Police raided three houses yesterday and arrested two people – on suspicion of 'conspiring to commit racially aggravated criminal damage.' They seized three computers and a lot of papers relating to
Palestine/Israel affairs.

The police, in several vans and cars, were from Bridgend. The charge was related to a minor incursion at the Bridgend Sainsburys last week, during which a couple of boxes of Israeli peppers were sprayed with red paint and a 'Boycott Israel' slogan spray-stencilled on the floor.

The police assumed that the Bridgend and Swansea actions (see below) were co-ordinated, or conspired, by some sort of organisation or command.

Greg Wilkinson had already been arrested in relation to the Tesco Protest in Swansea a few weeks ago, though not charged. D Murphy, who was charged also had her house raided, but happened to be out. The two arrested have been bailed until June 4th.

Greg Wilkinson said: ‘The use of the words 'Israel' and 'Israeli' is no more racist than the use of, say, British, in relation to invasion of Iraq or Afghanistan. No conspiracy exists or is needed to explain the use of red paint in boycott gestures here and there in South Wales - especially since the Swansea action was so widely publicised in local press and online. Raids and searches involving at least 20 police and guards on that one day alone, were a gross waste of police time and public money, not to mention civil liberties.’