November 28, 2025
CAGE logo [X]
CAGE International has released a major new report documenting how direct action for Palestine – and Palestine Action (PA) in particular, has fundamentally reshaped Britain’s political landscape by directly disrupting the UK’s material links to Israeli genocide. The report shows how PA’s strategic focus on Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms manufacturer, has been exceptionally effective: closing factories, halting production, driving up costs, and forcing corporations, investors and logistics providers to reconsider their role in enabling genocide.
The report, “Putting Bodies on the Line: The Landscape of Direct Action and Civil Disobedience for Palestine in the UK,” documents the rise of direct action from 2020–2025. It charts how a disciplined, targeted, movement driven by its own conscience and purpose made complicity too costly to ignore, and how this pressure sparked a national reckoning around the limits of conscience, civil resistance, and state power.
Published during the judicial review challenging the proscription of Palestine Action, the report provides a detailed timeline and analysis of the movement’s strategic successes, its own moral clarity, and the escalating repression of the state in response. Its release comes as Palestine Action prisoners have entered a prolonged hunger strike, the Filton 24 trials begin to unfold, and police continue to arrest members of the public for engaging in civil disobedience in solidarity with Palestine Action against Israeli genocide.
The report provides a clear chronology of key actions – from the sustained campaign that shut down Elbit’s Oldham factory, to major production stoppages at Filton and Teledyne – illustrating how strategic disruption, not symbolism, defined the movement’s impact.
Dr Asim Qureshi, CAGE International’s Research Director and author of the report, said:
“This report sets out a simple truth: when institutions are complicit in genocide, a conscience-driven resistance will always break through the cracks. Direct action is the language of those who refuse to be silent in the face of atrocity. Attempts to suppress these actions through criminalisation have not only failed, but have revealed the state’s determination to protect profit and political alliances over human life. The success of direct action is clear – repeated acquittals of actionists marks a shift in the public’s perception around Zionism, and the role that it plays in the world, especially as this genocide continues.”
The release also highlights the wider context, including the International Court of Justice findings of genocidal acts by Israel, and Britain’s continued political and military support, which has made the UK an active facilitator of ongoing crimes against the Palestinian people.
Sally Rooney says Palestine Action ban could block publication of her books in Britain
November 27, 2025
Sally Rooney attends the 2019 Costa Book Awards held at Quaglino’s on January 29, 2019 in London, England [Tristan Fewings/Getty Images]
Famed Irish novelist Sally Rooney told the UK High Court on Thursday that she may be unable to publish new work in Britain as long as the legal ban on activist group Palestine Action remains in place, citing her public support for the movement, local media reported, Anadolu reports.
Rooney warned that the ban, issued this summer, could even result in her existing books being pulled from shelves, with her case presented in court as an example of the ban’s wider impact on freedom of expression, reported The Guardian.
Rooney praised Palestine Action’s activities as “courageous and admirable,” saying the group is committed to stopping what it views as crimes against humanity by Israel in its two-year military offensive on the Gaza Strip.
In her written witness statement, the bestselling author of Normal People and Conversations With Friends said the ban would leave her effectively shut out of the UK market, explaining: “It is … almost certain that I can no longer publish or produce any new work within the UK while this proscription remains in effect.”
“If Palestine Action is still proscribed by the time my next book is due for publication, then that book will be available to readers all over the world and in dozens of languages, but will be unavailable to readers in the United Kingdom simply because no one will be permitted to publish it (unless I am content to give it away for free).”
Since the group was banned, Rooney has said she plans to direct earnings from her work to Palestine Action, a decision that prompted her to cancel a UK trip to collect an award over concerns she could be arrested.
The legal ambiguity makes it hard to foresee the full impact of the ban, she said, but warned her publisher Faber & Faber might be barred from paying her royalties. If that happens, she said, “my existing works may have to be withdrawn from sale and would therefore no longer be available to readers in the UK.”
Adam Straw, representing UN special rapporteur Ben Saul, told the court that growing legal opinion holds the ban to be an unlawful interference under international law, adding that terrorism definitions “do not extend to serious damage to property,” referring to the group spray-painting Royal Air Force planes this July which was cited in the ban.
Representing the home secretary, Sir James Eadie argued that it is for the UK parliament to define terrorism, noting: “Parliament has decided what terrorism is, which includes serious damage to property, whether or not alongside it there is violence against people.”
The hearing will conclude on Tuesday, when the final day of the judicial review is held.
In attacks in Gaza since October 2023, Israel has killed nearly 70,000 people, mostly women and children, and injured over 170,000 others.
In November 2024, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Sally Rooney attends the 2019 Costa Book Awards held at Quaglino’s on January 29, 2019 in London, England [Tristan Fewings/Getty Images]
Famed Irish novelist Sally Rooney told the UK High Court on Thursday that she may be unable to publish new work in Britain as long as the legal ban on activist group Palestine Action remains in place, citing her public support for the movement, local media reported, Anadolu reports.
Rooney warned that the ban, issued this summer, could even result in her existing books being pulled from shelves, with her case presented in court as an example of the ban’s wider impact on freedom of expression, reported The Guardian.
Rooney praised Palestine Action’s activities as “courageous and admirable,” saying the group is committed to stopping what it views as crimes against humanity by Israel in its two-year military offensive on the Gaza Strip.
In her written witness statement, the bestselling author of Normal People and Conversations With Friends said the ban would leave her effectively shut out of the UK market, explaining: “It is … almost certain that I can no longer publish or produce any new work within the UK while this proscription remains in effect.”
“If Palestine Action is still proscribed by the time my next book is due for publication, then that book will be available to readers all over the world and in dozens of languages, but will be unavailable to readers in the United Kingdom simply because no one will be permitted to publish it (unless I am content to give it away for free).”
Since the group was banned, Rooney has said she plans to direct earnings from her work to Palestine Action, a decision that prompted her to cancel a UK trip to collect an award over concerns she could be arrested.
The legal ambiguity makes it hard to foresee the full impact of the ban, she said, but warned her publisher Faber & Faber might be barred from paying her royalties. If that happens, she said, “my existing works may have to be withdrawn from sale and would therefore no longer be available to readers in the UK.”
A historic decline in sympathy for Israel in Britain, and an unprecedented rise in solidarity with Palestine in 2025
Adam Straw, representing UN special rapporteur Ben Saul, told the court that growing legal opinion holds the ban to be an unlawful interference under international law, adding that terrorism definitions “do not extend to serious damage to property,” referring to the group spray-painting Royal Air Force planes this July which was cited in the ban.
Representing the home secretary, Sir James Eadie argued that it is for the UK parliament to define terrorism, noting: “Parliament has decided what terrorism is, which includes serious damage to property, whether or not alongside it there is violence against people.”
The hearing will conclude on Tuesday, when the final day of the judicial review is held.
In attacks in Gaza since October 2023, Israel has killed nearly 70,000 people, mostly women and children, and injured over 170,000 others.
In November 2024, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
No comments:
Post a Comment