• Palestine Action activists have taken action once more against firms which facilitate Elbit System’s business of bloodshed – taking on the property managers of Elbit’s Shenstone site
• Overnight actions in Birmingham have seen the offices of Fisher German targeted – their windows smashed, premises sprayed in blood-red paint, and slogans of ‘evict Elbit’ spray painted across walls
• Palestine Action have vowed such action will be taken against all firms which make Elbit’s British operations possible – unless they cut ties with Elbit and publically announce that they have done so

Palestine Action activists have made good on a committment to take on firms which facilitate Elbit’s British operations, with overnight action taken against Fisher German in Birmingham. Windows have been broken, paint sprayed over the offices, and slogans of ‘Evict Elbit’ spray painted across the walls. The has been a previous target of Palestine Action. Just last month, four activists charged in relation to action taken at the Fisher German offices in Birmingham walked free of ‘criminal damage’, ‘aggrevated trespass’, and ‘resisting arrest’ charges, after the judge declared ‘abuse of process’ by the Crown Prosecution Service.

Fisher German has been targeted due to their working relationship to Elbit Systems – drawing their profits from Elbit’s manufacture of drones, weapons, and technologies which are used to commit war crimes and repress civilians in Palestine and beyond. They are the property managers of Elbit’s UAV Engines site in Shenstone, Staffordshire – a site which has been the target of many Palestine Action occupations, blockades and actions, including a major occupation in January 2022. The site is used for the manufacture of engines and components for Elbit drones, in particular the Watchkeeperdrone, which has been modelled on Elbit’s flagship Hermes drones, after the latter was ‘battle-tested’ on Palestine’s civilian population. The Watchkeeper is used by the UK army and border forces, including for the surveillance and repression of migrants in the channel. Fisher German’s activity makes the manufacture of this drone possible.

Palestine Action have acknowledged that Elbit Systems do not operate in isolation – and rely upon a wide network of complicit firms in order to manufacture their murderous technologies. These firms are therefore, by extension, complicit in the bloodshed for which Elbit products are used – and Palestine Action consider them legitimate targets of direct action until they publically cut ties with Elbit and cease their facilitation of war crimes.

NOTES TO EDITORS
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’ 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.

Activists found ‘not guilty’ in first ever Palestine Action trial: https://www.palestineaction.org/not-guilty/

Palestine Action shut down Elbit’s Oldham factory permanently:
https://mondoweiss.net/2022/01/victory-in-oldham-elbit-forced-to-sell-ferranti-after-sustained-direct-action-campaign/
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-uk-factory-sold-palestine-action-claims-victory

Elbit Systems

Company profile on Elbit Systems, including quote by Israeli military general​: 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/

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/