms manufacturing, and none of those efforts succeeded.
Rogers drew attention to what she called a pattern of censorship throughout the three-week trial, telling jurors “you might have noticed certain words have been blacklisted, that, until our speeches, the word ‘genocide’ hasn’t been said once. It’s almost as if topics of conversation have been banned.” She accused prosecution officials of suppressing the reality of the facility’s role in the Gaza conflict rather than debating the facts of the case. “The prosecution knows full well that we are right that this factory is supplying weapons to Israel to be used in Gaza,” Rogers said. “They are choosing to suppress the truth rather than contest it.”
The activist acknowledged that she faces major personal consequences including potential prison time that she has much to lose, but confirmed she intentionally planned to be arrested during the raid. She reminded jurors that they must be certain of the defendants’ guilt to convict, asking “How can you be sure, when you know that you haven’t heard the whole truth?” Breaking down in tears as she concluded her address, Rogers added, “There’s one thing you can be sure of, I’m proud, so proud I took part in this.”
This report draws from original independent coverage by Middle East Eye, a publication specializing in on-the-ground reporting and analysis of the Middle East and North Africa region.