Four Palestine Action activists are due to stand trial next week, having been imprisoned since the action in December 2022, where the Welsh factory of the Israel-supplying weapons company Teledyne was occupied and dismantled. Their actions were taken to halt American-owned Teledyne’s production of computer technologies and components for Israel’s weapons systems and military aircraft. Having successfully severed the chain of complicity between Wales and apartheid Israel, and facing charges of conspiracy commit criminal damage, to the ‘Teledyne 4’ will enter Caernafon Crown Court next week to show that Teledyne is Guilty.
After the action, on December 9th 2022, police alleged that hundreds of thousands of pounds of damage was caused over the course of the day-long occupation [1]. They have been imprisoned awaiting trial since then – each due to have spent a total of 152 days on remand in police custody by the time the trial commences, on the 9th May, the longest period of time by far that any Palestine Action activist has been held in custody.
Their action undermined the Wales-based factory’s links to Israel’s settler-colonialism, with the parent company Teledyne being the largest exporter of arms from Britain to Israel [2]. Teledyne have been supplying armed drones to Israel since at least 1973 [3], with a well established role as a facilitator of Israel’s ethnic cleansing. Teledyne Labtech’s Welsh factory produces crucial components for military radar systems, missile seeker heads, and military communications technologies [4, 5], any number of which could comprise Teledyne’s extensive exports to Israel [1]. The factory specialises in circuit boards and computer technologies, including those integrated into military aircraft [6].
Charged with conspiracy to commit criminal damage, the activists have been repeatedly denied bail, and have been held in HMP Berwyn and HMP Styal since December. Starting in May, the four will get the opportunity to prove in court that Teledyne and the suppliers of Israel’s war machine are guilty, Palestine Action activists are not.
The trial is expected to last for two weeks, and supporters have been asked to attend from 9:30am each day of the trial, starting May 9th, at Caernarfon Crown Court, Llanberis Road, Caernarfon, Gwynedd, Wales, LL55 2DF. Reporters have been asked to attend in court and can contact info@palestineaction.org with any questions.
A Palestine Action statement on the trial is provided below:
“The Teledyne 4 have spent far longer imprisoned than any other Palestine Action activists – over 5 months on remand, repeatedly denied bail, despite having not faced trial. This further proves our case, that Britain is a complicit partner in Israel’s colonialism, and its laws, courts and police work to shore up Israel’s weapons supply chain.
The Teledyne 4 and all actionists who put their liberty on the line to sever this supply chain should stand proud: they have worked to bring an end to British complicity in the colonisation of Palestine, and will be able to expose the real criminals in the courts come May 9th”
[1] www.palestineaction.org/teledyne-prison-bail/
[2] Teledyne, along with their subsidiary Teledyne e2v, are Britain’s largest exporter of arms to Israel by volume of arms export licenses, 2008-2021 [https://caat.org.uk/data/exports-uk/overview?region=Israel]
[3] https://www.jstor.org/stable/26271146
[4] https://www.palestineaction.org/teledyne-prisoners/
[5] https://web.archive.org/web/20221209104638/https://www.teledynedefenseelectronics.com/labtech/applications/Pages/Defence.aspx
[6] https://www.airframer.com/news_story.html?release=69732
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
If you would like any further information on Palestine action, please contact info@palestineaction.org
Palestine Action is a direct-action network of groups and individuals formed with the mandate of taking action against the sites of Elbit Systems and other companies complicit in Israeli apartheid, calling for all such sites to be shut down.
To read about our upcoming ‘siege’ against UAV Tactical Systems: https://www.palestineaction.org/siege