PRESS RELEASE
08/08/22
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Pictures are free to use, with no credit needed. https://bit.ly/GoodPackingPics
- Four Palestine Action activists are currently occupying the roof of ‘The Good Packing Company’ – the firm packages, transports and exports Israeli weapons. Activists set out at dawn, wielding hammers and paint-filled fire extinguishers,
- Extensive damage has been caused on site; windows and CCTV have been smashed and entire walls doused in blood red paint as we dismantle a supply chain built on terror.
- The company does business with Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms manufacturer. Nearby, Elbit produces the Hermes 450 and 900 drones, used in the recent violent aggression on Gaza’s captive population.
- “Speak to any Gazan on the ground – they are shouting at the world, saying: ‘We don’t want your sympathy – we want action.’ And that’s exactly what we’re doing, targetting those complicit in the genocide of the Palestinian people and unravelling Israel’s military chokehold on the region. Now more than ever we need immediate action for Gaza.”
Gaza has spent three days and nights mourning the dead. Circling the skies, raining fire down below, are the drones and fighter jets of Elbit Systems – Israel’s largest arms company. Knowing that petitions, rallies and appeals to power will do nothing here in Britain, we’ve responded with direct action. We are currently occupying Elbit client “The Good Packing Company”, who package, transport and export Israeli weapons battle tested on the Palestinian people. The four activists’ rooftop occupation is ongoing, with extensive damage enacted and the activists set on staying as long as possible.
Activists have dismantled site CCTV, struck out at windows with sledgehammers, and coated the site in paint. At the Elbit transport hub, site operations are halted and the flag is being flown. The company’s website makes reference to specialising in “Ministry of Defence type packaging” and has been confirmed to provide shipping and military-grade packaging to Elbit. Included in this are the Hermes 450/900 drones, frequently used in Gaza, and produced (in part) in the same town.
Elbit combat drones acount for a considerable 85% of Israel’s drone fleet. The Hermes 450 was pioneered by Elbit and has been used in attacks and surveillance in Gaza for years now. Their use ravages Gaza city, leaving Gazans with deep-seated trauma and anxieties from Israeli state-terror. Though Palestine Action target Elbit directly, the group also targets any firm in the killer supply chain.
A Palestine Action spokesperson said: “No impunity for Israel, nor for anyone involved in the massacres we have all witnessed. If you work with Elbit, we’re working against you too. When we know our own government won’t do it, the onus is on us to enforce a people-backed arms embargo on the Israeli occupation, using direct action. It’s crucial to remember that in Gaza, the economic blockade has stood for fifteen years – each year marked by deprivation and colonial warfare. Israel’s violence is everyday life for the average Gazan, and so the time is always right to take direct action in Gaza’s name, and cut military production in accomplice-Britain. We will unravel Britain’s Israeli arms industry.”
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.
THE GOOD PACKING COMPANY: https://www.goodpacking.co.uk
ELBIT SYSTEMS
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/