Palestine Action Activists Take the Risks But Our Crowdfunder Will Ensure That They Don’t Also Have to Bear the Costs
When Palestine Action activists take action against the Death Factories of Elbit, whose sole purpose is to enable war crimes they take a personal risk such as the deprivation of liberty, assault, attacks in the media and so on.
The purpose of the Crowdfunder I have set up is to meet the £156 Victim Surcharge we have all been landed with, despite there being no victim and to make a contribution towards our costs. Four of the five defendants had to travel hundreds of miles, find accommodation in a strange town, eat out etc. I am proposing that each of the 5 Defendants receive £250.
In order that people don’t think this is a subtle attempt at self enrichment I will not be taking anything except the Victim Surcharge.
Any surplus will go towards the costs that other Palestine Action Defendants will occur. We applaud people who take the risk to get rid of Elbit we should not expect them to also pay for the privilege. Many people are literally on the breadline.
Only in the twisted mind of the British State can war criminals be considered victims and their accusers criminals yet it is us who have to pay a Victim Surcharge. If Elbit was forced to pay for each of their victims they would have been bankrupt years ago.
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Elbit are a company totally without any ethics or morality. Not only do they supply the apartheid regime in Israel with 85% of its drones but they supply any genocidal state in the world with what it wants. Myanmar, whose military junta even Britain has put an arms embargo on and which has murdered thousands of the Rohinga people, is supplied with Elbit’s latest weaponry.
Being on bail, subject to curfew, tagged and remanded in custody is enough of an ordeal as it is, in addition to the uncertainty and the threat of imprisonment that hanged over us for more than two years. For more than two years we could not get our lives back together or make plans for the future.
We were willing to make these sacrifices but we are asking you to make a small sacrifice. We are asking you and all supporters of the Palestinians and human rights to contribute towards the costs and expenses of the 5 Defendants, 4 of whom were found guilty in May this year of ‘intent to cause criminal damage’ to the Shenstone Engine Factory of Elbit.
We have each been sentenced to between 9 and 12 months imprisonment suspended for 2 years and between 80 and 150 hours of unpaid labour as well as 20 hours of ‘rehabililtation’ – re-education isn’t confined to countries like China and North Korea it is alive and kicking Britain too!
Each of the 5 Defendants (the jury was deadlocked on the fifth) has had to find the money to pay for accommodation, meals out and travel expenses to attend court for 7 weeks (only one of us lived locally).
Please give as much as you can afford, however little or however much it is still appreciated. Thank you.
Tony Greenstein
