Is ‘Defend Our Juries’ a psyop?

Posted by: John Phoenix

Legitimate concerns have been raised regarding the dubious leadership, tactics and legal strategy of the ‘civil liberties’ organisation.

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Is Defend our Juries (DOJ) a psychological operation (psyop) – ie, an action organised by the British imperialist state and perpetrated against the interests of British workers and Palestine solidarity movement?

It’s a perfectly valid question to ask, if only because we are talking about Britain – and the British imperialist state has hundreds of years of continuous history of subverting, spying upon, using agents to disrupt, setting up astroturfed ‘grassroots’ opposition movements, and otherwise controlling the political lives of British working class.

It’s a perfectly valid question also because the group sprang ‘fully formed’ from nowhere and has been able to organise thousands of activists to sacrifice themselves, essentially using the corporate mass media to do its work of agitation and organisation.

In Britain today, there is an ongoing struggle between the government perpetrating a genocide (several, in fact, but we are focusing here on Palestine) and that the majority of British workers (at least 60-70 percent) who oppose Israel’s crimes and Britain’s part in facilitating them.

Some nine to ten million British workers have taken action to oppose the Gaza genocide. Many more are in sympathy with that action. As for the rest, most simply don’t know what is happening owing to government and media lies and misdirection.

In the course of this struggle, many tactics have been employed. Some have used social media to share information to great effect. Some have marched to show their disgust. Others have taken direct action to disrupt those parts of the Israeli war machine that operate on British soil.

Of each particular action or tactic, we have the right to ask: Is it effective? Which side does it benefit?

We may think of each action as analogous to an economic strike. Or an action in war. (We are at war. The ruling class is waging war upon Palestine, but also upon workers of other – indeed all – countries, including our own.)

An effective strike hurts the value production (profit) of capital, helps workers win better pay and conditions, and raises their consciousness, effectively preparing them for further struggle. Although the conditions of exploitation remain, they are ameliorated and the working class becomes more aware of the power of its own united action and gains experience in using it.

A strike organised by capitalists at a time of low demand is called a ‘lockout’. It hurts the workers by depriving them of wages. The capitalists minimise their losses when markets are glutted or raw materials are not available to keep production going. Rather than pay their workers for ‘doing nothing’, they turn them out into the streets. Workers suffer the privation of unemployment and their conditions for further struggle are worsened.

Palestine Action

Palestine Action was quite clearly conducting brave action that was hurting the economic interests of both the British and Israeli capitalists and the war machine directly, while raising the political profile of the struggle of the Palestinian people and exposing the Anglo-American-Israeli genocide. This favoured the anti-imperialist struggle and raised the consciousness of British workers.

The Labour-party-linked leaderships of Britain’s antiwar and trade union movements never supported PalAction. They did not send mass contingents to shut down arms companies. They did not organise dockers to shut down Britain’s ports. They did not coordinate strike action at the weapons’ production sites.

They did not demand productive non-military jobs for workers. They did not organise against Keir Starmer’s pledge to increase our military spending to 5 percent of Britain’s GDP (which is around 15 percent of the national budget, and equivalent to our spending on the NHS) and escalate war with Russia. They did not shut down the “Hamas-Israel” lie-spewing media … They walked, mouthed platitudes about ‘peace’ and ‘justice’, and allowed their activists to be picked off without mounting any serious legal or political defence.

And yet the masses continued to demonstrate their outrage against the genocide, and increasingly came to realise that it was British governments of all stripes who were and are ultimately responsible for this crime.

The state response to Palestine Action

The state response, illegal both in by its own terms of reference and under international law (but as we know, ‘legal’ is ultimately whatever the ruling class can get away with), was to ban PalAction as a “terrorist organisation”, putting it on the same list as the actual organisations of Palestinian liberation (whose right to armed resistance is recognised in international law), and to continue facilitating the zionist apartheid state in every possible way.

Our government, ruling class and state are constantly searching for ways to disperse and neutralise the struggle against their Palestinian genocide and their other genocidal wars. It is notable that when juries were presented with the facts, the PalActionists were usually acquitted. Those few who were incarcerated are heroes.

The Fulton 18 are currently being held as political prisoners by the Labour party and British state. Without a clear end-date to their trial and persecution in sight, they have entered into the most solemn and dedicated hunger strike – with what amounts to a total blackout by the imperialist state-controlled British media.

