Just before 1pm scores of people identically dressed in white weapons inspector suits and brandishing scale models of Paveway bombs, the weapons EDO MBM manufacture in conjunction with Raytheon for NATO troops in Afghanistan, met at the Level in Brighton. Numbers soon swelled to close to a hundred despite heavy rain.

They were met by several vanloads of police from Sussex, Kent and Hampshire, Evidence Gathering Teams (EGT) and Police Liaison Officers (PLOs). PLOs are a new police tactic which is being trialed by several forces as a way of dealing with potential threats from mass demonstrations. The tactic is based on a consultation with Dr Clifford Stott, owner of a company called Crowd and Conflict Management.

PLOs were countered by teams of FITwatchers who used banners and placards to prevent PLOs entering the mass of the demonstration.The assembled weapons inspectors heard speeches from Smash EDO, FITwatch and from one of the Decommissioners, the affinity group who broke into EDO in 2009 and sabotaged the production line to prevent the supply of weapons components to the Israeli military for its ongoing massacre in Gaza.

The march began, surrounded on three sides by banners, including a reinforced front banner, and accompanied by several sound systems.Passers-by on the Lewes Road were given information about the ongoing campaign against the Brighton arms factory. The police followed the march with vans and motorcycle cops but were hands-off until the marcers arrived at Home Farm Road.

The demonstration turned into Home Farm Road, where the EDO factory is based and was faced by a line of police watching from the verge above them. About three quarters of the way up the road police had erected an eight foot tall metal and perspex crowd barrier, entirely blocking the road, flanked by Hares fencing cages. As demonstrators approached the barrier police could be seen through Perspex windows. The South section of Home Farm Road was occupied by scores of police vans, the majority from Kent, mounted police and CCTV vans. The barrier was designed to slide open to let traffic through.

Undeterred, the weapons inspectors produced d-locks and lock-on tubes which they used to fix themselves to the police cordon, thus completely closing down the industrial estate and preventing movement in or out of EDO MBM. Other inspectors, intent on getting to the factory, climbed over a fence behind the police cordon and managed to hang a banner directly opposite the factory gates, despite hundreds of police attempting to enforce the Section 14.

The unit of police occupying the verge above approached and, after a stand-off lasting nearly an hour, announced a Section 14 was in place. Protesters were unable to hear the Section 14 order at the time but were later told (during police interviews) that the cops intended to keep them behind the cordon until 4pm and then clear the road. Anyone who disobeyed was liable for arrest. Police eventually managed to move the protesters who had not locked-on further down Home Farm Road, making five arrests in the process. They then began to scratch their heads on how to remove the lock-on.

The last of the locked-down protesters were not removed by a cutting team until 5.30pm. The four were arrested and taken to Hollingbury nick. The detainees were released at 1am. Sussex Police, keen to take any opportunity to limit the ability of the Smash EDO campaign to organize against the company, imposed stringent bail condition preventing protest at the factory and, despite the minor nature of the charges, conditions for defendants not to contact one another. Attempts were made to remand one detainee, but police were later forced to release her by a technicality, namely that the charges were made-up.

The demonstration was a part of Smash EDO’s Summer of Resistance, three months of relentless action against the factories which has included mass demonstratration, critical masses, phone blockades, and an art not war demonstration to name but a few. There’s still ten days of the Summer of Resistance to go – why not come and do your own action.

This weekend Smash EDO hosted a gathering to organize a mass mobilization against the G8 conference, to be held in the UK in 2013. Participants in the gathering came from all over the UK with contingents from Manchester, Bristol, Birmingham, London, Cardiff, Lewes and Edinburgh to name just a few. The gathering launched a new network aiming to meet in locations around the UK in the coming year to build resistance to the G8. A workshop is planned at Earth First in August and the next gathering will be held on Saturday 23rd September in Birmingham.

Simon was from a Jewish background; his great grandparents were murdered at Auschwitz. This was one of the reasons that he joined the Palestinian struggle against Israeli apartheid. In 2004 Simon travelled to Palestine and spent months as an international volunteer in Balata refugee camp. During Israeli army incursions Simon provided an international presence designed to make people in the camp safer and support Palestinian resistance. In 2008 he led a delegation to the Jordan Valley and worked with Palestinians to establish Fasayil School, despite Israeli military orders that building was prohibited.

