Cheers as jury fails to convict ‘Teledyne Four’ Palestine activists

Ruby, Danny, Najam and Laila celebrate the Teledyne trial result at Bradford Crown Court

Four Palestine campaigners walked free from Bradford Crown Court on Friday after a jury failed to reach a verdict.

The group—known as the Teledyne Four—were released on bail and face a retrial on 9 February 2026.

The prosecution charged Laila Gao, Ruby Hamill, Daniel Jones and Najam Shah with causing £571,383 of damage to the Teledyne factory.

The plant in nearby Shipley supplies surveillance and targeting technology to the Israeli military.

Daniel Jones told Socialist Worker outside Bradford Crown Court, “In my speech to the jury, I said that we all have to choose which side of history we are on.

“I chose to be on the right side—and enough of them made the right choice to stand with Palestine.”

Najam Shah told Socialist Worker, “I was always confident the jury would not convict us. There is enough humanity among ordinary people—it’s our leaders that are the problem.

“We have so much support and it really validates our actions. We are looking forward to beating them again when we come back.”

The judge told the jury it could not acquit the protesters because they were stopping a greater crime, the genocide in Gaza. After three days of deliberations, the jury could not agree on a verdict.

The four members of Palestine Action never denied breaking into the factory on 2 April and spending 17 hours on the roof. They directed their own defence and made powerful appeals about the need to stop Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

The jury saw a video of Laila Gao telling supporters outside the factory, “Britain has the ability to stop this genocide. If they won’t do it, we will.”

Outside the court Daniel said, “We need more people to get involved in boycotts and marches. Lots of people turn off the news because it’s too upsetting, but Palestinians are still dying and we need to keep acting”.

Daniel was not impressed by Labour foreign secretary David Lammy’s suspension of 30—out of 350—arms export licences. “Lammy’s ban was a crumb, given to shut us up,” he said. “He banned 30 licences.

“Teledyne has around 130. The company is bragging that they aren’t affected. We need to ban the F-35 jets.”

Najam Shah agreed. “David Lammy is shameless,” he told Socialist Worker. “We know that 75 percent of the population support a ceasefire. So, we are more representative of the democratic will than the Labour government is.

“I told the court, if you saw a baby locked in a car on a hot day, what would you do? If the police wouldn’t help. If the fire service wouldn’t help? You would smash the window to save the baby. That’s what we did at Teledyne”.

Najam was confident that the protests at Teledyne were having an impact, saying, “We put Teledyne on trial in front of the jury.”

Ruby told Socialist Worker how important the support from Palestine activists had been. “The community here has been amazing,” she said. “There seem to be boycotts and protests every day in Bradford.

“On my way to court I keep bumping into people on their way to leaflet Barclays or protest at McDonalds.

“It’s so important for us to be grounded in the support of the community. Bradford Friends of Palestine have organised our accommodation and food and come here to support us through the trial. We’re so grateful for all the support”.

As the British state cracks down on Palestine and climate campaigners, it’s significant that the jury could not reach a verdict.

It should boost people to keep up fighting for Palestinian liberation and to end British complicity in Israel’s genocide.

As Qamar from Bradford Friends of Palestine told Socialist Worker, “We are determined to keep protesting at Teledyne.

“We have organised many marches to the factory over the last year. We are going to make sure Teledyne is closed down.”