Four activists remain in prison after they took action on Friday 9th December to shut down the Welsh factory of American-owned Teledyne, a supplier of technology and weaponry to Israel.[1] After breaking in and occupying the roof of the Presteigne, Powys factory on Thursday last week, the activists were charged with ‘conspiracy to commit criminal damage’ and ‘conspiracy to commit burglary’ and remanded to prison by a judge at Welshpool Magistrates Court on Monday 12th December.[2]
During the hearing, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said “the business has been unable to operate given the full extent of the damage caused. Products have been significantly damaged”.[3] They alleged that the activists dismantled over 25 windows, computers, monitors, two machines and products. Ultimately, the action lead to the factory being unable to produce military hardware bound for Israel’s apartheid and settler colonial regime.[4]
All of the activists are appealing against their detention in prison, which may continue into 2023. Today, one of the four had their appeal for bail denied in a hearing which they attended from inside HMP Styal by video link to Mold Crown Court. The other three activists await for their appeal for bail to be heard.
Having dismantled the weapons factory in Prestigne, Powys, the Crown Prosecution Service initially alleged that the four caused £500,000 in damages to Teledyne’s premises. Today, they stated that the total amount of damages was closer to £1,000,000, and the factory still remains inoperative nearly a week after the action.
Shortly after the action, Teledyne Labtech, based in Presteigne, Wales, took down their web page which detailed the military applications of their products.[5] Amongst the list includes military communications, military radar systems and missile seeker heads. Fortunately, their attempt to conceal the deadly results of their manufacturing has failed, and the page is archived on the wayback machine.[6]
Teledyne hold active export licenses for their British operations to supply weaponry to both Israel and India, where the company’s products (including military radar systems, electronic warfare systems and more) are deployed against Palestinian and Kashmiri populations.[7]
A Palestine Action spokesperson has said:
“The welsh political prisoners who took action to disarm Israel’s military supply chain should be heralded as heroes. Instead, the state chose to imprison the activists, demonstrating their desperation to quash our burgeoning direct action movement. But Palestine Action will not be detered. Ultimately, the dismantling of Teledyne Labtech’s weaponry is a victory for the Palestinian people, achieved through selfless sacrifice.”
ENDS
Images from the action, free to reproduce with credit to be given to Vladimir Morozov, are available here: bit.ly/PalTeledyne
Palestine Action is a network of groups and individuals established to take direct action against properties owned by Israel’s biggest arms firm Elbit Systems. The mission is to shut Elbit down and end all British complicity in the illegal colonisation of Palestine.
Email: info@palestineaction.org
Website: https://palestineaction.org/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Pal_action
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pal_action/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@pal_action
Telegram: https://t.me/palaction
NOTES TO EDITORS
[1] https://www.palestineaction.org/teledyne-break/
[2] https://www.palestineaction.org/teledyne-prisoners/
[4] https://www.herefordtimes.com/news/23187711.four-custody-500-000-powys-protest-damage-factory/
[5] https://www.teledynedefenseelectronics.com/labtech/applications/Pages/Defence
[7] https://caat.org.uk/data/exports-uk/licence-list?company=E2V+Technologies,Teledyne+Technologies