When a jury at London’s Woolwich Crown Court announced on February 4 that Lottie Head had been found not guilty of aggravated burglary, she broke down and wept. Head had appeared first on an indictment that included six defendants — the first of a total twenty-four to be tried on charges relating to activities by direct-action group Palestine Action at a factory of Israeli arms company Elbit Systems in Filton, near Bristol, in August 2024.

The ten-week trial concluded late this February with all defendants acquitted of aggravated burglary and three found not guilty of violent disorder. The jury was either hung or refused to convict on the remaining charges. Twenty-three of the so-called Filton 24 were granted bail and released, after eighteen months detained in prisons around the country. However, there are also threats of a retrial.

Amid these criminal hearings, a panel of judges at the High Court also concluded on February 13 that the government’s proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist organization last July — a ban that has since seen almost three thousand demonstrators arrested around the country — was unlawful, following a judicial review brought by the group’s cofounder.