To Kill a War Machine – update

Last week, I reported on the move by Yvvette Cooper – UK Home Secretary, expenses cheat and wife to rottweiler for Israel Ed Balls – to designate non violent Palestine Action a terrorist organisation, making membership or support punishable by up to fourteen years in jail.

This has now been overwhelmingly approved by parliament.  More precisely, parliament voted on a package – PA plus two rabidly far right groups – without being given the chance to vote separately on each. In my book that’s as sneaky as flipping your house but I doubt Ms Cooper gives a tinker’s curse what I think …

Also last week I urged that everyone see the film about Palestine Action, To Kill a War Machine. I hope you did, because now you can’t. It’s my dismal duty to relay the following statement by film makers Rainbow Collective:

Filmmakers statement on To Kill a War Machine

Following the vote in the House of Commons on 2nd July 2025 to proscribe Palestine Action, Rainbow Collective have taken the difficult decision to temporarily take down the online version of our film, ‘To Kill a War Machine’ and authorise no further screenings of the film until further notice.

As filmmakers with 20 years of experience documenting movements for social justice around the world, we produced ‘To Kill a War Machine’ independently, within the law and had it certified for cinema release by the BBFC. The film itself does not become illegal, as it was produced and edited prior to proscription. However, future distribution of anything which could be interpreted as showing sympathy for or inviting support for a proscribed organisation will become illegal.

It has always been Rainbow Collective’s intention to tell critical and truthful stories with integrity. We never want our documentaries to expose our audiences or communities to danger from the state and, as such, the film will remain unavailable until we have absolute legal assurance that it can be distributed within the law.

This is for the safety and wellbeing of the communities wishing to organise events or screen the film, as we have been advised that it is they who would face the greatest legal exposure.

We have been overwhelmed and humbled by close to a hundred community screenings being organised over the past week, on line and in person, in cinemas, theatres, community centres, pubs, museums, and living rooms across the UK and around the world. We have never witnessed such an urgent, impassioned and dynamic mobilisation around a film in our 20 years working in the industry.

We feel that this is an important film, one in which activists and members of the public put forward arguments for why direct action is justified, morally and legally, against the companies supplying genocide. We also feel that proscription of a non-violent protest group is the most concerning example of authoritarian overreach that we have seen in the UK in our lifetimes, not just on the right to protest but on the rights of independent film makers, writers, journalists and artists like ourselves who should be allowed to platform the views and actions of non-violent protesters.

We will post further statements as the situation develops and hope to see you all at a screening as soon as we can get the film out there in a way that keeps everybody safe.

With love and solidarity,
Richard York & Hannan Majid,
Directors & Founders, Rainbow Collective, 3rd July 2025

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A post is due on the science of how state terror in Palestine (and empire criminality more generally) is imported sooner or later to the imperial hub. The move against Palestine Action is not isolated but as one with repressive measures across the collective West.

On the brighter side, do see this piece in Scottish outlet, The National:

New direct action group ‘Yvette Cooper’ emerges

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