Germany Is Staging Its Own Palestine Action ‘Show Trial’
https://novaramedia.com/2026/06/09/germany-is-staging-its-own-palestine-action-show-trial/
Germany is prosecuting five activists alleged to be part of Palestine Action Germany in what their lawyers have described as a “show trial” intended to stigmatise protesters “as [if they were] terrorists” and which legal experts argue shows a “deeply concerning development” in how the state is targeting political protest.
The so-called Ulm 5, who are from the UK, Germany, Spain and Ireland, are currently on trial at a high-security court at Stammheim prison in Stuttgart following a break-in at offices of the Israeli arms firm Elbit Systems in Ulm, southwestern Germany, in September 2025.
The defendants face charges of trespassing, property damage and using the symbols of a proscribed organisation.
They have also been charged with belonging to a criminal organisation under Section 129 of the German Criminal Code – a controversial piece of legislation human rights lawyers say is being used to “blur the line between organised crime and the legitimate exercise of people’s freedom of assembly and expression” such that the case will “have a chilling effect on others who are considering engaging in political protest”.
Framed as terrorists.
On 8 September 2025, Zo Hailu, Vi Kovarbasic, Leandra Rollo, Daniel Tatlow-Devally and Crow Tricks are alleged to have broken into the Ulm offices of Elbit Systems wearing signs reading “Palestine Action”.
The indictment, seen by Novara Media, alleges that they caused over €1m worth of property damage to the site, painted slogans including “Child murderer” and “Baby killer” (which the prosecution characterises as “antisemitic” messaging) and chanted pro-Palestinian slogans, including the phrase “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” (which some German courts have ruled constitutes a symbol of Hamas). All were arrested without resistance.
The activists are not being tried under terror legislation. Nor are they alleged to have been violent or harmed people. In fact, their lawyers argue this is precisely what they were trying to stop: by damaging the property of Elbit Systems, a company whose centrality to Israel’s genocide in Gaza is well-documented, their aim was to save the lives of Palestinians.
Yet despite this, their lawyers say both the courts and the prosecution are trying to create the impression that the defendants are terrorists.
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Article continues at https://novaramedia.com/2026/06/09/germany-is-staging-its-own-palestine-action-show-trial/
Tuesday Thoughts: UK politicians need to be prosecuted for war crimes and crimes against humanity
The UK Labour government has been unrestrained in it’s persecution of opponents to it’s complicity in Israel’s genocide. Persecution of Palestine Action, rigged trials, biased, evil judges … They’ve even been doing it against Extinction Rebellion FFS!
The real criminals are Labour politicians – Keir Starmer, David Lammy – UK military chiefs and many others. Let’s make sure that they’re prosecuted for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Let’s properly try to lock the war criminals up.
‘Collective Punishment’: Israel Halts All Humanitarian Aid to Gaza in Retaliation for Iran Strikes
Article by Stephen Prager republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
“Aid is not a political tool and should not be weaponized in this way,” said an advocate at Save the Children. “The survival and needs of children in Gaza should not have to answer to airstrikes elsewhere.”
In an act described as “collective punishment” against two million Palestinians, Israel announced that it would close off the main entry points for humanitarian aid into Gaza indefinitely in retaliation for strikes launched this weekend by Iran.
Iran launched missiles at Israel on Sunday in response to Israel’s bombing of a densely populated Beirut suburb, which killed civilians and violated a June 1 agreement not to bomb Lebanon’s capital.
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In addition to retaliating with new strikes on Iran, Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said on Sunday that “a number of necessary security measures have been implemented” following the missile fire, “including the closure of the crossings into the Gaza Strip, among them the Kerem Shalom Crossing and the Rafah Crossing, until further notice.”
COGAT claimed that closing the crossings “will not affect the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip” because “the substantial quantities of food that have entered the strip since the beginning of the ceasefire significantly exceed the nutritional needs of the population, according to [United Nations] methodologies.”
That is not what actual UN reports say. The World Food Program (WFP) estimated in June that about 1.6 million people living in Gaza, more than three-quarters of the population, were “facing high levels of acute food insecurity” despite the entry of food parcels and other aid since the October 2025 “ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas.
