This morning, activists from Palestine Action targeted Kite packaging’s regional distribution centre at Sheppey Way, Bobbing, Sittingbourne, ME9 8QX. They glued warehouse doors shut, spray painted “Drop Elbit” and broke windows, doors, trucks and other equipment.
The company provides “engineered solutions to protect, transport and store” weaponry [1]. Amongst their customers is Instro Precision, in Kent — a fact which was confirmed by recording the contents inside the Israeli weapons maker during an action last month. This action comes less than two weeks after another supplier for the Israeli factory was broken into, occupied and had their military hardware products destroyed by a Palestine Action group [2].
Instro Precision, owned by Israel’s biggest weapons producer, manufactures weapons sights, target acquisition, and electro-optics systems for the Israeli military, including the targeting systems for troop and vehicle ground operations in Gaza [3]. The company has been granted over 50 export licenses for shipment of ‘ML5’ category arms (weapons sights and target acquisition systems) to Israel in just a five-year period [4] and their electro-optical equipment has been described as an “important tool in the continuation of apartheid practices in Israel” [5].
Palestine Action is committed to ending Elbit Systems presence in Britain through direct action against the Israeli weapons maker and all those who facilitate them, including suppliers, landlords and other partners. By taking such action, the group’s actions have already led to five firms ending all links to the Israeli company in less than a year.
A Palestine Action spokesperson said: “We refuse to allow companies who are enabling the Gaza genocide through working with Israel’s Elbit Systems to continue with business as usual. Through relentless action, we have acquired a wealth of knowledge on different firms who enable Elbit’s deadly business. Actions will continue until the links end and Elbit is shut down for good.”
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
If you would like any further information on Palestine action, please contact media@palestineaction.org
Palestine Action is a direct-action network of groups and individuals formed with the mandate of taking action against the sites of Elbit Systems and other companies complicit in Israeli apartheid, calling for all such sites to be shut down.
[1] https://www.kitepackaging.co.uk/scp/divisions/aerospace-and-defence/
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3WN4GzZaYM
[3] https://corporatewatch.org/whos-arming-israel-mapping-uk-sites-linked-to-israeli-state-terror/
[4] https://caat.org.uk/data/exports-uk/licence-list?region=Israel&company=Elbit+Systems
[5] https://impactpolicies.org/news/342/weapons-suppliers-and-the-israeli-state-complicity-in-war-crimes