At 21, Fatema Zainab Rajwani is the youngest of the six defendants. She turned 20 the day before the Filton action. Despite her age and having no previous arrests, cautions or convictions, she too has spent the last 16 months in prison awaiting trial. It was her turn to give evidence on 11 & 12 December.
Wanting to do something tangible
Fatema Zainab told her barrister Catherine Oborne that since the age of 10 or 11 she has been attending peace rallies for Palestine. When the genocide started she began attending protests and signing petitions, and became involved with the student encampment at Goldsmiths University, where she was studying Media and Film. She became aware of Palestine Action at the encampment and met people who had taken direct action with them. Spurred on by the endless images from Gaza she decided to sign up for a Palestine Action training day in May 2024.
She said, “It had reached a point where I had been to every rally, signed every petition… I couldn’t take not doing anything anymore.”
“I couldn’t take not doing anything anymore.”
After a presentation on the history of Palestine and facts about Elbit Systems, the training covered different levels of direct action – low level (such as spraying paint and locking on) and high level (such as breaking in and damaging property). Fatema Zainab described how the attendees were asked to split towards the four corners of the room, according to whether they were interested in low/high level and arrestable/non-arrestable actions.
Real Media: “She felt she had tried everything like student occupations and protests and wanted to do something more tangible. She felt she was prepared to account for her actions and felt privileged enough to do so, so she went and stood in the arrestable high level corner.”
“She felt she was prepared to account for her actions and felt privileged enough to do so, so she went and stood in the arrestable high level corner.”
While the trainees were told about possible charges of criminal damage, “At no time was any suggestion of violence indicated.” Later, when the six in the ‘red team’ (who were planning to enter the factory) were discussing their roles, Fatema Zainab reported that “everyone agreed there should be absolutely no violence. Ms Rajwani was very clear that this was set as a firm boundary” (Real Media).
(The Real Media account offers a moment of light relief: “At this point a short mid-morning break was called, but as Ms Rajwani returned to the prison dock there was some commotion as one of the defendants spotted a dead mouse in there.”
Dismantling weaponry
Fatema Zainab was wearing a Go Pro camera inside the Elbit factory. This screenshot shows her in the process of dismantling an Elbit quadcopter drone with a crowbar
Asked about the aim of the action, Fatema Zainab said “To dismantle weaponry Elbit were making and which would be used to do horrific things in the genocide in Gaza…our main aim was to find drones and damage them.”
Asked about her intentions, she said: “The whole reason I was doing this is because I hate violence. I’d been seeing violence non-stop on my phone. The last thing I wanted to do was to cause more people more injury”
“I dismantled quadcopter drones with a crowbar”
Real Media: “In the next clip shown Ms Rajwani is seen with a crowbar, which was in her bag, and she is smashing up a quadcopter drone. She’s seen opening up large black boxes with more drones that she’s destroying.”
Under cross-examination, Fatema Zainab confirmed: “I dismantled quadcopter drones with a crowbar.” She also confirmed to Ms Heer that she was wearing a Go Pro camera in order to film Elbit Systems’ complicity in the genocide and other companies enabling genocide.
Terrified by Elbit security
“The next clip is from PC Buxton’s body worn video as he enters the building. Ms Rajwani is seen standing with her hands raised. She explains she’d just seen [Elbit guard] Mr. Volante hitting Mr Devlin with a sledgehammer, wasn’t at that point certain the new men arriving were police, and was very scared someone was going to hurt her. She was terrified at that point because nothing had gone to plan – she just wanted it to be over.”
“She’d just seen [Elbit guard] Mr Volante hitting Mr Devlin with a sledgehammer and was very scared someone was going to hurt her”
“The footage is played which shows Mr Volante screaming at her and Ms Head to get on the ground. Ms Rajwani describes him as having a sledgehammer in his hand and kicking out at them – her voice breaks as she remembers how terrified she was.”
Arrested as a terrorist
“The next day she was charged as a terrorist. Ms Rajwani broke down in tears in the witness stand as she remembered that week”.
[She was referring to the week the defendants were in police custody, not able to contact any of their loved ones. They were then taken to court, charged, refused bail and sent to prison.]
Fatema Zainab then listened to her barrister reading out the statement she had made at the police station, line by line, and confirmed that every part was true. It included
‘“I did not intend that for anyone to use violence nor did I encourage it”.
“I was scared when security guards came in and I wasn’t sure what to do”.
“However, I did not want anyone to use violence against them”.
“Banana republic”
Before questioning by the prosecution, the trial was held up because Serco – the private company in charge of transporting prisoners from HMP Bronzefield – had failed to provide two of the defendants with food that morning, and refused to allow them to simply be passed a banana in the dock. The judge was apparently unable to overrule Serco and this led to a 40-minute delay. Rajiv Menon KC was heard describing the court as a ‘banana republic’.
The prosecution put similar allegations to Fatema Zainab as she had for the others – that the red team had planned violence and intimidation against security guards, using sledgehammers chosen to act as weapons as well as tools, that they were expecting to commit offences that would lead to them being remanded, and so on.
Fatema Zainab’s replies consistently denied all of this. She broke down in tears as she said she had been expecting to start the third year of her course in Goldsmiths in September 2024, not to be in prison.
“A person of integrity, non-violence and responsibility”
Her case ended with five character witness statements from university lecturers and long-term family friends, including her former Saturday school teacher, who “described Ms Rajwani as a highly respectful, hardworking and very intelligent member of the community – helpful, honest and very sensible, volunteering at the local community centre helping the elderly, and as an infant teacher”.
Another described her as “a person of integrity, non-violence and responsibility – always law-abiding and conscientious, and deeply respected by her peers and community members.”
That was the end of Fatema Zainab Rajwani’s case, with Zoe Rogers and Jordan Devlin to follow. Read a more detailed account on Real Media: Filton Trial Week 4
To get updates in your inbox, sign up to our newsletter