Involved in the Smash EDO campaign from the beginning, he was part of the first blockade of EDO in 2004 and fought against EDO’s planned injunction against protesters.  Simon played a leading role in the decommissioning of the EDO factory in 2009 – and was with the others found not guilty of conspiracy to cause criminal damage on the basis that he had acted to prevent war crimes. His own experiences in Palestine were used as evidence. On hearing the verdict he said, “Considering that the whole point of this is that we have broken no law, hopefully it will set a precedent for the people of this country to realise that in a liberal democracy we are the checks and balances.”

Despite personal battles, Simon never gave up on the struggle for justice and the well-being of those lucky enough to count him as a friend.

One such friend said, “Simon was not only a dedicated activist in the name of liberty, against oppression in all its forms, but a sublimely passionate human being, whose eccentricities, eloquence and wild imagination will never be forgotten.”

Smash EDO Mass Demo – Wednesday 13th October

Venue to be announced – to receive updates email smashedo@riseup.net or text 07538093930. www.smashedo.org.uk

On January 17th 2009 six people broke into EDO MBM/ITT in Brighton and caused £189 000 worth of damage to computers, servers, lathes and other equipment. The activists, calling themselves the ‘decommissioners’, took their action in response to the Israeli assault on Gaza which had claimed 1400 lives by the 17th. EDO MBM/ITT manufactures the arming unit for the Israeli F16 bombrack.
The six were arrested, along with three people alleged to have supported the action. All nine were charged with conspiracy to cause criminal damage. At a month long trial at Hove Crown Court seven of the activists argued that they had a lawful excuse to damage EDO’s property as the company was complicit in war crimes. All seven were acquitted on July 2nd 2010 after the jury gave five unanimous not guilty verdicts and the judge directed that the final two should be acquitted. One activist had been found with no case to answer earlier in the trial due to lack of evidence.

Decommission Accomplished

The decommissioning of EDO MBM/ITT completely closed the factory for several days, until the main Israeli assault on Gaza was over. Paul Hills, MBM’s stony faced MD, gave evidence that some of the factory’s production machinery was out of action for up to a month. US contract information shows that ITT was negotiating the sale of further arming units at the time of the action but that the contract fell through.

Harassment

After the arrests, three decommissioners were remanded in custody. Chris Osmond was released on bail after a week while Elijah Smith remained in custody until the trial. Robert Alford was bailed briefly but ended up back in jail.

Sussex police threw an unprecedented level of resources at the case. A team from the Serious Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) was allocated to Operation ‘Potato’, (hastily renamed Operation Adio).

The gap between the action and the trial was sixteen months. The police used this time to ramp up the pressure on the defendants, using the judicial process as a means of repression.

It soon became clear that Sussex Police were livid that the decommissioners had been granted bail. Restrictive bail conditions were imposed including a ban on decommissioners ‘associating’ with each other, curfews, electronic tags, confiscation of passports and restrictions on movement. Some, but not all, of these conditions were successfully challenged.

One particularly vindictive tactic used by SOCU was the harassment and arrest of people who had written statements in support of the decommissioners bail applications. Four such arrests of supporters were made, houses were raided and computers confiscated, no charges were ever laid. Similarly, two of the decommissioners were arrested so that their applications to the court could be scrutinised; no charges were forthcoming but it allowed the police to seize more property and fish for more evidence.

Three of the decommissioners were arrested in October 2009 for attending the same demonstration even though there was no proof that they had associated with each other.

SOCU also used the decommissioning as an excuse to go on more wide ranging fishing expeditions. A local independent media journalist was arrested because he had received a phone call from one of the defendants (who had also called dozens of other journalists). His computers, cameras and hard drives were seized. The footage, the real purpose of the police’s raid, found on his computer became evidence in a further EDO MBM/ITT related court case. (see http://www.schnews.org.uk/archive/news6801.php)

All of this was a deliberate attempt by Sussex Police to create a climate of fear and paranoia among activists campaigning against EDO MBM/ITT and to limit support for the defendants. It worked, for a short time, but the Smash EDO campaign fought on and gathered momentum, huge demonstrations were held against the factory on Mayday 2009 and on the first anniversary of Israel’s massacre in Gaza. A ‘Support the Decommissoners’ campaign was launched.

