Home Correspondent
September will mark one year since 21-year-old Palestine Action activist Fatema Zainab Rajwani was remanded into custody without trial. Her detention stems from an August 2024 protest at the Bristol factory of Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems, where she and others were charged with criminal damage, violent disorder, and aggravated burglary. Notably, Palestine Action was not a proscribed organization at the time of their arrest.
At a solidarity event in London on August 16, her father read a statement she had written on her prison conditions. In it, Rajwani described the dire situation at HMP Bronzefield: “In the last two weeks, this prison created the conditions that killed two people within three days. They locked us up for five days afterwards. Imagine knowing you are unsafe every day, that the people you are forced to depend on will lock you up even if you are dying.”
She also said her visitation rights had been suspended without explanation. “Imagine some entity having full and final authority on whether you are allowed to see and hug your mother and father or not. Now imagine that they have the ability to suspend that and refuse to tell you why.”
Six of the #Filton10: Samuel Corner, Jordon Devlin,Charlotte Head, Leona Kameo, Fatema Rajwani, and Zoe Rogers.
Fatema argued that her case was not exceptional. “When the police raid houses in the middle of the night and detain people for days without charge and hold 20-year-olds in custody for over a year without trial, it is not an anomaly. It is an entrenched system of injustice.”
Her imprisonment has drawn criticism from campaigners, who say she has faced forced medical testing, restrictions on religious practice, and extended periods of isolation.
The anniversary of her detention comes amid a wider clampdown on Palestine Action. The group was banned in July 2025 under the Terrorism Act, making membership or support punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
On September 7, police arrested 890 people at a demonstration in London against the ban, one of the largest mass arrest operations in recent decades. The Metropolitan Police said 857 arrests were for showing support for a proscribed organisation, while 33 were for other offences, including 17 assaults on officers.
Organisers of the Parliament Square protest said those present were “peacefully defying the ban” and accused officers of using excessive force. The group Defend Our Juries said police “violently assault[ed] peaceful protesters including the elderly, in order to try and arrest over a thousand people for holding cardboard signs.”
The Home Office said the proscription was necessary following a series of actions against Elbit facilities and an incident earlier in the year in which two RAF aircraft were damaged. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, who took office in early September, said: “Supporting Palestine and supporting a proscribed terrorist group are not the same thing.”
Feature photo: Fatema Zainab Rajwani (Credit: Sukaina Rajwani)
