UK pro-Palestinian activist says raid on Elbit factory was about destroying weapons

LONDON, Dec 4 (Reuters) – A British pro-Palestinian activist on trial over a raid targeting Israeli defence firm Elbit said on Thursday she and her co-defendants had wanted to “cause as much property damage as we could” but said she was opposed to violence.

Charlotte Head, 29, and five others are on trial at Woolwich Crown Court over what prosecutors have described as a meticulously planned assault by Palestine Action on the Elbit Systems UK facility in Bristol, southwest England, last August.

All six are charged with aggravated burglary, violent disorder and criminal damage, with one of Head’s co-defendants also charged with causing grievous bodily harm with intent for allegedly hitting a police officer with a sledgehammer.

They all deny the charges. Head told jurors she and her co-defendants had decided to take action because “all else had failed”.

Head admitted she drove a repurposed former prison van carrying fellow activists through fences outside the factory and then into a loading bay in the early hours of August 6, 2024.

She said the plan was to “go in and destroy as many weapons as we could find”.

Head was asked by her lawyer Rajiv Menon: “Did you use violence against security guards or a police officer?” She replied: “No, never.”

Head said she was not involved in pro-Palestinian activism until after Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel from Gaza on October 7, 2023, prompting a massive Israeli military response that Head described as a “genocide”.

Prosecutor Deanna Heer told jurors as the trial began last month that one of the six defendants, Samuel Corner, 23, hit a female police sergeant with a sledgehammer in the back, causing a lumbar spine fracture.

Head, asked on Thursday if she would have participated in action targeting Elbit if she knew someone would have used violence, said: “No, it was not a part of the plan.”

The trial continues.

(Reporting by Sam TobinEditing by Gareth Jones)