Court in the Act

The decommissioners case commenced on May 17th 2010. A hundred supporters turned out on the first day of the case and scores of people attended on most days of the trial. The support campaign geared up providing food for the defendants and their supporters and a constant vigil was held on the court steps (schNEWS video of the first day of the trial – http://schnews.clearerchannel.org/snippet-decoms-day-on…e.flv). Messages of support poured in from all over the UK and beyond.

Jury questions were negotiated between the defence and the prosecution teams and the defence managed to persuade the court to bar serving police from the jury. It’s a good thing they did as the original jury included three policemen, one of whom had previously been involved in prosecuting Smash EDO activists!

The ‘Turkey Shoot’

The jury in the case may not have known anything at all about the situation in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead, let alone the historical context of Israel’s assault. During the defence case, the jury were presented with a comprehensive overview of the situation with the aim that, by the end of the case, they were able to put themselves in the shoes of the civilian population of the Gaza strip.

The defence’s expert, Mandy Turner of Bradford University’s Department of Peace Studies, gave evidence summarising Israel’s history since its creation in 1948; from the occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and the Syrian Golan in 1967, to the 1982 Sabra and Shatilla massacre in Beirut, to the crushing of the Palestinian intifadas (uprisings), the 2006 assault on Lebanon, the development of the Dahiya doctrine (the illegal Israel policy of the use of disproportionate force against civilian populations) and the Israeli siege of the Gaza strip.

The jury heard evidence about the massacre which began in Gaza on 27th December with F16 attacks on police stations, a jail and government buildings and went on to target schools, hospitals, medics, civilian homes and United Nations (UN) facilities. Turner told how the air force dropped leaflets on civilian areas, ordering them to leave their homes and go to the town centres where they could take aid from UN facilities (see http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Government/Communiques/2009/IDF_warns_Gaza_population_7-Jan-2009.htm). The jury heard how those same UN facilities were deliberately targeted by the Israeli military. Turner told the jury that the entrances and exits to the Gaza strip were sealed and there was no safe place for civilians to take shelter from the incessant aerial bombardment. When asked if she could think of a phrase to describe what happened in Gaza during that month she paused, and then replied softly “it was a turkey shoot”.

Several of the defendants gave evidence about how the events unfolding in Gaza had lead them to make the decision to decommission EDO. The jury were played TV news reports from Operation Cast Lead, shown photographs, newspaper cuttings and blogs from the Free Gaza movement, which the defendants had read. The effect was, in essence, to transport the jury back to January 2009 and show them why the defendants felt that they needed to act.

One recurrent aspect of the reports heard by the jury was the repeated cries for help from the ‘international community’ by civilians in Gaza, journalists and the UN (for example this audio clip from Jenny Linnell of the International Solidarity Movement – http://palsolidarity.org/2008/12/3740/). One section of the evidence concluded with a video clip of the UN compound in Gaza City, bombed by white phosphorous shells and missiles on January 15th. A Gazan journalist stands in front of the burning building and says angrily “the international community (is)… paying money to bring food to people in the Gaza strip – aid given by the international community for people in Gaza. The Israelis are blowing them up. So from now on I don’t think I will blame the Israelis for this anymore. Because there are laws that you (the international community) have put and Israel is breaking these laws all the time and you are not doing anything. I don’t think I’ll blame the Israelis anymore. I think I will blame the international community if you will not act”. (see the clip at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQWdXZ1_oQY)

Caroline Lucas, an ex Member of the European Parliament, now Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, confirmed that no help had been forthcoming from the international community. All attempts to censure Israel, in any more than words, had failed.

