Yesterday we at the Resistance Kitchen marked 32 day’s that the #Filton10 have been unjustly imprisoned for trying to stop genocide. Whilst they languish in prison, those that aid and abet the perpetrators of genocide go free, and are protected by the state to continue manufacturing arms to slaughter Palestinians in Gaza.
For a background on the #Filton10 please see our campaign launch article:
Solidarity with the #Filton10
Health Workers Support
We were particularly touched this week to see the heath workers block at the 18th National Palestine Protest in London on Saturday raised our placard in support on the #Filton10. Deepest gratitude to all that made it happen.🙏
Latest Developments
On 3rd September was the bail hearing at the Old Bailey of two of the youngest actionists, both 20 years old – Fatema Zainab and Zoe. Both live with their parents, and are registered students with their university terms about to start. Clearly they are not flight risks, there is no reason why bail should not be granted. Yet vindictively, both were denied bail. As Zoe’s mother put it “We’re gutted”.
The previous week Zoe’s mother’s home was raided for the second time by anti-terror police:
“And last week I got a visit from counter terrorism police – TWELVE of them. My entire home was searched.
They went through every single drawer and cupboard.
They were polite, and left everything tidy, but I felt shaky
and sick. Is she a terrorist now? ! !
Thought the murder of innocent civilians was what her actions were trying to STOP”
Apparently they seized a Palestinian flag that Zoe had made with her sister, with the words ‘You cannot take a neutral stance on genocide’ as evidence!
Clearly these are signs of desperation, clutching at straws when they have no justifiable terrorism case, and of course to punish the families for raising principled children who stood up for the oppressed.
Secret Flame
Defiant, her mother wrote a poem ‘Secret Flame’ which she read out last week at the Greenbelt Festival. She describes her pain in writing it: “I’ve never shed so many tears while writing a poem, or while reading it out in public. This one is from the heart. It’s about the bravest young woman I know 💔”.
Secret Flame
(For my daughter Zoe, who tried to stop a genocide)
They’ve got my red haired daughter
they’ve locked her in a cell
trying to silence and contain her
but they don’t know her very well
She’s been inside before –
my secret flame
for nine sweet months
when I used to walk beneath
the chestnut trees in Broomfield Park
and tell her not to be afraid
I sang Be Bold, Be Strong
not knowing just how much
she’d take those words to heart
And she burned and kicked and grew
until she’d served her time
then lit up the delivery room
with her brazen red haired truth
Make no mistake
in that concrete womb
or maybe it’s a forge
she burns and kicks and grows
forming as she’s turned
over white-hot coals
She holds hands
through prison fences
makes heart-shaped signs
through toughened glass
hugs pain-racked bodies
on prison benches
Growing in the solidarity of love
burning through the prison library
feasting off her tiny patch of sky
so when the time comes
at last to be delivered
she’ll set the world on fire
She dedicated the poem to her “daughter in prison and all political prisoners in the UK, especially those standing in solidarity with the people of Palestine”.
