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On Saturday 22nd July, hundreds mobilised to call for the freedom of Palestine Action political prisoners. In England, protests were held in Manchester, Liverpool, London, Birmingham, Sheffield and Brighton. Activists also took direct action to shatter Keysight Technologies in Telford, a supplier to Israel’s largest weapons firm, Elbit Systems. Groups including Samidoun and Collectif Palestine Vaincra plastered the streets of France with posters and slogans. In Canada, people mobilised outside Scotiabank in Vancouver, the largest foreign investor in Elbit Systems [1].
Six Palestine Action activists are currently detained across British jails. Four of them have been imprisoned since December 2022 for taking action to dismantle Teledyne Labtech, a Welsh factory belonging to American-owned Teledyne, the largest exporter by volume of weapons from Britain to Israel [2].
Two others, including scientist Mike Lynch-White, were given 16 and 23 month sentences, after they shut down the premises of Canadian-owned weapons factory, APPH in Runcorn. APPH manufacture drone landing gear for Israel’s Elbit Systems, which supplies 85% of Israel’s military drones [3].
The international day of action follows statements of support for Palestine Action prisoners from Palestinian prisoners and prominent public figures, including Roger Waters and Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela, the grandson of Nelson Mandela [4].
A Palestine Action spokesperson said:
“For the state to turn to imprisoning its own citizens, demonstrates their desperation to protect the military supply chain of a foreign apartheid state. The show of solidarity from across the world in support of our activists in prison, and others facing prison, for disrupting the production of Israeli weapons, shows the strength of our movement. Collectively, we will resist until all Israeli weapons factories in Britain are shut down and the activists, as well as the Palestinian people, are free”
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
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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 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://theintercept.com/2023/04/06/israel-arms-scotiabank-elbit-david-fingold/
[2] https://www.palestineaction.org/teledyne-sentence/