Sharyn Locke, a volunteer who had arrived in Gaza on the Free Gaza movement’s boat, The Dignity, in 2008, gave evidence about one of the attacks that convinced the defendants to take action – the bombing of Al Quds hospital with F16s and white phosphorous on the 15th January and the attacks on patients being evacuated from the hospital. Locke, who was in the hospital during the attacks, explained how a family was shot at by a sniper on the steps of the hospital and their daughter was shot through the cheek. She described how medical staff evacuated those sheltering in the building and, eventually, the bedridden patients as the roof of the hospital burned. (some of Sharyn’s reports, which were used in the trial are at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh3FsU2gDCg, and http://talestotell.wordpress.com/2009/01/16/14-mins-only/)

The last question put to Sharyn Locke was “what do you think of companies who supply weapons to Israel”. She replied “Every one of them has the blood of the patients who fled Al Quds hospital on their hands”.

The trial of Paul Hills

An oft repeated phrase during the trial was “we are the accusers not the accused”. The cross examination of EDO MBM/ITT’s managing director, Paul Hills, was a make or break point of the trial. Hill’s evidence was scheduled to last for one day by the prosecution, in fact it lasted for over five days. The prosecutor took him through the evidence, photos of a wrecked factory, and Hills detailed what was damaged. The prosecutions case soon became clear: that MBM (the Brighton part of the business) did not supply weapons to Israel. In fact the prosecution tried to paint MBM as a civilian business, omitting police photographs of dummy missiles, thrown out of the window by the decommissioners, from the jury bundles.

The defence’s cross examination of Hills began with this opening statement: “I suggest to you, that you have come to this court fully prepared to lie through your teeth”. Hills was then passed an evidence bundle, running to several hundred pages, which he had never seen before. The bundle was the result of painstaking research undertaken by campaigners over the past six years about MBM’s links to Israel. Hills was under oath so he could not speak to his US bosses or the CPS about the defence documents.

Hills originally denied that the company was heavily involved in the manufacture of components for the F16 and denied any involvement with the Israeli F16. However, as Hills was asked more and more questions relating to the Israeli F16 it became apparent that he was extremely knowledgeable about the aircraft.

Much of the evidence revolved around a package of products which MBM acquired from Lucas Western Gear, an arms company who were in trouble after being fined by the US government for not carrying out safety checks. MBM acquired the intellectual property rights for the VER-2, the bomb rack for the Israeli F16 along with the Ejector Release Unit (ERU) 151, the component inside the VER-2 which propels the missile clear of the plane. They also acquired the rights for the Zero Retention Force Arming Unit (ZRFAU), the trigger unit used in the ERU 151.

Under cross examination, Hills confirmed that, soon after these rights had been acquired, MBM, then part of a consortium called Morgan Crucible, acquired a small US company called Artisan based in Parsippany, New Jersey. Hills admitted that one of the functions of Artisan, whose manager, Paul Roba, joined the Brighton company’s board of directors, was to provide a “shop window” for MBM’s products into the US. This ‘shop window’ proved extremely handy as Artisan was able to procure hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of US government contracts for the Zero Retention Force Arming Unit, delivered to Defence Supply Center Columbus, the US army quartermasters and, potentially, forwarded to Israel as part of the US Peace Marble arms transfer programme.

MBM needed Artisan to procure these contracts as US government procurement rules favour small US owned businesses. Crucially, the details of the ZRFAU constitute ‘militarily critical technical data’, which can only be handled by individuals certified under the Joint Certification Programme (JCP). The JCP stipulates that registrants must be citizens or residents of the US or Canada.

The main point of contention between Hills and the defence was the location of the manufacture of the ZRFAU. Hills maintained that it was manufactured in the US by Artisan and later by ITT. The defence presented evidence suggesting that it is, and was, manufactured in Brighton and accused MBM of running Artisan as a front company. One thing that would suggest this is that EDO’s website said that the ZRFAU was “actively manufactured” in Brighton until Hills ordered the removal of the ZRFAU from the site after the protests began. Another is that, to this day, the contact address given on all US websites for the ZRFAU is MBM in Brighton. When asked why this was Hills said that MBM was the design authority for the ZRFAU, despite his assertion that Artisan had manufactured it since 2000, and that customers would go to MBM in Brighton if, for example, they needed technical advice on fitting the arming unit to a bomb rack.

