Four pro-Palestine activists, known as the Teledyne 4, are accused of breaking into the Teledyne Defence and Space factory in Shipley, West Yorkshire in April 2024 and causing nearly £600,000 of damage. Teledyne supplies electronic components for weaponry used by the Zionist state in its ongoing war against the Palestinian people. The Teledyne 4 face charges of causing criminal damage and having articles with intent to destroy or damage property, offences which in this case carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. In September 2024, a jury failed to reach a verdict in their case, and the Teledyne 4 are due to be retried this February. A comrade from Leeds FRFI spoke to one of the defendants, Sayed Shah.
FRFI: What drove you to choose the tactic of direct action at this point?
Sayed: I chose direct action because for six months, I’d been signing petitions for Israel to stop the genocide and for the UK to stop illegally funding Israel. Because British law states clearly it’s against the law to support a nation that is committing genocide.
I took direct action because it was quite obvious that democracy had failed. All the petitions, marches, lobbying was being ignored. So that in itself is a legal defence for people to take action to restore democracy. Signing petitions is the same as just appealing to the oppressor; the government have those systems, especially to fool us, to make us feel better, that we’ve said something we can do, something which has zero effect at all.
The lead-up to the action is very, very poignant. In January 2024, Israel was charged with genocide by the ICJ at the International Court of Justice, the biggest courts in the world. Israel continued its genocide. Then, in March hundreds of great British lawyers who work in government departments, they rightfully wrote a letter to [then Prime Minister] Rishi Sunak demanding arms are prohibited from being sent to Israel because we will be complicit in aiding and abetting this genocide. And then on 1 April Israelis murdered three British aid workers Jen, James and Jim, working with the World Kitchen.
At that point we had all had enough, so the next day I took action to disrupt the supply of arms.
FRFI: And why did you specifically target Teledyne?
Sayed: It was one of the local companies to me. They also have a huge amount of military export licences to Israel. We targeted Teledyne because they make essential components for the Israeli military, such as surveillance equipment and targeting components for the drones killing children in Palestine.
When we go into court we aren’t going in as the accused, we go in as the accusers and we charge Teledyne with genocide, with aiding and abetting genocide. We don’t want these American arms factories that supply Israel in this country. Shut down Teledyne!
FRFI: How has the movement for Palestine in Britain changed since your initial trial in 2024?
Sayed: Since the initial trial, I would say there was a massive upswing in direct action. I think people realise that the petitions, they don’t work, they get ignored. The marches, with police permission, are okay as a display, but there’s no pressure being exerted because it’s controlled opposition. We march where the police say we can march.
So to me, I think people are realising how ineffective that is beyond building awareness. The marches will build awareness, but will not achieve anything else more than that.
FRFI: How are you opposing state repression currently? And also, how are you opposing state repression that others are facing, including the Filton 24, SOAS 2 and also, opposing the deproscription of Palestine Action – which of course was not a banned organisation at the point of your action, but has been since July 2025?
Sayed: Yes. We fully support the legal deproscription of Palestine Action and the ongoing judicial review challenging the ban. For the Filton 24, our demands are that they get immediate release on bail, that the dodgy ‘terrorist link’ being cited around them is removed and they get a fair trial. Free the Filton 24!
FRFI: Can you explain what you think needs to be done to continue this fight against state repression?
Sayed: We need stronger civil disobedience. And also legal non-arrestable direct action. For instance, we can stand in front of war factories. We stood in front of BAE, Salisbury, Lancashire. We just stand there. It effectively shuts the factory down. It’s not arrestable until the police issue the Section 14 to disperse. So, we can legally stand there without being arrested and disrupt the production of weapons to Israel’s genocide.
An action for Palestine could be a supermarket crash. It’s perfectly legal to put Israeli products into a trolley, and wheel it away to another corner of the store. I think that should be the way forward.
I belong to the housing campaign Acorn UK. We are campaigning for a bailiff-free Britain, for the councils to stop sending bailiffs. Once again, that’s a legal non-arrestable direct action model, where we literally just stand in front of the bailiffs and challenge them to move us non-violently.
And I’m very fond of anti-imperialist groups like yourselves (RCG). I think they’re very strong. Anyone that’s anti-bigotry, anti-colonial, anti-imperialist and has the guts to do something with that. I admire the strength I really do.
FRFI: How can people support you and your comrades during your trial?
Sayed: We just ask for your best wishes, whether it’s duas and prayers. Keep following the trial and share it on your Instagram because what we really want is to expose Teledyne as much as possible, to let people know that they’re arming Israel’s genocide. Anything that can help with that is always brilliant.
I have to thank everyone for the overwhelming support at our last trial. From people providing us accommodation and freshly cooked meals every day when we were on trial before. This logistical support allows us to focus on the trial, instead of worrying about where we are going to stay and things like that. All this was amazingly well done by Bradford Friends of Palestine and the Bradford community. We never once felt alone. We never once felt that we didn’t have support. We’ve got half a dozen friendly barristers helping us along the way.
We go to court, proud to be in court. Glad to be there to address this issue of Teledyne arming Israel in the courts, the heart of the British justice system. So come to the trial, if you’re local, we’ll be there from February 9-13 at Bradford Cown Court.
For updates follow https://instagram.com/bfdfriendsofpalestine/