In the first half of May, UN workers identified more than 2,000 cases of acute malnutrition among young children, according to a June report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
That same OCHA report said about 678,000 hot meals were delivered in May, down from 1.5 million per day in mid-March as a result of underfunding and due to Israel’s closures and restrictions at certain entry points. The number of people receiving food parcels in May also dropped to about 820,000, down from 1.1 million in March. The rations that were distributed in May covered only about 75% of the average person’s minimum daily caloric needs, while those distributed in March covered about 50%.
While the amount of aid entering the strip has increased since the ceasefire went into effect, UN data has never suggested that the amount entering “exceeds” the needs of Palestinians. Since the truce began, reports have consistently said the amount of aid entering the strip was only reaching part of the population, and that aid packages only contained part of the needed nutritional value, which did not meet the terms of the agreement.
Israel, which has been accused of using starvation as a “weapon of war” against Gaza by UN bodies and major human rights groups, previously closed all crossings into the strip at the start of its military assault against Iran in late February.
This not only halted the entry of food and medical aid but also blocked medical evacuations for sick and injured Palestinians, which were desperately needed due to Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s medical system. Even as entry points reopened in the following weeks, aid entry never returned to previous levels.
COGAT said on Monday that “the crossings will be reopened gradually, subject to an ongoing operational assessment and under security restrictions designed to ensure the safety of all personnel present at the crossings on both sides,” though it provided no clear timeframe or indication of how much aid would be allowed in.
“Aid is not a political tool and should not be weaponized in this way. The survival and needs of children in Gaza should not have to answer to airstrikes elsewhere,” said Ahmad Alhendawi, Save the Children’s regional director for the Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Europe in a statement on Monday.
“For nearly three years, Gaza has been pummelled so hard by Israeli airstrikes that nothing can grow there and people have been reliant on the already small amount of aid crossing the border—aid that was never enough and is now totally out of reach,” he added. “Children in Gaza have already been starved by design. They should not now be denied water, medicine, shelter, and the other essentials needed to survive. The Israeli authorities must re-open these crossings immediately, lift the siege, and facilitate the safe delivery of humanitarian aid at scale.”
With Israeli leaders openly stating their goal in recent weeks to expand the nation’s occupation of Gaza despite the ceasefire, international observers have suggested that Israel was using the escalation of hostilities with Iran as an excuse to ramp up its brutal treatment of Palestinians, nearly 1,000 of whom have been killed in the strip since the ceasefire went into effect.
The US-brokered ceasefire agreement signed by Israel and Hamas in October required the “full entry of humanitarian aid and relief” into the strip.
“The guarantors of the ceasefire must step in and force Israel to reopen the crossings, resume and triple the aid amounts, and totally stop any attacks on Gaza now,” said Palestinian journalist Abubaker Abed. “This is their job. And they must uphold the ceasefire agreement.”
Article by Stephen Prager republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
Gaza Genocide a Factor for Majority of Progressive Voters Abandoning Labour, New Polling Shows
Palestine is on the ballot.
Over half of former Labour voters who intend to back other centre or leftwing parties in the next general election cite the Labour government’s handling of the ongoing genocide in Gaza as either a factor or a major factor in their decision, new polling shows.
Of 700 UK adults surveyed in the new poll from Opinium, 53% said the government’s position on Gaza influenced their decision to switch their vote from Labour, with 21% saying it influenced them a great deal and 31% saying it influenced them somewhat.
Labour’s record on Gaza was found to be particularly significant for younger voters and Green party supporters, and backing for the UK to take decisive action against Israel polled as widespread.
Commissioned by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) and Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the polling was conducted between 29 May and 2 June among people who previously voted Labour in either the 2019 or 2024 general election, and now intend to vote Green, Lib Dem, Scottish National Party (SNP), Plaid Cymru or other – or for independent candidates.
PSC told Novara Media the polling “confirms that Palestine was on the ballot for millions of progressive voters” during May’s local elections, where Labour lost 58% of the seats it was defending in England and lost almost four times as many voters to the Greens than to Reform UK.
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