CAGE releases study on the effectiveness of Palestine Action’s direct action campaign in the UK

CAGE International has released a major new report documenting how direct action for Palestine – and Palestine Action (PA) in particular, has fundamentally reshaped Britain’s political landscape by directly disrupting the UK’s material links to Israeli genocide. The report shows how PA’s strategic focus on Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms manufacturer, has been exceptionally effective: closing factories, halting production, driving up costs, and forcing corporations, investors and logistics providers to reconsider their role in enabling genocide.

The report, “Putting Bodies on the Line: The Landscape of Direct Action and Civil Disobedience for Palestine in the UK,” documents the rise of direct action from 2020–2025. It charts how a disciplined, targeted, movement driven by its own conscience and purpose made complicity too costly to ignore, and how this pressure sparked a national reckoning around the limits of conscience, civil resistance, and state power.

Published during the judicial review challenging the proscription of Palestine Action, the report provides a detailed timeline and analysis of the movement’s strategic successes, its own moral clarity, and the escalating repression of the state in response. Its release comes as Palestine Action prisoners have entered a prolonged hunger strike, the Filton 24 trials begin to unfold, and police continue to arrest members of the public for engaging in civil disobedience in solidarity with Palestine Action against Israeli genocide.

READ: UK premier says rising incidents related to ‘abhorrent’ anti-Muslim hate must be addressed

The report provides a clear chronology of key actions – from the sustained campaign that shut down Elbit’s Oldham factory, to major production stoppages at Filton and Teledyne – illustrating how strategic disruption, not symbolism, defined the movement’s impact.

Dr Asim Qureshi, CAGE International’s Research Director and author of the report, said:

“This report sets out a simple truth: when institutions are complicit in genocide, a conscience-driven resistance will always break through the cracks. Direct action is the language of those who refuse to be silent in the face of atrocity. Attempts to suppress these actions through criminalisation have not only failed, but have revealed the state’s determination to protect profit and political alliances over human life. The success of direct action is clear – repeated acquittals of actionists marks a shift in the public’s perception around Zionism, and the role that it plays in the world, especially as this genocide continues.”

The release also highlights the wider context, including the International Court of Justice findings of genocidal acts by Israel, and Britain’s continued political and military support, which has made the UK an active facilitator of ongoing crimes against the Palestinian people.

READ: UK police arrest London protesters opposing ban on Palestine Action