On a Friday ruling at Woolwich Crown Court, a London judge imposed multi-year prison sentences on four Palestine Action activists, convicting their 2024 raid on a British-based Israeli defense factory as a terror-connected act, amid widespread debate over protest rights and counter-terrorism policy in the United Kingdom.
The targeted facility, operated by Israeli defense contractor Elbit Systems, is located in Bristol. On August 6, 2024, the activists carried out a coordinated break-in: 30-year-old Charlotte Head drove a van through the factory’s perimeter gates, and all four activists, clad in matching red jumpsuits, used sledgehammers and crowbars to destroy production equipment. Their stated goal was to halt manufacturing of drones that they argued would be used to kill Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip.
The break-in caused an estimated £1.2 million ($1.6 million) in property damage, and escalated into a violent confrontation with on-site security and responding law enforcement. During the clash, 23-year-old defendant Samuel Corner struck responding police Sergeant Kate Evans twice in the back with a 3.2-kilogram sledgehammer, fracturing her spine. Corner was separately convicted of inflicting grievous bodily harm for the attack. In testimony to the court, Evans said she continues to suffer long-term physical and psychological harm from the incident, including persistent sleep disturbance, recurring panic attacks and distressing nightmares. She also told the court she has received abusive online messages accusing her of collaborating with what the senders called the “Zionist occupation of Britain.”
In his ruling, Justice Jeremy Johnson found that the offense extended far beyond standard criminal damage, because the activists’ actions were intended to force Elbit Systems to cease operations in the U.K. and compel the British government to end arms production ties with Israel. Johnson ruled that this intent gave the crime a clear “terrorist connection.”
“Each defendant agreed to take part in high-level actions, and did so with the shared aim of shutting down Elbit and ending what they regarded as British complicity in Israeli war crimes,” Johnson stated. “The action was designed to influence the U.K. government and also to intimidate a section of the public, and was for the purpose of advancing an ideological or political cause.”
The sentencing handed down reflected the judge’s terror ruling: Corner received a sentence of seven years and eight months, Head and 30-year-old Leona Kamio each got five years, and 21-year-old Fatema Rajwani was sentenced to four years and eight months. The terror conviction also means all four activists must serve at least two-thirds of their sentences before becoming eligible for parole, and will require formal Parole Board approval to be released.
The 2024 Bristol raid was a key event cited by the British government when it proscribed Palestine Action as a designated terrorist organization last year. Official Home Office data shows the ban led to more than 1,600 arrests of pro-Palestine protesters between July and September 2024 alone. While London’s High Court has since ruled the original proscription decision was unlawful, the ban remains in effect pending an appeal ruling scheduled for Monday. Even as Friday’s sentencing proceeded inside the Woolwich Crown Court, more than 100 pro-Palestine protesters were arrested outside the southeast London courthouse by law enforcement.
The four activists were originally convicted of criminal damage during a May 2025 retrial. The case originated from an earlier trial where jurors acquitted six other defendants on charges of aggravated burglary and violent disorder, but could not reach a consensus on criminal damage counts. Two additional co-defendants were ultimately acquitted during the retrial.
Human rights organizations have sharply criticized the ruling, warning it sets a dangerous precedent for the criminalization of political protest in the U.K. Amnesty International’s UK chief executive Kerry Moscogiuri called the sentencing “a new low” in what the group describes as a broader national crackdown on peaceful protest activity. “It is completely disproportionate to treat protest-related offending as terrorism,” Moscogiuri said in a post-sentencing statement.