PRESS RELEASE
04/10/21
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
- Palestine Action activists have taken over the factory of Instro Precision in Discovery Park, Sandwich, Kent.
- Activists are blockading the two entrances to the site.
- Two further activists are also occupying the entranceway and overhang to Discovery Park’s main offices, disrupting their business to address their collaboration with Elbit to build the Instro Precision arms factory.
Palestine Action activists are currently occupying the site of Instro Precision in Discovery Park, Sandwich, Kent, to disrupt the operations of the Elbit subsidiary. There have been direct action campaigns targeting the site since it opened, but this action marks the first time that the factory itself has been occupied by Palestine Action.
13 activists are currently involved in the action, which has involved blockading the two entrances to the Discovery Park site, occupying the entranceway and overhang to the Discovery Park main office, spraying premises in red paint.
This action is being undertaken to disrupt and expose Instro Precision’s immoral and murderous business. Instro, which is owned and controlled by Elbit Systems, manufactures a range of military equipment for the purposes of warfare, targeting and popular repression. These include weapons sights for infantry and heavy artillery, such as the XACT th64 sights – which have been sold in quantities of thousands to the Israeli military, likely outfitting their sniper regiments which man the Gaza border. Other customers of Instro Precision include Saudi Arabia and Turkey, with these three nations having all been involved in extensive repression and brutality against either internal or external ethnic groups.
The owners of the industrial estate, Discovery Park, are also being targeted in this action, with their offices having been shut down by activists. This is due to their extensive partnership with Elbit Systems, having worked collaboratively to design and erect Instro Precision’s state-of-the-art arms factory, custom-built to enable production of the Israeli military’s weapons for war crimes.
The factory has been the target of hundred of protests by local groups, including an extensive campaign by the Campaign Against the Arms Trade, involving regular protests and vigils. Further campaigns have involved sustained direct action by Stop Elbit Instro, campaigns by faith groups, and national groups organising cycle tours and critical mass blockades of the factory.
Palestine Action have taken action twice before at the site, but todays action marks the first time that Palestine Action have occupied the heavily guarded, high security factory. The action – as with all Palestine Action occupations – will aim to be as disruptive as possible, to undermine Instro’s ability to produce the tools of warfare and repression. A Palestine Action spokesperson has said the following:
“The Instro Precision factory in Discovery Park cannot continue to operate. The injustices and war crimes committed with products made inside these factory gates constitute nothing short of a national scandal – that Elbit Systems, Instro Precision, and all other Elbit subsidiaries are able to manufacture in Britain is shameful, it’s disgusting. Palestine Action are going to shut all of these death factories down, and the people of Kent aren’t going to allow them to exist here either”
Notes to Editors:
Palestine Action
Attatched are Images of today’s action, free to print or reproduce, with credit to be given to Palestine Action.
If you would like any further information on this action or on Palestine action, please contact media@palestineaction.org or our press line at 07404569733
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.
Elbit Systems
Dozens wounded as Israel fires at Palestinian protestors, 13 year old boy shot in the head: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/8/21/israel-fires-on-protesting-palestinians-in-gaza-dozens-wounded
Israeli forces kill 4 Palestinians, 2 teens, during night raid: https://mondoweiss.net/2021/08/israeli-forces-kill-4-palestinians-2-teens-during-night-raid/
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/