Files reviewed by The Grayzone reveal a shocking foreign meddling scandal, as British state prosecutors are seen colluding with Israeli authorities to classify anti-genocide protesters as terrorists and imprison them on heavily politicized grounds.
by Kit Klarenberg
Part 1
Documents released by the British government reveal that London has been coordinating with Israeli officials to prosecute protestors associated with activist group Palestine Action for disrupting the operations of Elbit Systems, which manufactures deadly weapons being used in the genocide in Gaza.
The documents highlight a years-long Israeli influence campaign, and suggest that Tel Aviv’s meddling has prompted London to abandon well-established legal standards in order to charge anti-genocide activists under highly politicized counter-terror provisions.
One especially revealing document shows the British Attorney General’s Office (AGO) furnishing their Israeli counterparts with guidance on how to avoid an arrest warrant for war crimes, reassuring them that the Crown Prosecutorial Service (CPS) “has strengthened the procedural safeguards around the issuing of private arrest warrants in recent years.”
The documents highlight a years-long Israeli influence campaign, and suggest that Tel Aviv’s meddling has prompted London to abandon well-established legal standards in order to charge anti-genocide activists under highly politicized counter-terror provisions.
One especially revealing document shows the British Attorney General’s Office (AGO) furnishing their Israeli counterparts with guidance on how to avoid an arrest warrant for war crimes, reassuring them that the Crown Prosecutorial Service (CPS) “has strengthened the procedural safeguards around the issuing of private arrest warrants in recent years.”
The Israelis have been on edge since former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was forced to cancel a trip to London in 2009 after a UK court issued an arrest warrant for her involvement in the blood-stained assault on Gaza that year. Leaked Israeli Ministry of Justice files revealed how Tel Aviv subsequently initiated an intensive – and ultimately successful – lobbying campaign to guarantee its officials “special mission” certificates which allowed them to visit London without the fear of arrest. As Declassified UK reported, the British government has granted Israel three special mission certificates through the Gaza genocide.
Another startling file released by the British government revealed that Nicola Smith, the Head of International Law at Britain’s Attorney General’s Office, shared “contact details” for UK prosecutors and counter-terror investigators with Israel’s deputy ambassador to London.
The email was sent to Israel’s deputy envoy, Daniela Grudsky Ekstein, with the subject line “Nicola Smith to Israelis re CPS/SO15 contact details,” indicating the UK government had referred Tel Aviv directly to the CPS, or Crown Prosecutorial Service, as well as to SO15, London’s counter-terror squad, to advance the prosecution of activists affiliated with Palestine Action.
The email was sent to Israel’s deputy envoy, Daniela Grudsky Ekstein, with the subject line “Nicola Smith to Israelis re CPS/SO15 contact details,” indicating the UK government had referred Tel Aviv directly to the CPS, or Crown Prosecutorial Service, as well as to SO15, London’s counter-terror squad, to advance the prosecution of activists affiliated with Palestine Action.
Smith’s email, sent on September 9, 2024, came less than two weeks after Ekstein and Smith held an in-person meeting on August 29, 2024, at Israel’s notoriously spy-infested embassy in London. The message is chummily addressed from “Nicky” to “Daniela,” suggesting warm relations between the two.
Earlier that month, 10 Palestine Action activists were imprisoned after raiding an Elbit factory in Filton, South West England. They destroyed Israeli quadcopters constructed on the grounds. These small drones have been routinely used to maim and murder Palestinian civilians in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Activists who demonstrated against Elbit are currently being detained under “counter-terror” powers, despite facing non-terror related charges such as criminal damage, prompting UN rapporteurs to issue a statement condemning their confinement. The CPS has indicated it will argue their offenses had a “terrorist connection” in order to maximize their sentences.
Earlier that month, 10 Palestine Action activists were imprisoned after raiding an Elbit factory in Filton, South West England. They destroyed Israeli quadcopters constructed on the grounds. These small drones have been routinely used to maim and murder Palestinian civilians in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Activists who demonstrated against Elbit are currently being detained under “counter-terror” powers, despite facing non-terror related charges such as criminal damage, prompting UN rapporteurs to issue a statement condemning their confinement. The CPS has indicated it will argue their offenses had a “terrorist connection” in order to maximize their sentences.
The files released by the British government suggest the Israeli government has pushed for incarceration and prosecution of the Palestine Action demonstrators, who were known at the time as the “Filton 10.”
The August 2024 rendezvous was not the first face-to-face interaction between Smith, the international law advisor to the UK AGO, and the deputy Israeli ambassador, Ekstein. A month beforehand, the two met alongside Israeli Embassy Counsellor of Political Affairs Yosef Zilberman and UK AGO Director Douglas Wilson. The back-to-back meetings hint at frequent coordination between the British and Israeli embassies – a notion reinforced by declassified emails reviewed by The Grayzone from May 2022 showing Israeli embassy officials in London secretly met with AGO representatives, including Wilson.
The August 2024 rendezvous was not the first face-to-face interaction between Smith, the international law advisor to the UK AGO, and the deputy Israeli ambassador, Ekstein. A month beforehand, the two met alongside Israeli Embassy Counsellor of Political Affairs Yosef Zilberman and UK AGO Director Douglas Wilson. The back-to-back meetings hint at frequent coordination between the British and Israeli embassies – a notion reinforced by declassified emails reviewed by The Grayzone from May 2022 showing Israeli embassy officials in London secretly met with AGO representatives, including Wilson.
Though records of the summit are redacted, it seems Tel Aviv was trying to interfere in ongoing cases against Palestine solidarity protesters. In a subsequent email to Israeli embassy apparatchiks, Wilson signed off, “I know from previous experience there is well-established direct contact between [our] legal teams, both between capitals and via our missions in New York.”
Three months after AGO officials provided the Israeli embassy with contact details of the officers investigating the activists behind the raid of the Filton facility, ten more Palestine Action demonstrators involved in the action were arrested. Eight were subsequently charged and remanded in prison under the same counter-terror powers as the previous ten, and the group is now referred to as the “Filton 18.” If Israel was in any way responsible for this move, it would represent a clear breach of core CPS code, and another layer in what appears to be a major foreign meddling scandal.
As the Service’s General Principle 2.1 explicitly states, British “prosecutors must be free to carry out their professional duties without political interference and must not be affected by improper or undue pressure or influence from any source.”
As the Service’s General Principle 2.1 explicitly states, British “prosecutors must be free to carry out their professional duties without political interference and must not be affected by improper or undue pressure or influence from any source.”
Palestine Action cofounder Huda Amori has insisted that Tel Aviv is influencing the British prosecutions of anti-genocide protesters. “There is clear evidence showing continuous political and foreign interference in Palestine Action cases,” Amori told The Grayzone, and that “the ongoing prosecutions of journalists and activists who dare stand up for Palestine is politically motivated, and done under the influence of the Israeli embassy.”
“Any violation of the independence of the judiciary is an abuse of process under the rule of law,” she continued. “Therefore, the prosecutions must be stopped and the prisoners freed.”
“Any violation of the independence of the judiciary is an abuse of process under the rule of law,” she continued. “Therefore, the prosecutions must be stopped and the prisoners freed.”
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