UK Prosecutors Bar Nine Palestine Action Defendants From Citing Elbit Ties as Trial Opens at Old Bailey

Nine activists go on trial at London's Old Bailey on October 5 over a break-in at a British weapons factory supplying the Israeli military. Known as the Instro 10, they face charges of criminal damage, burglary, and violent disorder. According to Grayzone reporting, the jury and the public will not be told that a conviction could carry a "terrorist connection" label and a correspondingly harsher sentence. British media, the outlet reports, are barred from reporting that fact as well.

The case traces to June 17, 2024, when members of Palestine Action entered the headquarters of Instro Precision in Kent, a subsidiary of the Israeli state-linked arms manufacturer Elbit Systems. The company's chief executive, Dagan Yogev, is an Israeli military veteran who served as a major during the 2006 assault on Lebanon before moving into senior roles at Elbit's Israeli headquarters, according to the report. Instro makes targeting equipment that has been used in Gaza and southern Lebanon.

Seven activists broke into the site and caused more than £1 million in damage, the report states. They were arrested at the scene and released on bail within 24 hours. Counter-terror police were not involved at that stage, and no one had yet been charged under terrorism law. Two days later, according to the report, Instro's export license to Israel was cancelled, though the reason for the cancellation is not established.

A meeting, then a label

Within ten days of the raid, the Crown Prosecution Service met with senior counter-terror police to discuss what the report describes as "the resource implications" of proscribing Palestine Action as a terrorist organization. Grayzone says it reviewed heavily redacted records of that meeting, which it reports contained a "threat matrix" sorting citizen activism into tiers, including a category called "high level aggravated activism."

The category is defined in the reviewed materials as "unlawful behaviour that has… a significant negative impact on UK businesses."

That framing, if accurate, would treat financial damage to a weapons contractor as functionally equivalent to a security threat. Occupation Watch has not independently reviewed these documents and notes the claim rests on Grayzone's sourcing.

In March 2025, as Britain's Proscription Review Group was weighing whether to outlaw Palestine Action, prosecutors charged the Instro defendants, initially including aggravated burglary alongside a covertly applied "terrorist connection." That burglary charge was later dropped, the report states, suggesting prosecutors found no evidence the group intended harm to any person. In July 2025, then-Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced the proscription of Palestine Action, citing the Instro case as an example of violence.

This June, four other Palestine Action activists received sentences ranging from nearly five to more than eight years after the "terrorist connection" label was applied in their case. The presiding judge, according to the report, barred them from explaining their motives or arguing their actions were meant to stop what Israel is accused of in Gaza, a case juries in earlier Palestine Action trials had been allowed to hear and had, in some instances, acquitted on.

The Instro 10 trial is expected to run eight weeks.