PRESS RELEASE
09/06/21
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
- Palestine Action target the headquarters of LaSalle Investment Management, drenching the site in blood-red paint, preventing entry and covering the site in ‘war crime scene’ tape.
- LaSalle Investment Management, a subsidiary of Jones Lang LaSalle, are the landlords of Elbit Systems’ London Headquarters, enabling their murderous operations and facilitation of Israeli war crimes.
- LaSalle have declined to respond to repeated requests to evict Elbit or to recognise the role Elbit plays in repression of Palestinians and other global civilians.
- This action marks an escalation against landlords of all of Elbit’s UK sites, who will face resistance and direct action until Elbit is evicted from the UK and shut down completely.
In the early hours of Wednesday 9th June, Palestine Action drenched LaSalle Investment Management HQ in blood-red paint and covered the site in war crime scene tape. LaSalle is a subsidiary of JLL, and the landlord of Elbit Systems London Headquarters.
Activists endeavour to disrupt and pressure Elbit’s landlords to cut their ties to Israel’s arms trade and to the brutal repression of Palestinian civilians. Palestine Action are engaging in a campaign of sustained direct action against Elbit Systems, harming their profits as much as possible in order to shut them down completely to prevent further facilitation of the murder of Palestinians. Neither Israeli war crimes nor Elbit Systems operate in isolation – they rely on a global supply chain of manufacturing, shipping, marketing and, of course, landlords, to function effectively. Palestine Action intend to break this murderous supply chain to save Palestinian lives.
This latest escalation, targetting Elbit’s landlords and dousing their premises in broad daylight, marks another step in the escalation of direct action aimed at shutting Elbit down. Actions taken by Palestine Action to date have severely disrupted Elbit’s kill chain, forcing their sites to shut down for weeks at a time, and has cost them millions of pounds in losses. Following soaring interest in Palestine Action’s direct action campaigns, actions will continue to expand their focus to companies who directly enable Israel’s arms trade to operate in the UK, and actions will continue to escalate against Elbit, their landlords, and any other organisations which generate profit from Elbit’s facilitation of Israel’s war crimes.
Elbit Systems is Israel’s largest arms manufacturer, producing 85% of Israel’s combat and surveillance drones and their land-based military equipment. Many Elbit products, in particular their Hermes combat drones, are employed directly in the indescriminate killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and in the repression and surveillance of Palestinians in the occupied territories. These products – which Elbit market as “battle tested” following use against Palestinian civilians – are then exported to repressiveregimes across the globe, having been deployed against civilians in Myanmar, Armenia and Sri Lanka, and against refugees and asylum seekers crossing the Mediterranean and English Channel.
Palestine Action are calling for conscientous people in the UK to take autonomous direct action against JLL LaSalle Investment Management, at any of their 30+ sites across the UK
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
Please find attached an image of today’s action, free to print or reproduce with credit given to Palestine Action.
For rolling updates on ongoing actions please check the Palestine Action Twitter account
Palestine Action
Palestine Action is a direct-action network of groups and individuals formed with the mandate of taking direct action against Elbit Systems’ UK locations at grassroots level, calling for them all to be shut down and for the British government to end its complicity in Israeli apartheid.
Previous actions by Palestine Action:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-57184318
https://realmedia.press/palestine-action-in-leicester/
https://palestineaction.org/palestine-action-strikes-again/
https://realmedia.press/palestine-action-occupy-elbit-again/
Elbit Systems
More on the death and destruction inflicted by Elbit’s drones upon Gaza: https://corporatewatch.org/elbit-systems-company-profile-2/
UK Ministry of Defence signs £102 million contract with Elbit Systems UK for “sensor-to-shoot” system: https://www.army-technology.com/news/uk-mod-orders-elbit-detect-and-destroy-system/
Elbit Systems and Airbus drones tested on Palestinians contracted by EU border agency:https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/oct/28/eu-accused-of-abandoning-migrants-to-the-sea-with-shift-to-drone-surveillance
Why we take direct action to Shut Elbit Down: https://palestineaction.org/why-we-shut-elbit-down/