The Electronic Intifada 22 January 2025
Francesca Nadine on the roof of a Teledyne weapons factory.
Palestine ActionEditor’s note: Palestine Action activist Francesca Nadin, 39, has been imprisoned on remand awaiting trial since 29 June.
She was arrested and charged with “conspiracy to commit criminal damage” against two Leeds banks, Barclays and JP Morgan. Both banks invest in Israel’s biggest weapons producer, Elbit Systems.
This is Francesca’s second letter from inside a British jail, exclusively published by The Electronic Intifada.
In the Western world, we are in the midst of a linguistic battle which affects all of us and our freedom of speech. To control how we speak is to wield power. That is why it is so important to carefully consider how we define ourselves.
I define myself as a political prisoner, a contentious term for which there is no standard legal definition – least of all in the UK, for the obvious reason that it is not in the government’s interest to make one.
There are currently 21 Palestine Action activists jailed in Britain. We are all political prisoners, not only because our actions are politically motivated, but also because we are victims of state repression.
Our incarceration is the result of the political motives of the authorities and is clearly disproportionate. Many Palestine Action trials that have already taken place were politically biased, with legitimate legal defenses of our motivations denied to us in court.
To define myself as a political prisoner is a direct challenge to the state’s narrative of us as dangerous criminals, thus defying the legitimacy of their repression. At the same time, this definition legitimizes our cause and method of direct action.
Orchestrated campaign
We take action to prevent war crimes in Palestine and to uphold international law, something the British government is unwilling to do.
They cannot tolerate the fact that we lay bare their lies and hypocrisy, so they persecute us and in the act once again violate international law – this time against their own citizens. We are denied the right to a fair trial, freedom of expression, freedom from police harassment and unfair imprisonment.
They manipulate the machinery of justice, smearing and intimidating us by using every tool they have available.
Most worrying of all is the use of anti-terror legislation, which gives them carte blanche to disregard all the legal rights usually afforded to prisoners.
The idea that we are terrorists is laughable. We have never before seen such a flagrant misuse of these laws against protesters.
This is an orchestrated campaign spearheaded by John Woodcock – the disgraced former Labour MP also now known as “Lord Walney.” Woodcock is the government’s supposedly independent advisor on political violence and disruption.
Earlier this year, he published a report recommending that Palestine Action be categorized as a proscribed organization – in other words banned. Since then, the number of Palestine Action prisoners has increased dramatically.
Israel lobbyists
Yet despite his job title, Woodcock is not independent. He is on the payroll of various lobbying groups that represent arms manufacturers, making a farce of any pretense of impartiality. He protects his clients’ interests by repressing us, all the while lining his own pockets.
Here from my prison cell, I have a unique perspective. I am able to see and feel all the cogs of the war machine turning in unison – from the banks that invest in it, the arms companies that profit from it, the government that sanctions it, to the police, prisons and courts that pursue those who oppose it.
For this reason, I also see how essential an international perspective is, both to understand how we have arrived at this critical juncture, and how we can resist.
Western colonialism and capitalism gave rise to the military industrial complex that dominates not just the Middle East, but the entire world. We continue to see the results of British interference in Palestine which, since the British Mandate and the Balfour Declaration, has sown division, death and destruction on its soil.
The UK is not merely complicit – it is instrumental in instigating and perpetuating this genocide, despite what it says to the contrary.
Human rights are a bitter joke to the British government where, ironically, a human rights lawyer sits as prime minister. They disregard international law both here and anywhere else where the people stand in the way of their dominance.
Cracks in the wall
However, it is true that our rights will never be trampled upon in the same way that they are in Palestine – as a British citizen, I am hugely privileged, even in prison. I am protected and given the spoils of colonialism to live off, and I am not in danger of losing my life here.
We must continue to recognize our privilege and take action, with internationalism as our guiding principle.
It is the only response that makes sense in the face of a global system of repression that murders children in Palestine and imprisons us here. We fight to awaken our society’s humanity and to keep our own alive, standing in solidarity to say: not in our name.
As imprisoned Egyptian human rights activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah said, what we can do to help is to fix our own democracy. After all, a loss of rights in a colonialist country is used as an excuse for even worse violations in colonized countries.
