The leaders of an extreme anti-Israel network plotting mayhem across the UK can be exposed by the JC.
Palestine Action co-founders Huda Ammori and Richard Barnard revealed details of a new campaign of destruction targeting Israeli-linked firms in a clandestine meeting in Manchester last week.
Also addressing the meeting, which was secretly taped by the JC, was notorious hard-left rapper Lowkey, who urged the excited crowd to “build on” previous acts of vandalism.
The Palestine Action poster advertising last week's meeting in Manchester
The JC can also reveal that Roger Waters, Pink Floyd’s multimillionaire bassist, and former Green Party parliamentary candidate Jeremy Parker are active supporters of the network.
The new wave of attacks is aimed initially at the offices of Israeli defence firm Elbit Systems, but is set to be expanded to an array of companies linked to the Jewish state.
Palestine Action co-founder Richard Barnard
Mr Barnard, who at the gathering asked if there were any “Elbit spies” in the room, has described terrorists convicted by Israel as “heroes”.
Ms Ammori has falsely accused Israel of testing weapons on children and described the Jewish state as a “racist endeavour”.
A third key player in the radical collective is activist Sarah Wilkinson. Her name was on a Twitter account that has posted a series of deeply offensive statements about the Holocaust.
Ms Wilkinson claimed that the Holocaust tweets were posted by an imposter who was running a “parody” account in her name.
One of the messages, from 2016, claimed the world’s population of Jews grew from 1933-48, adding: “Wouldn’t six million losses show up?”
Another 2016 tweet stated: “Essential reading: many claims around the Holocaust were debunked long ago yet they’re still regurgitated to this day”.
It then provided a link to an article that downplayed the horrific crimes of Auschwitz doctor Josef Mengele.
Palestine Action has drawn the “big name” support despite the inflammatory statements by a number of its leaders and key players, unearthed by internet investigation group Gnasher Jew in collaboration with the JC.
In response to the escape of convicted terrorists from Israel’s Gilboa Prison in September last year, one of whom had been arrested for planning a suicide bombing, Mr Barnard wrote:
“Apartheid Israel loses six heroes held in their prison yesterday”.
In May last year, Mr Barnard also claimed in a tweet that Israel was using Covid as a “biological weapon” against the Palestinians.
Ms Ammori, 28, has claimed that with the Balfour Declaration, Britain “basically mandated that is was OK to ethnically cleanse the Palestinian people”. When Israel was founded in 1948, she went on, “it immediately ethnically cleansed 750,000 Palestinians from their homes”.
Ms Ammori worked for the PSC for two years 2018 – 20 after studying business at Manchester University, where she was awarded the title “Campaigner of the Year” for founding its BDS campaign.
She has led many of Palestine Action’s blockades of premises owned by Elbit Systems. She has boasted on social media of targeting other firms with Israeli links, such as Puma. She also appears in regular podcasts with Lowkey.
Another key figure in the network is keffiyeh-wearing Ms Wilkinson, who is also a leader of Extinction Rebellion North.
Green Party parliamentary candidate Jeremy Parker
Ms Wilkinson has also posted on Twitter that XR and Palestine Action “joined forces” to “evict Israel out of Oldham” at the town’s office for Israeli defence firm Elbit.
In 2017, she posted: “All comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany are actually totally accurate and acceptable”.
She has denied posting these statements, claiming they were posted by a “parody” account. She wrote: “I have been persistently accused of posting antisemitic tweets… there were several posts by this parody account containing antisemitic content not written by me.”
The XR link is even clearer with the case of the other main presenter at last week’s Palestine Action meeting, Mr Barnard, a co-founder of the group alongside Ms Ammori.
He was one of the XR protesters arrested in 2020 after climbing on top of a commuter train in London’s Docklands, and has posted many times of involvement in the group’s protests.
Mr Barnard, 49, is also a leading member of Christian Climate Action and the Catholic Worker Movement, a radical organisation based at Giuseppe Conlon House, a homeless people’s centre in Finsbury Park, north London.
Pink Floyd's Roger Waters
Mr Waters has already declared his support for a cultural boycott of Israel and the BDS campaign. He is equally vehement in his support for Palestine Action. In January, when Elbit announced it was shutting its Oldham factory because of the Palestine Action protests, he tweeted: “Hey, Israel, leave those kids alone” – a reference to the lyrics of the Pink Floyd hit The Wall. He added: “You did it. We are proud to stand by you. Love R.”
Former Green candidate Mr Parker has also urged support for the group and has asked his followers to donate money to it.
Palestine Action, as well as Ms Ammori, Mr Barnard and Ms Wilkinson, were contacted for comment.
