The British state’s attempts to crack down on pro-Palestine campaigning suffered another blow on Thursday 30 October, as an activist from the BDS Belfast group was acquitted on charges of criminal damage. BDS stands for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, a Palestinian-led campaign to weaken the economy of so-called ‘Israel’. The alleged offence took place at the West Belfast Kennedy Centre branch of Sainsbury’s in April 2024. The retailer accused activist Martin Rafferty of damaging a SodaStream box by placing on it a sticker featuring the Palestine flag and the words ‘Boycott Israeli Apartheid’. The group’s goal is to raise awareness that the purchase of anything made in the criminal settler-colony funds the regime’s ongoing crimes of apartheid, ethnic cleansing and genocide.
SodaStream is one such item made in the illegitimate Zionist state, where its factory in the Naqab desert has been linked to displacing Bedouin communities from their land. In a complaint raised with the Advertising Standards Agency by the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) on behalf of BDS Belfast, the legal campaigners pointed out the false claims on SodaStream packaging, asserting that the product is made by “Jews and Arabs working side-by-side in peace and harmony.” This is clearly an absurd boast for a company benefiting from an apartheid state committing genocide against ‘Arabs’, or Palestinians as they ought to be called.
BDS actions uphold the law; they don’t break it
BDS Belfast have argued that the matter should never have been brought to court in the first place, given that they are upholding international law by attempting to prevent the funding of war crimes. Instead, retailers should be facing prosecution for their role in funnelling money to the terrorist Israeli Occupation Forces. Taxes taken by the settler-colony’s government from companies based there are used to fund its military.
ICJP campaigners have already taken steps to warn major supermarkets of their potential complicity. Some, such as the Coop, have already ended all trade with ‘Israel’. BDS Belfast has previously been part of a successful campaign in Ireland that prompted Lidl to stop stocking products made on stolen Palestinian land.
The already ridiculous judicial hounding of the Belfast activists descended into even greater farce today, as the prosecution’s main witness failed to show. A Sainsbury’s manager gave a statement claiming that Rafferty had damaged the SodaStream box, causing £110 in damage. He had requested to appear behind a screen, claiming potential risk to his safety.
Once again today, the BDS Belfast legal team dismissed this argument. The activist group’s standard form of action is to remove Israeli products from shelves and sticker them symbolically, something they have done at least once a day in Sainsbury’s and local Home Bargains stores for over 18 months. Barrister Conor O’Kane pointed out that, given this frequency, they would have encountered the manager possibly 100s of times, and no threatening behaviour towards him was ever observed.
Non-existent prosecution case collapses into farce in Belfast
The magistrate inexplicably gave the prosecution two hours to compile some actual evidence, now that their only witness was AWOL —an optimistic decision given the scantness of the proof compiled over the last year since the case was brought. Frantic ringing of Sainsbury’s ensued, as the desperate state legal team attempted to cobble together something to enhance their threadbare material.
After two hours, they returned empty-handed, but then had the gall to ask the magistrate for an adjournment. A visibly angry O’Kane castigated the prosecution for the request, pointing out how long-winded the matter had already been, with 11 court appearances in this case and a related one involving two other BDS Belfast activists. He insisted the opposing legal team’s persistence signalled a politically motivated case against Palestine activists, pointing out that had the sticker been, for example, a Manchester United one, the matter would never have been dragged out to this extent, or even reached court to begin with.
The magistrate was left with no option but to conclude the trial on the same day, rather than waste more public money on a matter that has likely cost tens of thousands of pounds haranguing anti-genocide campaigners. With the prosecution unable to provide a witness and no means of linking Rafferty to the alleged damage, the non-existent case collapsed, and the magistrate returned a not guilty verdict. A jubilant gallery of 20 supporters erupted in delight, with shouts of “free Palestine” and “justice for the children of Palestine” called out, before security intervened.
Speaking outside and flanked by solicitor Aiden Carlin and a crowd bearing Palestine flags and keffiyehs, Rafferty said:
Sainsbury’s, the judiciary, and the police… were adamant they wanted a conviction today. They wanted a sentence to stop what is spreading, not just in Belfast, Ireland, and Britain, but globally. People are taking matters into their own hands by running the boycott campaign, which is one of the few things putting pressure on the Israelis.
Irish unions must match their counterparts in Italy and Spain
He went on to express solidarity and sympathy with the Sainsbury’s manager, pointing out how workers and activists can work together to get blood-stained Israeli rubbish out of shops:
We know the pressure the manager was under; we see the position he was put in—he’s a worker, just like us. And those at the top, they didn’t come into court today to defend their ethical policies or their procurement policies or why they’re funding the genocide in Palestine.
He also called on unions to back workers, as IDATU did in the 1980s when it urged its staff to cease handling South African products:
Get behind the workers now! The time is now to show leadership, not to wait and see what the workers are doing.
The Belfast activist encouraged those unions to match the deeds of comrades in Italy and Spain, who have brought their nations to a standstill with massive general strikes for Palestine. He concluded by pushing Palestine activists to get involved with similar actions to those done by BDS Belfast, and to rid supermarkets of Israeli items. The Six Counties campaign group have placed a particular focus on Home Bargains, due to its extensive range of Zionist tat.
Though the group has never ceased its actions despite looming prosecutions, the verdict is likely to deliver a shot in the arm to a growing campaign. As similar actions spread throughout the world, an already collapsing Zionist economy will find it increasingly complex to sustain its colonial ambitions.
Featured image via the Canary
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