We can see this playing out before our very eyes. And it may well be that our struggle means more to us than it does to the Palestinians, but that makes it no less valid. In the end, all that is asked of us is to fight for what is right.
We are the crack in the wall of the system, and we will continue to hammer away with whatever tools we have to hand. Slowly but surely, that crack gets a little wider, and we see the possibility of the wall collapsing.
To be a political prisoner is both a blessing and a curse. In prison, I am forced into inaction, and it takes all my strength just to resist the apathy that prison envelops me in.
I am not a hero as some people tell me; if anything, my imprisonment is a symbol. It represents the state of our democracy, but also the strength of our movement, and the depth of our humanity.
Comments
Hero vs political prisoner
Permalink Martina Lauer replied on
Thank you for the clarity of thought. We think of you as a hero because you risked so much more than we did just marching. Governments use the term hero for people they send off to war or into health care with no regard for their lives. Your actions bring "moral clarity".
We support you Francesca
Permalink Hafsah replied on
Thank you for taking the courage to write from your prison.
I want you to know, dear Francesca, that we support you, and think of you as a hero. You are the true protector of human rights, the true liberal, the true strong female, the ones who are stars in an otherwise beyond cruel Europe. I really hope they are giving you tolerable conditions in jail, and that you get released with an apology very soon. I wish there were petitions I could sign or letters to write to protest. Well written. Anti terror laws just highlight terrorist governments - legally telling the world they break all norms of international law. Please do not loose hope. Please keep going.
You are in my prayers.
You are my hero. I really wish this message reaches you somehow.
A political prisoner AND a hero
Permalink David Myles replied on
You are both.
Heroes
Permalink Sam Maschi replied on
If this genocide has shown us anything it is the rise of heroes fighting a fierce battle of good vs the true evil that is the zionist. The heroes of the street protesters getting attacked by cops. The heroes of student movements getting smeared by the propaganda corporate media and arrested for peaceful encampments. We see the heroes of Palestine Action shutting down companies complicit in evil and getting jailed by zionist lobby puppets. The heroes like Francesca Albanese, Mehdi Hassan, Norman Finkelstein and many many other talking to the world in front of each camera they can find to explain to them the true evil in this world that is the zionist and their criminal project that is called israel. We've seen hundereds of influencers on a daily basis exposing to the world the true face of the israeli and the zionist and their crimes against humanity by of extermination, ethnic cleansing and starvation of one of the poorest people in the world. The zionist crimes of murder, theft, lies, manipulation and every crime you can think of. We've seen the heroes of the rescue workers in Gaza pulling toddlers from rubbled family homes bombed with Boeing made US bombs dropped by Lockhead Martin US planes assembled with UK parts. And the heroes of the doctors and medical workers trying to piece together whatever is left of those kids, while they themselves are under fire and their hospitals are been destroyed. We've seen heroes from the Palestinian resistance fighting tanks and bulldozers with handheld weapons, while the zionist coward drops a 900kg bomb on tent camps of displaced and starved families. It's true you are a political prisoner. But for people like me you and your fellow Palestine Action brothers and sisters are heroes I've never seen in any Hollywood movie. Thank you for your sacrifice.
Thank you!
Permalink Paul Bourdon replied on
“The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it.” - George Orwell
Biggest respect to those taking direct action.
Permalink Jamie replied on
Biggest respect to you Francesca for your courage and decency. My heart goes to you and all of those who have acted against the organisations complicit in this appalling Israeli genocide in Gaza. I am left shocked every day that our government and other countries are happily sending weapons to Israel despite the ICJ ruling last year that Israel is committing genocide. The videos on social media show the world the horrors of cruelty, starvation, assignations of people, children, journalists and doctors, and this is all OK by the UK government. I see now that legal actions have begun against some of those complicit. This gives me hope. There are good people out there trying to stop this horror. Stay strong, you are for me and any decent person a hero. I hope that you are freed to soon and also Palestine will be free.
Acting as a political prisoner
Permalink Rebecca replied on
There is, of course, a long history of political imprisonment in the UK. In the 1970s were the Irish republicans (for whom I have little affection or political common ground) who acted as a group to demand rights as Special Category political prisoners such as wearing their own clothes, not being forced to carry out prison work, the right of free association with other prisoners, and to organise educational and recreational pursuits. Perhaps Palestine Action might learn from that.
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