Resistance Against the Illegal Sale of Israeli settlement products in the UK

The lawfulness of Israeli settlement produce is neither a ‘grey area’, nor an exclusively ‘political issue’. Making money from war crimes and crimes against humanity is a criminal offence. Israeli settlements in the West Bank are by their very nature a war crime, and the apartheid system which accompanies them is a crime against humanity. A secret Israeli government report was recently leaked by Israeli human rights group Yesh Din to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz (see here ). It details Palestinian landowners who have been pushed off their land by Israel’s settlement program.

War crimes and crimes against humanity are the most serious offences a person can commit. They do not need to be written into domestic Law to be binding, although in the UK these crimes are indeed incorporated into domestic law. Given this, there is an irrefutable obligation on the law enforcement agencies to enforce this area of Law. Their refusal to do so is as incoherent as it is unjust.

In order to highlight this incoherence and injustice, activists have turned to direct action in order to disrupt the illegal trade of settlement goods.

While the police are unwilling to prosecute the companies involved in this illegal business, convicting people of peacefully disrupting serious criminal activity presents something of a problem. This has become most evident at Agrexco. Agrexco is a 50% state owned company, which imports products both from within Israel and the West Bank. Over the past three years activists have routinely disrupted Agrexco’s activities at their depot in swallow field way, Hayes. Protestors have stormed the depot, blockaded the gates, and have dumped builders rubble and horse manure at the entrances. However, despite a steady increase in the frequency of the disruptions, police seem reluctant to arrest.

War crimes and crimes against humanity are the most serious offences a person can commit. They do not need to be written into domestic Law to be binding, although in the UK these crimes are indeed incorporated into domestic law. Given this, there is an irrefutable obligation on the law enforcement agencies to enforce this area of Law. Their refusal to do so is as incoherent as it is unjust.

In order to highlight this incoherence and injustice, activists have turned to direct action in order to disrupt the illegal trade of settlement goods.

On one action a police officer told an activist that the police were not going to “play ball”. By “play ball”, he meant having Agrexco’s criminal activity exposed in court. In 2006 seven activists were tried for disrupting Agrexco’s business. For the trial, the court ordered Agrexco to disclose trading records which proved that Agrexco had been trading with the West Bank settlements of Tomer, Mehola, Hamra, Ro'i, Massua, Patzael, Mekhora, Netiv Ha-Gdud and Bet Ha-Arava.

War crimes and crimes against humanity are the most serious offences a person can commit. They do not need to be written into domestic Law to be binding, although in the UK these crimes are indeed incorporated into domestic law. Given this, there is an irrefutable obligation on the law enforcement agencies to enforce this area of Law. Their refusal to do so is as incoherent as it is unjust.

In order to highlight this incoherence and injustice, activists have turned to direct action in order to disrupt the illegal trade of settlement goods.

In January Activists occupied Ahava cosmetics store at Monmoth Street in central London. Ahava’s ‘dead sea cosmetics’, are manufactured on an illegal settlement called Mitzpe Shalem in the West Bank, using minerals extracted from Palestinian areas of the dead sea.

War crimes and crimes against humanity are the most serious offences a person can commit. They do not need to be written into domestic Law to be binding, although in the UK these crimes are indeed incorporated into domestic law. Given this, there is an irrefutable obligation on the law enforcement agencies to enforce this area of Law. Their refusal to do so is as incoherent as it is unjust.

In order to highlight this incoherence and injustice, activists have turned to direct action in order to disrupt the illegal trade of settlement goods.

There has also been a peoples decommissioning a weapons factory ITT/EDO MBM in Brighton, which makes components used in Israeli bombs. Nine people were arrested after what police estimate to be £250, 000 worth of damage was done to the factory.

War crimes and crimes against humanity are the most serious offences a person can commit. They do not need to be written into domestic Law to be binding, although in the UK these crimes are indeed incorporated into domestic law. Given this, there is an irrefutable obligation on the law enforcement agencies to enforce this area of Law. Their refusal to do so is as incoherent as it is unjust.

In order to highlight this incoherence and injustice, activists have turned to direct action in order to disrupt the illegal trade of settlement goods.

These actions also form part of a wider call to boycott all Israeli produce in light of Israel’s persistent violation of international humanitarian Law. Israel recent massacres in Gaza highlights the need for an international movement capable of holding Israel to account.

War crimes and crimes against humanity are the most serious offences a person can commit. They do not need to be written into domestic Law to be binding, although in the UK these crimes are indeed incorporated into domestic law. Given this, there is an irrefutable obligation on the law enforcement agencies to enforce this area of Law. Their refusal to do so is as incoherent as it is unjust.

In order to highlight this incoherence and injustice, activists have turned to direct action in order to disrupt the illegal trade of settlement goods.

There has been a call out for a week of direct action against settlement businesses including Ahava and Agrexco between the 7th and the 14th of February. Join us in the demonstration at Agrexco HQ in Hayes, Middlesex, on Saturday 7th - from where we know for certain that masses of Israeli lowers will be despatched to florists and supermarkets in the days before Valentine's Day. We need lots of people there to show Agrexco we mean it, and to hold Israel accountable. Bring imaginative placards.How to get thereBuses will leave from Victoria station London at 11 a.m., returning by 6. Phone 0207 7006192, or email psc.admin@palestinecampaign.org to book a return place (£8, £6 concessions).By road. The Agrexco HQ/Depot is in Swallowfield Way, Hayes, Middlesex, near Heathrow airport.