The evidence took a bizarre turn when Hills brought a ZRFAU, the component he maintained his factory had never made, into court to show the jury. He obviously thought better of it as the unit remained firmly in his pocket throughout the cross examination.

Beryllium

As Hills was starting to hope his ordeal was drawing to close the cross examination changed direction – “Mr Hills, can you tell us what beryllium is?” Hills denied any knowledge of beryllium – a weapon of mass destruction. Beryllium, which is a restricted component on the UK military list, is a strategic precious metal used in the arms industry. It is used in the manufacture of warplanes including F16s, in missile guidance systems and to strengthen metal to enhance explosions in, for example, bunker busting tritonal bombs and nuclear weapons. Abnormal quantities of beryllium were found in Gaza after Cast Lead.

Campaigners had been particularly suspicious about the beryllium shipment because it was made at a time (September 2007) when General Dynamics (GD) had just been named as a main contractor for a massive proposed sale of guided munitions to Israel (see http://www.dsca.mil/PressReleases/36-b/2007/Israel_07-32.pdf) to rearm them after they had decimated Lebanon in 2006. It was doubly suspicious as MBM had had a regular delivery of warhead pallets to GD for over a year, described on shipping documents as ‘steel pallets’ or ‘twist/untwist steel’; the addition of beryllium ore to their regular delivery raised suspicions of an illegal export slipped in with their regular legal delivery.

The following day, Hills offered the explanation that MBM had been contracted by Raytheon Systems Ltd on the UK to export steel warhead pallets to the US. This explanation did not explain the beryllium, however, and, under cross examination, he offered several conflicting explanations; that the beryllium was a part of the pallet, that it was a ‘component’, and that it was a ‘separator’ used in the packing of the pallet. None of these explanations make sense. The clear implication was that the beryllium export was illegal.

Credibility?

In Judge Bathurst-Norman’s closing speech, Hill’s credibility was questioned. However, the defence did not need to establish beyond reasonable doubt that Hills was lying, only that the defendants had an honest belief that the factory was supplying Israel. Halfway through the cross-examination, to sighs of despair from the prosecution, Hills conceded that a member of the public would come to that conclusion.

The defence did challenge EDO MBM/ITT’s credibility, however, they maintained he was lying throughout. Hills was questioned about the 2007 court case taken by the US government against ITT, MBM’s parent company. ITT had been found guilty of exporting military equipment to China and the UK without a license and of setting up front companies to achieve that end. They were fined $100 million, one of the largest fines in US legal history. Hills claimed ignorance about the case.

Verdict

During his summing up, Judge Bathurst-Norman, who was born in Jaffa, echoed defence counsel in quoting Edmund Burke: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”. He indicated that the jury may think that one of the defendants could be awarded a “George medal” for the solidarity work he had done in Palestine and he described the situation in Gaza during Cast lead as “hell on earth”. Crucially, he described UK end user certificates as “not worth the paper that they’re written on”. Bathurst Norman has been the subject of enraged Zionist attacks for this summing up (see, for instance, http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/6117164/the-hellish-histrionics-of-hove-propaganda-court.thtml)

The Jewish Chronicle helpfully paid for a transcript of the Judge’s summing up. It can be viewed at http://www.thejc.com/35771/judge-bathurst-norman-full-summing

The jury had to decide whether each defendant was motivated by an honest belief that EDO MBM/ITT was aiding and abetting war crimes being carried out by the Israeli military.

On Wednesday 31st June, the judge asked the jury whether they had reached any decisions as they had been deliberating for two days, the jury gave five of the decommissioners unanimous not guilty verdicts. After an agonising wait, the judge directed them to acquit the remaining two defendants.

We will be here until you’re not…

With the trial over and done with, defendants held a celebratory march through Brighton (and a big party). On Monday 5th July an all day victory demonstration was held outside EDO MBM/ITT, with Paul Hills looking none too pleased. On 7th July Elijah Smith, who had been in prison since January 2009, was released from Lewes Prison to crowds of supporters and the decommissioners hammers, used to smash EDO, were duly liberated from Brighton Police Station.

