{"id":6392,"date":"2025-12-09T03:15:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T01:15:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jonathan-cook.net\/blog\/?p=6392"},"modified":"2025-12-09T13:13:30","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T11:13:30","slug":"public-filton-trial-videos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jonathan-cook.net\/blog\/2025-12-09\/public-filton-trial-videos\/","title":{"rendered":"Has the British public been tricked about what the Filton trial videos really show?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Starmer desperately needs the trial of six peace activists who targeted Israeli arms firm Elbit to go his way, and bolster his government’s claim that Palestine Action is a terrorist organisation<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The current trial in London of six peace activists is proving just how determined the British state is to hollow out the public\u2019s civil, political and legal rights to justify its continuing support for Israel\u2019s slaughter of Gaza\u2019s children.<\/p>\n

US President Donald Trump launched a narrative makeover, with his phoney \u201cceasefire\u201d<\/a>\u00a0and \u201cpeace plan\u201d, designed to obscure Israel\u2019s continued genocidal destruction of Gaza.<\/p>\n

In parallel, Keir Starmer\u2019s government has been working strenuously to impose a narrative in which efforts by Britons to stop that genocide \u2013 and to highlight his own government\u2019s complicity in it \u2013 are branded \u201cterrorism\u201d.<\/p>\n

In the summer, the government outlawed Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation \u2013 making it the first direct-action group in British history to be proscribed.<\/p>\n

It was the equivalent of a British government declaring the Suffragettes to be a terrorist organisation a century ago, so that it could avoid giving women the right to vote.<\/p>\n

Thousands have opposed the proscription of Palestine Action as an assault on the rights to speech, assembly and protest, and have been charged with terrorism offences for holding signs stating: \u201cI oppose genocide. I stand with Palestine Action.\u201d<\/p>\n\"\"\n

https:\/\/x.com\/Jonathan_K_Cook\/status\/1964785615691829392<\/a><\/p>\n

However, problematically for the government, which is bent on riding roughshod over our most foundational rights, the six activists on trial were charged before the group\u2019s proscription. None are charged with terrorism offences.<\/p>\n

They are accused instead of causing criminal damage \u2013 to an Israeli weapons factory in Filton, Bristol, in August last year \u2013 as well as aggravated burglary and violent disorder. One faces an additional charge of causing grievous bodily harm. All six deny the charges.<\/p>\n

But after months of government narrative spin, you would hardly grasp what the trial at Woolwich Crown Court is really about from the misleading media coverage.<\/p>\n

Narrative battleground<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The government has been desperately trying to justify proscription by implying<\/a>, through willing media outlets like the Times, that Palestine Action received funding from Iran. It has only ever implied<\/em> as much because it has precisely zero evidence to back up such a claim. It is straightforward government disinformation, apparently cooked up<\/a> by a public relations firm for Elbit.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s biggest arms manufacturer, with an annual turnover of $7 billion last year, is also ranked<\/a> as the 25th largest weapons firm in the world.<\/p>\n

Now Starmer\u2019s government is using the trial to bolster the idea that the defendants behaved in ways that prove Palestine Action was not just trying to prevent the Gaza genocide by attacking the property of a major weapons firm, as it claims, but was also directing its violence at individuals, and specifically at officials of the state<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This, the government hopes, will convince the public that proscription was warranted \u2013 and draw attention away from its own sustained support for Israel\u2019s genocide.<\/p>\n

The trial \u2013 referred to as the \u201cFilton trial\u201d, because of the factory\u2019s location \u2013 has therefore turned into a narrative battleground. The key evidence is video footage from cameras inside the factory, and bodycams worn by the defendants, by Elbit\u2019s security guards and by police officers who attended the scene later.<\/p>\n

There have been tight reporting restrictions on the trial \u2013 which has been especially helpful to the government, because it has used the lack of detail to build a misleading narrative that advances its cause.<\/p>\n

Notably, overlapping the Filton trial was a three-day judicial review at the High Court of the government\u2019s decision to proscribe Palestine Action. The court\u2019s ruling is expected next month.<\/p>\n

The government not only wants to lock up the six Filton defendants, to demonstrate it was right to proscribe Palestine Action, but it also needs to make sure the High Court does not reverse its proscription decision.<\/p>\n

That may explain why the judge who ordered the judicial review and was due to oversee it, Judge Chamberlain, was removed inexplicably at the last moment. He was replaced by a panel of three new judges who have personal histories and connections suggesting they may take a view more sympathetic to the government.<\/p>\n

\n

Ousting the review judge in the appeal against Palestine Action’s proscription, and replacing him with three new judges, is a desperate attempt to create a veneer of judicial authority in support of the actions of Starmer’s outlaw government.<\/p>\n

My latest: https:\/\/t.co\/r84WPOfAT4<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/ace8CbDIZv<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Jonathan Cook (@Jonathan_K_Cook) November 26, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n