PRESS RELEASE
04/07/22
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Pictures are free to use, with credit to be given to Neil Terry.
- This morning, activists set upon UAV Engines LTD. – a drones factory belonging to Israel’s largest arms company, Elbit Systems, dissenting and inflicting damage on the site.
- One activist glued themselves to the site, whilst others held the ground against guards; paint was sprayed on the security office. The action disrupted site production for the day.
- Site production is geared to producing the engines for Elbit’s Hermes 450/900 drones, their use essential in the surveillance and collective punishment of Palestine. It was, for instance, a Hermes 450 drone that fired at four Gazan boys playing on the beach, killing them.
- Two actions have been taken at the site in the prior month, with activists seeking to “dismantle the kill chain crucial in the landgrabs, massacre and surveillance of Palestine by the Israeli settler-colonial occupation“.
- UAV Engines LTD. is an important link in that chain and as such has faced action for many years, by groups of individual activists and more recently, Palestine Action.
Activists have once agained turned to Israeli weapons company Elbit Systems’ (Israel’s largest arms company) UAV Engines LTD., an important component in the company’s British operations and manufacture of military UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles). One activist has glued onto the factory wall whilst positioned on the fence, whilst others held their guard against security.
Blood red paint was hurled at the security office, emblematic of Elbit’s business being built on the immiseration of Palestinians. The activists disrupted site production and with it the manufacture of drones destined for Israel. They have since been arrested, with one activist being brought down by a heights team.
Palestine Action recently celebrated its two year anniversary. In its two years operating, the direct action network has permanently closed two Elbit sites through direct action. It is now looking to close a third, as action is once again taken at Elbit’s factory in Shenstone. The site has been hit by Palestine Action’s direct action and local community protest six times in the last five weeks.
UAV Engines LTD. has faced regular action from Palestine Action throughout the group’s two year existence. Inside the factory are produced the engines of Elbit drones – including the Hermes 450/900, put to use on the populations of Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan, and the Watchkeeper drone, modelled on the former and sold to both the UK Border Patrol for surveillance purposes in the English channel, and being trialled by the British Police for domestic surveillance of citizens.
A Palestine Action spokesperson said “When we strike at Elbit, we challenge not only the colonial violence they are responsible for, but also the violence of borders and policing. They ravage countries, forcing citizens to flee – then when they try and seek sanctuary in Britain they face surveillance at the border, aided by Elbit technlogies.“
Quoting one activist: “The cases of Khalil Awawdeh and Ahmed Mansara in particular have spurred me to take up direct action. Khalil is a father of four, suffering brain damage after 155 days on hunger strike against Israel’s punitive use of administrative detention, whereby prisoners are held without trial, without charge, indefinitely. Manasra, only 20, was arrested at 13 and has spent a third of his life in Israeli prisons, in solitary confinement – violently torn from his loved ones as a child, caged and isolated. I stand with Khalil, Ahmed, and all Palestinian prisoners, and against those that enable this terror in Palestine.“
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
Elbit forced to close its London HQ: https://mondoweiss.net/2022/06/israeli-weapons-maker-shuts-london-hq-following-sustained-protest/
Elbit closes Oldham factory in January: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/uk-admits-activists-forced-elbit-sell-factory
If you would like any further information on Palestine action, please contact info@palestineaction.org
Palestine Action is a direct-action network of groups and individuals formed with the mandate of taking direct action against Elbit Systems’ British locations at grassroots level, calling for them all to be shut down and for the British government to end its complicity in Israeli apartheid.
ELBIT SYTEMS
Elbit Systems is Israel’s largest arms firm, with 8 remaining sites in Britain. They build weapons include drones, artillery and target acquisition software in Britain. All of which are marketed as “battle-tested” or “combat-proven”, as they’ve been tested on the captive population of Gaza.
Company profile on Elbit Systems: https://whoprofits.org/company/elbit-systems/
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 the death and destruction inflicted by Elbit’s drones upon Gaza: https://corporatewatch.org/elbit-systems-company-profile-2/
Elbit surveillance technology for Israel’s apartheid wall: https://www.facing-finance.org/en/database/cases/elbit-systems-surveillance-system-torch-for-the-separation-barrier-in-israelpalestine/