- cross-posted to:
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- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
A British judge has sentenced four Palestine Action protesters as terrorists, handing them custodial sentences ranging from four to eight years.
The unprecedented ruling came despite jurors convicting them of criminal charges not connected to terrorism during the prosecution.
On Friday, the presiding judge, Justice Jeremy Johnson, added a “terrorism connection” to their offences.
In a preliminary ruling in March 2025, Johnson found an “appearance” of a terrorism connection in the case, as he said the activists were attempting to influence the Israeli government by restricting their access to weapons. This information was withheld from the jury who convicted them.
“What I find morally dubious is why [literally any NATO country] is put in the position to collaborate with industries complicit in school shootings”, since they’re using AR16 rifles, 5.56 or 9mm ammo, Glock or CZ pistols, etc.
The industry makes the tools, the governments (or, well, individuals) decide how to use them. If the tools are well made and have high capabilities, I want Ukraine to have access to them regardless of the fact that some traitorous, murderous, corrupt dictators are also using them elsewhere.
You make an argument that chooses a priority: “regardless of the fact that”. Guess what, other people make their own priority arguments where they make their own “regardless of the fact that” calculations. If you get to call other people “morally dubious” for not following your absolute priority, so do they get to call you “morally dubious” for not following theirs. Then the conversation becomes “which genocide matters more, Putin’s or Netanyahu’s”. Is that the conversation you really want to be having though?
Here’s what I say instead and you should be able to see the pragmatism in this point of view:
Ukraine should have the tools to fight for its freedom which is why it should not be put by its allies in the position to have to navigate suppliers that are politically toxic and a source of uncertainty and division in its support base (the conflicting moral priority arguments in my first paragraph).
The cold hard logic is that Elbit is a politically toxic, politically compromised supplier that comes with unnecessary uncertainty and risk. The fact that there are large sections of western populations that hold very legitimate grievances against them is very much an opening for Russian propaganda and manipulation. The UK should not expose Ukraine to any of that.
So if you really care about Ukraine having a shot, you should simply demand the exclusion of Israeli linked suppliers. They are a strategic liability for Ukraine. It’s just not worth the drama and uncertainty from the point of view of Ukraine focusing on what matters to them and for sure nobody needs to be giving Putin any more talking points about western hypocrisy.
You missed my point.
There are no “suppliers not ‘complicit’ in genocide” due to the variety of equipment Israel is using. One way or another, every major military industrial complex member from the West is there.
I’m saying that just as you wouldn’t say that Ikea is complicit in murder because someone used one of their knives, you shouldn’t say that the ammunition or hardware industry is complicit in genocide because someone is using their gear.
The arms industry is far from black and white. It’s a spectrum of shitty grey. Some part of that spectrum is made up of actual Israeli companies like Elbit. That’s not some neutral “IKEA” that “happens” to sell something that someone “happens” to use to do something bad. It’s a company that’s literally part of the military-industrial complex of a genocidal apartheid state. That’s a part of the shitty spectrum of the arms industry that Ukraine should not be put in a position to depend on.
Or to put it differently: if Ukraine is made to depend on those motherfuckers, don’t clutch your pearls if the consequences (political blowback and uncertainty due to direct action from pro-palestinian activism and movements in the west) of that really bad decision end up affecting Ukrainian capacity. Don’t blame the activists trying to grind the gears of Israel’s genocide to a halt. They were going to do that anyway AND THEY ARE MORALLY CORRECT TO TRY TO DO THAT. If that inadvertently ends up hurting the Ukrainian war effort, blame Ukraine’s allies for exposing Ukraine to that strategic liability. Do you understand what I’m saying?
Or if you want it all the way down to brass tacks: Palestinians don’t have an obligation to die for Ukrainans. Palestine solidarity actions in the West don’t have an obligation to Ukraine to facilitate the industry that actively participates in Palestinian genocide. If the West’s Ukraine armament strategy depends on such a fucked up moral catastrophe and also depends on their citizens going along with that moral catastrophe, the West’s armaments strategy is just plain fucking stupid because it will keep producing friction and uncertainty and they should fucking do better.