In 2017, we did exactly what Palestine Action did last week: we broke into an airbase. Our actions were extremely similar to theirs, and so were our aims.
Most of the Royal Saudi Air Force is manufactured right here in the UK by Britain’s merchants of death, BAE Systems. Carrying flags bearing the words of Yemenis whose lives have been destroyed by UK-made weapons, we cut through fences at BAE Warton. We were caught by security just meters from Saudi-bound fighter jets.
In our case, these jets were being sent to Saudi Arabia to be used to create what the UN called “the world’s biggest humanitarian catastrophe” in Yemen. In Palestine Action’s case, British planes are being sent to Cyprus and then mysteriously disappearing over the Mediterranean sea – linked, many suspect, to Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
There are a few key differences between our actions and theirs. Unlike Palestine Action, we were not attacked by the Israel lobby. We were not the victims of an obsessive Islamophobic police crackdown. We are both white. Woody is a Methodist reverend: shortly after security caught us, Woody loosened the scarf from his Cambridge theological college to reveal his dog collar. The security guards that had caught us literally went, “Oh shit!”
As a result of our social position and less politicised target, we have been treated completely differently to the members of Palestine Action. We were arrested carrying a list of the serial codes of fighter jets worth over £1bn and a prepared statement explaining our intent to disarm them. Our lawyers were worried it might be the highest-value case of intent to cause criminal damage in British legal history. Their fears were short-lived: the police couldn’t wait to rush Woody out of the station, and charged us with only low-level criminal damage. A court found us not guilty.
I imagine the extent of media coverage might also greatly influence how a perpetrator is treated. But probably also true skin colour / cultural background greatly influences the amount of media coverage. To be honest, I think we as humans are all at least a bit racist and xenophobic (or just phobic in general for sure), but we really can’t allow the way our brains are wired to decide how well or badly we treat other human beings.
A self-aggrandising take, that. No, you’re not the same, as you failed to do any damage.
Lol, good try, but we know it’s the same.
Do you also think attempted murder is the same as murder? Attempted robbery the same as robbery?
Ah yes, the strawman that ignores context entirely. Nice.
See, if they weren’t white, they would have been charged with greater crimes despite only ‘attempting’ to do this. And you know this.
Fuck off with your sealioning, you damn well know they’re right.
About that context:
BAE Warton is a private aerodrome, RAF Brize Norton is an RAF air base in active service. The planes involved in 2017 were not in British military service, and no damage was done to them. The two involved in 2017 were not doing so as part of an organisation, that was their first offence, and they relied in their defence on religious conviction as motive. Palestine Action is a political pressure group, and has a criminal track record.
These aren’t like-for-like situations, no matter where your sympathies lie.
Aww look, now the sealion is moving the goalposts.
We know what you are, go away.
