On Thursday 26th January, seven defendants were acquitted on charges of aggravated tresspass and failing to leave land when requested to do so by a police officer. The charges resulted from a blockade of the Agrexco premises in Hayes Middlesex on November 11th, 2004. Agrexco is the Israeli National exporter of fresh produce and flowers from Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories. The acquittal after submissions at the end of the prosecution case, meant that the defendants were unable to present their defence that trade with Israeli Settlements is not lawful activity.
banner at lunch
The Action
A group of activists, many of whom had previously spent time in Palestine, arrived at the Agrexco UK Headquarters shortly after 4am on Thursday, 11th November 2004. Using temporary fencing and D-locks which they had brought with them, the activists erected a cage across one of the driveways. The cage was constructed in a diamond shape and there was someone D-locked to each inside corner. At the other driveway, temporary fencing was erected across the driveway and activists attached themselves to the fencing.
The blockade lasted until after 2pm, and the company estimated that they had suffered a financial loss of between £40 000 and £200 000. All those who locked on were arrested and three were denied bail and held overnight
Bail Conditions
At the hearing on 12th November 2004, the defendants were bailed. All seven were bailed not to go near the estate where Agrexco is sited, and the three that were held overnight were bailed on the further condition that they did not enter private land for the purposes of protest without the express permission of the landowner. What is most worrying about the bail conditions is that they were proposed by a barrister appearing on behalf of the defendants. The bail conditions were in place until the acquittal last week.
The Trial
Due to a succession of problems, including disclosure of relevant materials, the trial finally took place 15 months after the action. On the first day, the Warehouse Manager and General Manager of Agrexco, Amos Orr appeared as witnesses for the prosecution
Amos Orr was in the stand for the best part of 2.5 hours whilst he was questionned by the defence team on his knowledge of conditions in the Occupied Territories, the impact of settlements on the daily life of Palestinians, and his knowledge of war crimes and international crimes that were being committied in the Occupied Territories. Initially he claimed not to keep up with the news, but over time the court learnt that he was aware of issues surrounding the route of the so-called separation barrier aka the Apartheid Wall, and was aware that children had been killed in Israeli Military Operations in the Occupied Territories.
Over the course of questionning of the first two witnesses, it became evident that the land of which the protestors had erected their structures, did not belong to Agrexco. Agrexco had a right of way over the land but did not own it. It also came to light that there did not appear to be a current license for the goods in the warehouse at the time of the action.
A group of people enjoyed a lunch against trade with Israel outside the court during the day.
The second day of the trial saw a number of police witnesses and a screening of the video evidence shot by the police aduring the action. A number of the subsequent witnesses managed to contradict Chief Inspector Cumber, the operational 'silver' who was in charge of the 'critical incident'. By the end of day 2 it seemed apparent that the warnings issued by Chief Inspector Cumber were open to interpretation and had sown confusion.
Wednesday saw the close of the prosecution case, and a number of submissions by the defence team. Court was adjourned overnight at 3 pm and on the Thursday, the District Judge gave her ruling that the prosecution had failed to prove that tresspass took place, and that therefore she was acquiting all seven defendants. Whilst the acquittal is to be enjoyed, the down side was that no ruling was made on the legality of settlement products. During the trial, a meeting was held at ULU with Uri Davis, author of Israel: The Apartheid State, Sue Backwell - supporter of academic boycott, and Palestinian writer Ghada Kharmi in support of an economic boycott of Israeli goods. Uri davis gave a thought provoking presentation on Israel as an Apartheid State, and the need for a boycott to effect change in the region.
Links
Defendants press releaseAgrexco and the jordan Valley
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