Two people, including one from Cwmbran, sat in the road today outside BAE Systems in Glascoed holding signs saying: “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.”
Christina Jenkins, 32, a carer from Cwmbran, was one of the pair risking arrest under the terrorism act.
Palestine Action was officially banned in the UK on 5 July 2025, when the government proscribed it as a terrorist organisation under the Terrorism Act 2000.
They arrived at the munitions factory at 1.20pm. A security guard from BAE Systems drove up the gate at about 1.40pm and spoke to some people with the protestors.
Today’s action was part of a wider national campaign by Defend Our Juries to Lift The Ban on Palestine Action.
Christine said: “said: “I am not a terrorist, Palestine Action are not terrorists, terror is manufactured here, in the UK and exported from factories like this one.
“The arms BAE Systems produce are used by Israel to kill emergency workers, children, their mothers, innocent civilians. If we stand by and allow this to happen, it is not just our government who is complicit in genocide, we are too.
“We cannot allow the authoritarian misuse of our terror laws to silence peaceful protest. If we do not act now, we will watch our democracy die.”
Defend Our Juries
A spokesperson for Defend Our Juries said that local police forces are operationally independent of central government and so must make their own choice about how to react to the Lift The Ban protests.
They said: “The chorus of condemnation against the ban continues to grow as does the number of principled people standing up against the government’s authoritarian overreach.
“These historic mobilisations will honour those already imprisoned for risking everything to disrupt the flow of arms to Israel. The Filton 24 and Brize Norton 5 must be granted immediate bail and full access to the evidence they need to defend themselves.
“These actions will also, once again, be in solidarity with the people of Gaza and the West Bank. Both Conservative and Labour governments have been shamefully complicit in the horrors continuing to unfold in Palestine and the use of counter-terrorism legislation to silence their critics must end now.”
A press release from the campaign said that over 2,000 people have been arrested under terrorism legislation for taking part in these ‘Lift the Ban’ actions and around 170 have so far been charged under Section 13 of the Terrorism Act 2000, an offence which carries a maximum six-month prison sentence.