Jacobin62%
No Regrets for Being on the Right Side of History 12%
By Daniel Tatlow-Devally15%
7/22/2026, 8:45:42 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 30 faulty reasoning types, including Framing Effect, Self-Serving Bias, and Politically Left Leaning Bias, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 8.1% saturation with 118 hits. Analysis detected 1,228 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,457 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 29.4% and a BS Rank of 12% (17,468 of 19,795 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 88.20% of the article peer group.
In the early hours of September 8, 2025, in Ulm, Germany, five activists gained access to a branch of a subsidiary of Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest private defense contractor.
They damaged office equipment while filming themselves.
According to their own statements, they wanted to protest Germany’s arms exports to Israel and put a stop to them.
None of them had a criminal record; all of them waited at the scene for the police to arrive.
Since then, the Stuttgart prosecutor’s office has charged the five with property damage, now estimated at over €1 million.
It is casting them as members of “Palestine Action Germany,” said to be a criminal organization under Section 129 — a statute usually reserved for terrorist and organized crime groups.
It also argues that the raid had “antisemitic” motives — an accusation that the defendants strongly deny.
The five defendants, who hold Irish, British, Spanish, and German citizenship, have been held in high-security detention, much of it in isolation, ever since.
The trial, which began in April but is expected to last into next year, is widely considered a landmark case for Palestine solidarity in Germany.
One of the defendants is Daniel Tatlow-Devally.
The Irishman has been held in jail ever since his arrest last September, often spending as much as twenty-three hours a day confined to his cell.
For journalist Karim Natour, it took months to get permission for an interview with Tatlow-Devally — and to schedule an appointment.
Finally, authorities approved a one-hour meeting.
In this interview, originally published in German weekly der Freitag, Natour and Tatlow-Devally spoke about conditions in prison, the reasons for the Ulm Five’s actions, and what the case says about the German state’s response to pro-Palestine activism.
Karim Natour
Daniel Tatlow-Devally, how are you doing?
Daniel Tatlow-Devally
Starting with the hard stuff . . .
I am often aware that I could be worse.
And I am amazed by the sheer amount of solidarity that I have been receiving from my family, friends, and comrades and the ways they have found to support me.
I find that incredibly touching — especially compared to other political prisoners who don’t enjoy similar privileges.
At the same time, after spending nine months on remand under highly dubious conditions, it is hard.
I am being kept twenty-three hours in a cell, that is roughly two by five meters.
Every day, I get one hour outside, between 8:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m.
I get to walk around in a concrete basin; there is nothing green there.
This is where I see other prisoners.
We have around three showers a week.
Sometimes I get to exercise in the training room.
Karim Natour
Do you walk around the cell to pass the time?
Daniel Tatlow-Devally
I sit a lot, because if you start walking around, you feel like a zoo animal.
I can hear the street but can’t see it.
There is [translucent glass].
Sometimes I can hear the solidarity protests.
Once every couple of months.
That is a real privilege.
And I get mail, among it children’s drawings and letters from friends.
Karim Natour
Have you gotten accustomed to your everyday life in here?
Daniel Tatlow-Devally
These conditions mean a lot of stress.
In the first few months, it was a big achievement, making it through the day.
I would feel happy if it was finally late enough to fall asleep.
I am learning Greek for my partner.
I have now been longer in prison than with my partner outside . . .
But there are a lot of hours of vegetating and watching TV when I just need to feel numb.
Karim Natour
In a letter, read out at an event in March, you expressed concerns about your health.
Daniel Tatlow-Devally
I am lucky to have enjoyed relatively good physical health.
But the toll is psychological.
Two men who have been confined here have attempted suicide.
I played chess with one of them.
And I place the blame for that on the prison system.
[As I start to ask questions about the attack on the factory and the trial, the Justizvollzugsbeamtin present during the interview, i.e., the official representative of the prison, gets nervous.
She intervenes.
“No questions about the topic, please!”
I object and say that the judge allowed me to ask any questions.
Her superior arrives.
She also says “No questions!”
I insist.
They call the judge.
After five minutes, the superior arrives again.
“Go ahead, ask your questions.”]
Karim Natour
The prison conditions were criticized by human rights organizations like Amnesty International.
The prosecution argues they are necessary because you are part of a criminal organization.
Daniel Tatlow-Devally
I deny being part of a criminal conspiracy.
I am more interested in a conversation about the criminal involvement of Elbit Systems and how they benefit from human rights violations.
Karim Natour
How did it feel to appear in public on the first day of trial in Stuttgart-Stammheim [a courtroom famously used for far-left terrorism cases in the 1970s] in April?
Daniel Tatlow-Devally
It was overwhelming, seeing my friends and comrades waving and cheering.
I am incredibly honored to receive this care.
But it was bizarre to be there in handcuffs and behind bulletproof glass.
I was trying to show the supposedly balanced picture that I am trying to convey today, also.
I think something has changed since the beginning of the trial, with the images of me and my comrades smiling politely and waving.
Karim Natour
You might face multiple years in prison for what you did.
Daniel Tatlow-Devally
I have tried to teach myself not to have strong feelings about being confined.
I am not optimistic regarding the possible sentences.
When I was informed of this, it took some time to wrap my head around it.
But we will never stop fighting for the best outcome.
Karim Natour
Do you regret it?
Daniel Tatlow-Devally
Not for a moment.
Karim Natour
Why not?
Daniel Tatlow-Devally
I am from a middle-class background.
It is a powerful privilege to be a European Union citizen.
It’s a place with such an amount of diplomatic power and wealth.
Having the possibility that your actions affect the world.
I believe it is beholden on people like myself to hold the great powers to account for war crimes.
Even if I was free tomorrow, I will have paid an enormous price for having stood up to the Israeli and EU arms industry and their support for the genocide in Gaza.
Karim Natour
Why did you not flee the scene?
Daniel Tatlow-Devally
Good question.
All the other inmates asked me about it.
Look, when you are alone for a very long time due to one decision you have made, you start to think about it.
But there is something else to it.
I can’t speak for the others, but I was aware that if we didn’t flee, we could maybe bring about an open debate on German arms exports to Israel.
Karim Natour
You knew it would have consequences.
What did you expect?
Daniel Tatlow-Devally
There have been various iterations of similar things happening.
So I was aware it could get quite ugly.
But I did not expect this.
Karim Natour
Do you think you changed something in the German discourse on Israel and Gaza?
Daniel Tatlow-Devally
I believe it is too early to tell.
But a surprisingly broad section of the Irish establishment has taken up my case.
Even though these are not the people who would usually be my comrades, I am touched by their support.
They seem to admire what I have done.
And they have helped me.
Someone from the Irish consulate visits once a month.
Once they offered to take laundry.
Before the Irish embassy contacted the [German] foreign ministry, I was only allowed to see my family through glass.
After the embassy put pressure on the authorities, they said it was an “administrative mistake.”
Karim Natour
How did it feel to touch your family again?
Daniel Tatlow-Devally
In February, it was the first time I could touch my family.
It felt crazy.
It was a big relief and intense to hold my loved ones after the enforced separation.
But there was outrage about the prison system.
There was anger.
Karim Natour
You came from Ireland to Berlin in 2017 for your neuroscience and philosophy studies.
Did your view on Germany change since your confinement?
Daniel Tatlow-Devally
I, too, have experienced firsthand the forms of injustice in the so-called Rechtsstaat [rule-of-law state].
I knew about them in an abstract way.
But fundamentally my view on Germany already shifted when I saw how Germany treated the protests in 2023, after October 7.
Analysis
Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.