The Smash EDO campaign is planning to ramp up its actions with a mass ‘siege’ of EDO MBM/ITT planned on October 6th and weekly demonstrations gathering momentum. Caroline Lucas has agreed, at the decommissioners press conference, to press for a public enquiry into MBM. The question everyone is asking is how long can MBM continue in Brighton. If events in Derry are anything to go by the answer is ‘not very long’. Raytheon closed its offices in Derry after campaigners decommissioned its premises in response to the Israeli bombing of Lebanon in 2006 citing a disappointment in the police and the Irish government for failing to protect them as their reason for leaving. It’s impossible to tell what discussions about the future of the factory are being had between Paul Hills and his US bosses, but one thing is clear, direct action against EDO MBM/ITT will not stop until the factory closes down.

A senior judge is under investigation after being accused of making anti-Semitic remarks in court. Judge George Bathurst-Norman is said by right wing critics to have persuaded a jury to clear a group of campaigners who smashed up a factory making parts for Israeli warplanes.

Read what The Daily Mail have to say on the matter.

Criticising Israeli War Crimes Is Not A Crime

After the historic victory of the EDO Decommissioners, the judge in the case, Judge George Bathurst-Norman, has become subject of a concerted campaign of smears and defamation by a number of right-wing columnists, the Zionist Federation, and the Board of Deputies of British Jews on grounds that his summary of the evidence was ‘anti-semitic’. The Office of Judicial Complaints (OJC) has as a result opened an investigation into Judge Bathurst Normans handling of the case. Although we don’t normally find ourselves defending judges, we find the charge of anti-semitism a grossly cynical attempt to undermine the significance of these acquittals of pro-Palestinian activists on evidence of Israeli war crimes that was for the most part agreed by the Crown Prosecution Service. There is nothing anti-semitic in putting agreed evidence of Israeli war crimes to a jury. You can express your concern about this investigation by sending an email to the Office Judicial Complaints, marking your email ‘Bathurst Norman’. customer@ojc.gsi.gov.uk
A full transcript of the Judges summary of the evidence has been published by the Jewish Chronicle here.

“It’s a real victory for the anti-war movement, The jury were presented with the facts and they supported our motivations. If people in Britain knew the truth away from media manipulations they would all support our actions” – Ornella Sabeine, EDO Decommissioner.

After a nail-biting twenty-four hiatus, the jury came to decision on the Decommissioners Case – 100% Not Guilty! Six of the seven defendants Tom Woodhead, Bob Nicholls, Ornella Saibene, Harvey Tadman, Simon Levin and Chris Osmond came smiling out of Hove Trial Centre at the end of a gruelling three and half week trial. Elijah Smith was remanded in custody for another offence. Five were acquitted on Wednesday afternoon, the other two Chris and Elijah had to wait until this morning. They had waited eighteen months for this moment.

The jury decisions were all completely unanimous, an indication perhaps of the depth of feeling ignited by the evidence presented of war atrocities committed in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead.

It was on the night of the 16th January 2009 that six activists broke into EDO MBM’s manufacturing facility on Home Farm Rd Brighton. For an hour they wreaked havoc with hammers. Filing cabinets and computers were hurled from top-floor window. Machinery was also sabotaged. One of the reasons that the six had so much time in the factory was ironically that Sussex police saw a bomb in the car-park and cordoned off the area for specialists to arrive. The ‘bomb’ was in fact a dummy, a prop for EDO to display at trade fairs, precision guided out of an upstairs window by the decommissioners.

The six had pre-recorded videos to be posted on Indymedia after the action You can watch these here. In his video Elijah Smith said “I don’t feel I’m going to do anything illegal tonight, but I’m going to go into an arms factory and smash it up to the best of my ability so that it cannot actually produce munitions and these very dirty bombs that have been provided to the Israeli army so that they can kill children. The time for talking has gone too far. I’m not a writer, I’m just a person from the community and I’m deeply disgusted”.

The jury requested to view those videos again before they made their historic decision …and they obviously liked what they saw.

