- Berlin-based activists join forces with growing UK movement Palestine Action to take direct action against DIEHL BGT Defense, Berlin
- DIEHL BGT Defense is a German arms manufacturer working with Elbit Systems
- A multinational movement is growing against the Israeli arms industry and its brutal reign of apartheid
On 6th February, under the banner of Palestine Action, Berlin-based activists spray painted DIEHL BGT Defense in Berlin’s business and governance center. The slogans, reading “Palestine Action” and “Shut Elbit Down” were carried out in broad daylight. The action has been described by the group as “the first of many”.
DIEHL BGT Defense works in collaboration with Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest privately-owned arms company, to develop and supply infra-red drone technology.
Elbit Systems provides the Israeli military with 85% of its drones, as well as ammunition and surveillance technology – all of which are used and tested on Palestinian civilians before being sold on to some of the world’s most repressive regimes.
Elbit-equipped Israeli fighter jets have been repeatedly used to attack civilian areas, homes and refugee camps in Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza, resulting in thousands of casualties.
Elbit is also a main provider of the electronic detection fence system for the West Bank apartheid wall, and was contracted to make the new underground wall around the blockaded Gaza Strip.
A spokesperson for Palestine Action said:
“By using the Palestinian population as its testing ground for daily attacks, Elbit enhances its profits and literally turns civilians’ blood into money: its profits skyrocketed after its equipment was used in the brutal 2014 assault on Gaza, helping the country to export its “products” globally and become one of the world’s biggest arms industries.
From a tiny seed, a multinational movement is growing against the Israeli arms industry and its brutal reign of apartheid. Berlin is the first international region to take direct-action but interest from other countries is on the rise, turning what was a national movement into an international network determined to take direct action to end complicity with Israeli apartheid and its war industry.”
Palestine Action is a direct-action network of groups and individuals formed with the mandate of taking direct action against Elbit Systems at grassroots level, calling for all their sites all to be shut down. The network was first established in the UK in August 2020, but activists from across the globe are beginning to join the movement and affiliate national branches.
A spokesperson for Berlin activists joining Palestine Action:
“The infra-red drone technology developed by DIEHL BGT Defense and Elbit Systems poses an imminent threat not only to Palestinians lives – but to humanity altogether. This collaboration must therefore be put an end to.
“As activists residing in Berlin, we can no longer remain bystanders as we witness the Israeli arms industry further expand its deadly reach. We will not be silenced and we will not let an arms company that works in the service of a supremacist apartheid state that commits crimes against humanity to operate from among us without resistance.
“We shall do whatever is in our ability to expose the true essence of Elbit as an arms company that develops and sells human-tested weapons, we shall disturb its activity, and work to shut Elbit down! This is the true face of Israeli apartheid and it will not be tolerated. Expect direct action.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors:
Elbit Systems
- Elbit surveillance technology for Israel’s aparthied wall: https://www.facing-finance.org/en/database/cases/elbit-systems-surveillance-system-torch-for-the-separation-barrier-in-israelpalestine/
- Role of Elbit drone in killing of four children paying on Gaza beach in 2014: https://theintercept.com/2018/08/11/israel-palestine-drone-strike-operation-protective-edge/
- More on Elbit’s drones in Gaza: https://corporatewatch.org/elbit-systems-company-profile-2/
Elbit Systems wins $73 million defence contract from Germany’s Diehl: https://www.euronews.com/2019/06/19/elbit-systems-wins-73-million-defence-contract-from-germanys-diehl