In its bid to quash the Palestine solidarity movement, the state has so far tried:

1. Targeting individual activists at demonstrations (where zionist activist ‘spotters’ worked with the police) under various pretexts of “criminality” (ie, racism/antisemitism and support for terrorism).When Tory home secretary Suella Braverman demanded “stronger action” from the police, many more arrests were made. This tactic was ultimately unsuccessful in securing convictions, but it did keep a good number of activists away from demonstrations, tying them up in lengthy criminal proceedings. Meanwhile, arrest numbers alone (of people later released without charge) were used by corporate media – and, of course, the zionist ‘Community Security Trust’ – to construct an entirely false narrative about the actions and motivations of the anti-genocide protestors.
2. Targeting pro-Palestine workers and activists through their employers. Using professional and management bodies to threaten their livelihoods and thus economically beating them into submission while sending a clear warning to colleagues that they should remain silent.This tactic has been used for some time and has had significant successes as well as some high-profile failures (eg, when Bristol university lost at the employment tribunal brought by Prof David Miller). It is notable that those without a party or movement to back them up are far more likely to back down in the face of employment tribunals, as many muslim doctors have when faced individually with charges of ‘antisemitism’ and the threat of being struck off.One who has refused to back down is trainee surgeon Dr Rahmeh Aladwan. In our last issue we reported on the brief victory she won when an interim hearing tribunal ruled that no professional restrictions should be imposed on her, despite complaints over her principled support for Palestinian liberation. But the state wasn’t prepared to take no for an answer.At the direct instigation of Labour ‘health secretary’ Wes Streeting, a ‘double jeopardy’ hearing was held amidst a storm of media slander, defamation and abuse and, on 27 November, Dr Aladwan was suspended from medical practice by an interim order of the Medical Practitioner Tribunal service – an arms-length body ‘adjudicating’ for the General Medical Council. This suspension is set to last for an incredible 15 months while the GMC continues its witch-hunt, during which time she will not be able to work as a doctor. She has never had a single patient complaint.This is a clear prelude to being struck off altogether, since the GMC has effectively accepted the premises of the zionist lobby and Labour government’s case against her. It is a pro-genocide and deeply racist decision, that has entirely compromised the regulation of the British medical profession.Perpetrating and participating in genocide against Palestinians, we find, is permissible, legal and acceptable. Speaking out against it is punishable by law, and may prevent one from eating, living and simply existing in British society.Not content with hounding her out of her job, the state is instigating criminal proceedings against Dr Rahmeh. Prior to her second hearing, she was arrested by the police on entirely false charges of “inciting racial hatred” and “supporting a terrorist organisation” – that is, defending the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination. This was clearly done to add ‘weight’ to the proceeding to strike her off.
3. Doxing activists in the media, branding them “racists” and “terrorist sympathisers” and thus causing them real harm by exposing them to the censure of employers, colleagues and the public through slander and defamation (as seen in the case of Dr Aladwan above and many others, including our own comrade, Dr Ranjeet Brar).
4. Limiting demonstrations by falsely claiming they are expressions of “antisemitism” that impinge upon jews at worship. We have challenged the assertion that demonstrations against genocide impinge upon any person’s rights – religious or otherwise. But the zionist lobby and our government, in conjunction to the police, continue to return to this trope.There has been some token resistance from the movement’s ‘official’ (ie, Labour party-linked) leadership to this, but they have essentially cooperated in making demonstrations less frequent and less disruptive.
5. Moving towards open racism, and in particular promoting anti-muslim “rape gang” narratives designed to foment pogroms and civil strife.The promotion of Tommy Robinson and his ‘Unite the Kingdom’ ‘movement’ has been a part of this, as has Elon Musk’s blatant promotion both of Robinson and other far-right and islamophobic rhetoric. All of which are part and parcel of his US imperialist policy of demagogy, division and subversion in Britain and Europe in general, but also of his backing for Israel and its genocide in Palestine and the middle east in particular.
6. Passing new legislation limiting the right of freedom of political opinion, thought, action and demonstration, and creating an accompanying political and media discourse aimed at rewriting and keeping control over the narrative.
7. Extending the IHRA definition of antisemitism into all corners of society in the hopes of ‘outlawing’ criticism of Israel and Israeli genocide. Many Britons are unaware of the fact that this definition, which legal experts have repeatedly demonstrated to have no standing, has been quietly accepted by companies, councils and various other public services and state institutions across the country (now including the entirety of NHS England), making criticism of Israeli crimes potentially a sacking offence for large numbers of workers and certainly scaring many out of expressing their opinion.

Potentially, all these actions will backfire if the ruling class and government lose the battle for hearts and minds. If they fall too obviously from the moral high ground they claim, they will end up exposing themselves and further enraging and emboldening the movement.

Dubious actions of Defend our Juries

The “I support Palestine Action” sign-holding and the strategy of getting thousands arrested “to overwhelm the system” – accompanied by organised pantomime skirmishes with the police (which workers are “warmly invited to witness” (not to prevent!!) – raise a number of questions.