In effect the trial was turned around: it was EDO MBM in the shape of managing director Paul Hills who found themselves in the dock. Laughably they had come to court intending to pass themselves off as a company primarily manufacturing in-flight entertainment equipment. He was presented with a dossier of evidence painstakingly built up over the years by campaigners, which pointed firmly at the company’s complicity in war crimes.

Paul Hills was due to be giving evidence again on Thursday after accusing a campaigner of intimidating him as a witness at the regular weekly noise demo. Funnily enough Hills wasn’t available at the time and the court heard that he was flying to the U.S. Perhaps we should spare a thought for Paul standing right now in front of ITTs board explaining how a bunch of goddam two-bit limey punks were able to smash his factory up with hammers and walk out of court smiling.

The answer is that Paul Hill’s evidence was more full of holes than his factory’s windows. Here’s just a few edited highlights of five days of his cross-examination.

Hills revealed that the company have owned the rights to the main bomb rack used on Israeli F-16s – the VER-2 – since 1998. He admitted removing website evidence of his company’s dealings with Israel as early as 2004, the date of the first protests. He admitted having interfered with the crime scene, retrieving debris and papers, before police photographers arrived. He claimed to have police permission but no police statement backed him up. There has been speculation that £189,000 is actually an underestimate of the damage caused and that more controversial evidence may have been spirited away. After being warned at one stage by the judge that he was at risk of perjuring himself if he contradicted evidence he’d produced in earlier court cases, crucially he ended by admitting that anyone looking at the evidence presented to him in court would form the reasonable belief that his company was involved in arms sales to Israel.

It was this that the defendants needed to convince the jury of – that there was an obvious link between this factory and the bombardment of Gaza.

A witness, Sharyn Lock, provided the background necessary for the jury to understand the full scope of the horror then unfolding in Gaza. Now a trainee midwife, in 2009 she was a human-rights volunteer in Al-Quds hospital, Gaza City. She was in the Gaza strip for the whole of Operation Cast Lead, and able to show footage of a missile strike on the hospital, just metres from the maternity ward. The jury also saw news reports of the white phosphorus attacks on the UNWRA compound, which incinerated much-needed food and medicine. Sharyn closed her evidence by saying she had no doubt that those who armed the Israeli Air Force ‘had the blood of children on their hands’.

After hearing of the verdict she told SchNEWS “Brilliant news. I am so proud not only of the eight UK civilians who risked their liberty to protect fellow civilians whom they may never meet – but also of the jury who recognised that it is everyone’s responsibility to uphold international law, even if that means decommissioning the weapons.”

By the time this went to print the news of the verdict was spreading. Right-wing nutjob and Daily Mail journalist Melanie Phillips was first in with her considered opinion on ‘the ignorance and bigotry of the judge’. The Israeli ambassador was crying foul saying that it was ‘not a great era of the British system’ (sic) – according to Israeli news source he was reportedly ‘furious’ at the judges ‘blatant anti-semitic stand’. Even David Icke put it up on his website.

On the more positive side, the decommissioners were congratulated by Noam Chomsky, who said “I would like to express my respect and admiration for those who are undertaking non-violent resistance to oppose British participation in Israel’s cruel crimes in Gaza”.

So what next for Smash EDO? Unable to extract any usable quotes from the after-verdict party at the Community Garden, SchNEWS spoke to an increasingly bleary eyed Andrew Beckett, press spokesman for the campaign: “When we first started banging pots and pans outside the factory back in 2004, we never believed we’d get anywhere like this. EDO must be reeling, their dirty laundry is now flapping out there for the whole world to see. We’re not to going to let up the pressure on this factory – watch this space”.

James has spent over 18 months on remand for preventing war crimes, he has endured more than most could even imagine and his commitment to peace and the end to the immoral trade in arms is impressive to say the least.

James said “Thanks to everyone for your support and especially those who wrote letters, responding to them helped me pass the time.”

Meanwhile, the campaign continues weapon components used in war crimes around the world are still being made in Brighton, and unless we push for the closure of EDO/ITT they will continue to be. Although the not guilty verdict is a victory, it is not THE victory. “We will be here until EDO isn’t” For upto date information on the campaign keep an eye on www.smashedo.org.uk