Zoe Rogers (22) was the fifth defendant to take the stand, giving evidence on 15 and 17 December. Like Fatema Zainab, she was just 20 when she was arrested, and has had 2 birthdays during her 16 months in prison. She has no previous cautions, arrests or convictions. The court also heard she has a diagnosis of autism and ADHD.
Trying to make a difference
Questioned by her barrister Audrey Mogan, Zoe explained how she became involved in protests. She used to go to the Greta Thunberg-inspired Fridays for Future marches while at school and planned to study to become an environmental data scientist. However, she chose humanities subjects for the access to further education course she took after her A-levels. She said we don’t need more information about the environment – we need political will, so she wanted to learn more about politics.
She became aware of the genocide in Gaza early on, learning just a few months in that more children had already been killed in Gaza than in a year and a half of war in Ukraine. As she studied the history, she was horrified to learn about the Sabra and Shatila camps in Lebanon, where the Israeli military attacked Palestinian refugees. Zoe described hearing that Israeli soldiers cut open pregnant women and tore their babies out, and zip-tied men’s hands behind their backs then machine-gunned them. This underlined to her that Palestinians are not safe from Israel even when they left their homeland.
“Zoe described hearing that Israeli soldiers cut open pregnant women and tore their babies out”
Zoe described how she tried to make a difference. She wrote to her MP asking him to comply with international law and stop sending weapons to Israel to be used in a genocide. The letter also asked the MP to join parliamentary calls for a ceasefire. She received a reply that read like an automated response. She also went on marches, including the second biggest in UK history, but felt that it was completely ignored by government.
Real Media: “It was clear to Ms Rogers at this point that despite the evidence from multiple international organisations that Israel’s actions were illegal, the democratic process in the UK was failing.”
“Despite the evidence from multiple international organisations that Israel’s actions were illegal, the democratic process in the UK was failing”
‘Bananagate’ continues
After the break, Zoe explained that she had not been able to eat breakfast, and she was starting to feel like she might black out. The judge ordered another break to enable her to eat, but no food was provided.
Real Media reports: “We mentioned the food issues at the start of our coverage of Day 16 before the weekend. Part of the reason for further delays and the early end of proceedings today was the continuation of those problems. When the judge requested that a court clerk provide a banana to a defendant in the dock today, the Serco staff refused, telling the court that they had got into trouble for doing so on Friday. Security rules at the court also apparently meant that packed lunches provided by the prison could not be checked and provided before 1pm. Even the intervention of the judge apparently could not overcome these obstacles to common sense.”
“When the judge requested that a court clerk provide a banana to a defendant in the dock today, the Serco staff refused” – Real Media
As a result of Serco’s refusal to hand over to the defendants’ pack lunches provided by the prison or the bananas available in the court, the trial was adjourned for the rest of the day. We learnt that Zoe did not have anything to eat until she returned to HMP Bronzefield at around 8pm that evening. This has been a problem throughout the trial.
Direct action
When the trial resumed on 17 December, Zoe explained how she came across Palestine Action. She had been struck by a David Graeber quote:
“Protest is like begging the powers that be to dig you a well. Direct action is digging it yourself and daring them to stop you.”
Given the failure of democracy she was witnessing she thought direct action had to be more effective. She put ‘Palestine’ and ‘direct action’ into a search engine and this led straight to the Palestine Action website.
“Protest is like begging the powers that be to dig you a well. Direct action is digging it yourself and daring them to stop you” – David Graeber
From the website, she learnt that Elbit Systems ‘battle-tests’ its weapons on Palestinians. She went on to read the Elbit Systems website itself, but when questioned about this, “Judge Johnson interrupted Ms Mogan telling her these questions were outside what he had suggested were relevant to the trial and asked her to move on” (Real Media).
Zoe went on to describe an online training day with Palestine Action. Slides from the training were included in the evidence bundle seen by the jury, but Zoe pointed out that all the slides had been removed that were about Elbit Systems and the history of Palestine.
A few months later in May 2024, Zoe joined an in-person training day. She said she wanted to get involved because she’d seen horrific videos of bombs being dropped on crowds in Palestine, and then armed drones being used to pick off survivors.
The training made no mention of violent offences, and Zoe said the group went on to set a red line that they wouldn’t be comfortable with violence. There was also no suggestion of confrontations with security or police.
The terrifying security guard
Ms Mogan then played the unedited footage from Mr Volante’s body-worn video camera, which shows that when he runs in screaming at the activists he has a whip in his hand – this is edited out of the police presentation of footage. Zoe became tearful as she said she was terrified – she didn’t even notice the whip, but his face and eyes looked really scary. He ran screaming at them and barrelled straight into Jordan. She confirmed later to Jordan’s barrister that he did not warn them he was about to do so. She thought he was unhinged and prepared to do anything – he reminded her of David Tennant’s evil, insane character in Harry Potter.
Ms Mogan asked about the two times Zoe is seen swinging her hammer in front of her. Real Media: “She explained that both times, Jordan was not between them so Volante had a clear sightline to her and she was frightened he would run at her. She was ‘hyperaware’ of how vulnerable she was… When she shouted ‘Get out of here’, Ms Mogan asked if Ms Rogers was trying to intimidate Volante, but she said she weighed 45kg at the time, and didn’t think for a moment that her shouting could intimidate him.”
“Volante grabbed the sledgehammer off her and pulled her to the floor”
One frame on the footage “shows Ms Rogers with her sledgehammer raised, and she explains at that moment she was using her arm to shield her own face. She remembers Volante grabbed the sledgehammer off her and pulled her to the floor.”
Questioned by the prosecution about whether swinging a sledgehammer at someone is frightening, Zoe replied that it depends on who is swinging it – if it was a child who could barely lift it, that would not be frightening. She confirmed that she had not swung the hammer at Volante but into the space in front of her, and was acting in self-defence.
Smashing drones
Ms Mogan asked why the activists had sprayed red paint around the warehouse with converted fire extinguishers. Zoe explained that the paint symbolised the blood of the Palestinians that Elbit makes its profits from. She found some Elbit drones with Fatema Zainab and Lottie, and “smashed some of them”.
Zoe explained that the Thor model of drone they found “drops explosive grenades which shoot out pellets that bounce around in bodies, ripping up multiple organs” (Real Media).
Love, not hate
“The medical record at the police station described Ms Rogers as shocked. She said she was confused, overwhelmed and in shock, especially over the terrorism arrest. She didn’t expect to be put on remand, and was horrified while in prison, that people on social media were describing her as a ‘terrorist’” (Real Media).
This led to her writing a poem about why she had taken action. She recited the first and last few lines: “When they ask me why I did it, I tell them about the children…but I never forget to say that it was love, not hate, that called me”.
Asked what this meant, Zoe explained “I was motivated by a love for the Palestinian people, and a desire for their freedom from apartheid and occupation and genocide, not by hatred of security guards”.
Zoe Rogers said she took action against Elbit “to end British complicity in a genocide and save as many lives as possible”
Ms Mogan’s last question to Zoe was “Why did you take action against Elbit?”
Zoe replied, “To end British complicity in a genocide and save as many lives as possible.”
Three character witness statements were read. One from a college friend described her as “kind, gentle and compassionate, caring for social justice and wanting to build a better world… ‘the very best of us all’.” Another, from her mother, concluded “She might be the bravest and most selfless person I know. I am very proud to be her mother”.
That was the end of Zoe Rogers’ case, with Jordan Devlin to follow. Read a more detailed account on Real Media: Filton Trial Week 5
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