1. Who have these actions objectively served?
2. Who are the groups initiating the actions? Is it true they are the same people who started the astroturfed ‘Extinction Rebellion’ and ‘Just Stop Oil’ groups? And what was the outcome of the actions taken by those groups?
3. Are the brave (selfless, principled) participants supporting PalAction in those DOJ actions properly guided and led? Or are they being used against the interests of the Palestine movement?
4. What does the extent and nature of the mass coverage in mainstream media of those actions and DOJ leaders tell us?
5. If the actions are being treated as a terrorist offence by the police, why do the police conspire with the organisers to arrange when the ‘terrorist’ actions should take place? Why are their organising websites not taken down? Why is coverage of DOJ events and the organisation itself not banned – as coverage of the Fulton 18 hunger strikers has been?
6. Why are the leaders and instigators of the ‘terrorist action’ not met with the same punishment as the sign-holders they recruit?

And if we are not prepared to ask these questions objectively: why? What are we afraid of?

Billions more for Elbit in Britain

For months there have been rumours circulating about an imminent arms deal between Elbit Systems (the Israeli arms company targeted by Palestine Action) and the British government. The deal was finally, if somewhat coyly, announced in November, although the customer was not named in the company’s press release.

Nevertheless, it is clear that the multibillion-pound contract announced in the financial press is indeed a sign that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has chosen Elbit as its “preferred bidder” for the £2bn, 15-year contract to “overhaul UK armed forces training”.

Much has been made of Elbit’s proud claims to offer “battle-tested” equipment and strategies (ie, tested on the Palestinian people as part of a genocidal onslaught), but less is talked about the fact that Israeli high-ranking officers are themselves routinely trained in British army facilities.

The news of Elbit’s having landed this exceptionally lucrative government contract should make it clear that the suppression of Palestine Action is seen as a vital prerequisite for delivering the deal without any further disruption of Elbit’s activities.

Filton 24 activists on hunger strike

Meanwhile, although giving plenty of publicity to the theatrical arrests of Defend Our Juries placard-holders, the mainstream media has imposed a near-total blackout on news about the hunger strikes of members of the Filton 24 – a group of real Palestine Action activists who have already spent up to 12 months behind bars without charge.

For a handful of this group, proceedings were finally opening as we went to print. Most, however, remain in unlawful detention and may be held until 2027 – or until the British state pushes through its long-planned assault on basic legal rights, including trials without juries. If so-called ‘justice secretary’ David Lammy gets his way (and it seems very likely that he will), new judge-only courts (as used against the Irish liberation movement) could be up and running as early as the New Year.

It is nearly 45 years since Bobby Sands and his comrades gave their lives in resistance to British imperialism. Bobby died on his 66th day of hunger strike after having been convicted of terrorism offences by just such a court as the one Lammy wants to introduce to Britain.

The lessons of that sacrifice are as relevant as ever: a repressive state will stop at nothing to crush those who resist its crimes and interfere with its profiteering and domination.

Demands of a real anti-zionist, anti-imperialist movement

So what should be the tactics, programme and demands that any effective pro-Palestine, anti-zionist and anti-imperialist struggle should raise in Britain?

Foremost among the problems we face is the domination of our movement by the Labour party and related groups. The Labour party’s close connection with the British imperialist ruling class and its state machine facilitates the policing and control of our movement and our trade unions by our class enemies.

A genuinely anti-genocide movement must demand and work seriously and methodically towards achieving the following:

1. An end to all military, intelligence, academic, scientific, cultural and diplomatic cooperation with the zionist regime.
2. Join the European dockers in building a mass campaign of non-cooperation with the zionist state and its war machine, including: refusing to make or move weapons and other supplies; refusing to provide support services or logistics; refusing to participate in technological or civil cooperation: refusing to distribute Israeli goods and services; and refusing to write, broadcast or distribute the propaganda lies.
3. A mass campaign to reinstate our democratic rights to free speech and freedom of assembly.
4. A mass campaign to kick the IHRA ‘definition of antisemitism’ out of every institution in Britain.
5. A mass campaign to hold every British official who has been complicit with the genocide in Gaza to account.
6. A mass campaign to publicise the plight, fund the defence, and overturn the convictions and sackings of those who have been targeted by the state for standing with Palestine.
7. A mass campaign to overturn the terrorism legislation that is being used to criminalise opposition to the Gaza genocide.
8. The disbanding of the criminal and aggressive Nato military alliance, which is spreading fascism and war across the globe, from south Korea to Palestine and the Donbass.
9. The dismantling of all British bases overseas and of all US bases in Britain, and an end to all support for British, US, EU and Nato proxy wars and armies anywhere in the world.

No cooperation with the imperialist-backed zionist genocide in Palestine!
No cooperation with the US-British-Nato-Israeli war machine!
Victory to the resistance!