Three protesters were convicted on December 20 in relation to a January protest at weapons company Boeing. The protest targeted Boeing’s complicity in Israel’s genocide against the people of Gaza.
“Our goal was that people should know that Boeing is a weapons company,” protestor Margie Pestorius told Green Left. The group is trying to “withdraw the social license” for the “vast amount of Australian money going to Boeing,” she said.
The protest occurred on January 16 immediately after the South Africa presented it’s genocide case to the International Court of Justice. The 12 protesters held banners, read poetry, prayed and pasted pictures of children on a glass display.
Pestorius told Green Left that this was a “memorial to 15,000 children murdered in Gaza since the Israeli genocide commenced in October 2023”. Many of these children have been killed with Boeing ballistic weapons, attack helicopters, and fighter planes, she pointed out.
Amnesty International released two pictures of bomb fragments with Beoing serial numbers soon after Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza began in October 2023. These two bombs alone killed 19 children and 24 adults, Pestorius said. Boeing also “expedited orders worth millions of dollars of JDAM bombs to Israel”.
Dave Sprigg, Tempest Knight and Pestorius were each found guilty for protest at Boeing Defence.
Knight plead guilty to unlawful assembly and wilful damage as part of a plea deal where the “enter with intent to commit an indictable offence” charge was dropped.
Sprigg and Pestorius participated in a four day trial, representing themselves, and one day of conviction with magistrates remarks and sentencing hearings.
Sprigg was ordered to pay $1500 restitution towards a $5000 bill even though the company admitted in court that they had not replaced the glass doors of their weapons display cabinet.
Pestorius was found guilty of assault and of entering the premises and fined $1000. No conviction was recorded for the “assault”.
“The assault was admitted in court to be very minor, with no effect and was a soft brushing of one person past another,” she told Green Left.
It was found to have occurred as she moved to stand in front of the door to prevent it being closed.
“I was enabling communication from one space through to another,” she said. “Also others moved through and pasted the pictures, read poetry and made speeches and prayed.”
Pestorius was banned by the court from attending four different Boeing weapons venues.
She also faces a more serious charge on March 6 for refusing to hand over a PIN to her phone despite a warrant. This charge has a five year prison term as a maximum sentence.
The activists involved are connected to Peace Group Wage Peace and are all committed to non-violence and non-harm.
Sprigg and another activist also received $900 fines at Ipswich court the week before for a similar protest.
There is a crowd funder for various legal expenses and court costs.