Images available are free to use, with relevant credit (Videos of Edinburgh and Dundee will be uploaded within the next couple of hours)

Today, 7th April, Palestine Action Scotland and Palestine Action targeted 5 offices of Scottish Enterprise, in Dundee, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Glenrothes, and London.

A spokesperson for the activists said:

‘Despite the Scottish Government’s “talk” about an arms embargo, they have been using our tax money to fund arms companies profiting from the wholesale bombing of Palestine. Since the Scottish Government’s actions boost this genocidal industry, we have decided that all Scottish Enterprise offices will be targeted until they stop giving grants to the weapons manufacturers, Thales and Leonardo. We will take back via property damage every penny Scottish Enterprise uses to fund Palestinian genocide, making them think twice about writing another stimulus cheque to these companies. We will make sure this is not a friendly place for genocidal business growth. Free Palestine.’

Why Scottish Enterprise?

Scottish Enterprise (SE) is a business-granting body of the devolved Scottish Government, funded by Scottish tax revenues. Freedom of Information requests by Amnesty International have revealed that SE has provided £159,125 in grants to Leonardo UK since October 2023 [1], and £9,247,974 to Leonardo UK and Thales UK collectively from 2015 to 2023 [2,3,4,5,6]. SE has yet to have any meaningful discussions about changing its policy on giving grants to defense companies linked to the Israeli genocide. [7]

The Scottish government have claimed that no grants have been given to the manufacture of arms in Scotland, and that the funding awarded by Scottish Enterprise ‘supported research, training and apprenticeships’ [9]. However, Amnety’s 2022 Freedom of Information request to SE details a grant awarded to Thales for ‘support to develop two new and distinct products with application and interest to defence’ (our emphasis) [3].

Amnesty have revealed that Scottish Enterprise’s so-called ‘human rights checks’ on arms companies do not meaningfully take account of where the products are used [9]. In May 2024, Campaign Against Arms Trade stated: ‘each arms company that has received funding from the Scottish government [via SE] are also profiting from, and exporting arms to, countries on the FCO’s Human Rights Priority list.’ [10] 

 According to Amnesty: ‘Money from Scottish Enterprise could directly or indirectly find its way into the supply chain sending weapons for use in the conflict in Gaza […] the supply chain of arms is complex, with some companies selling component parts to one country – such as the US – for them to be assembled into planes and sold on to others.’ [8] 

Scottish Enterprise hide their complicity behind the complexity of arms industry supply chains, and the vague and imprecise technical jargon of their grants remits, to deflect legitimate criticism as misinformed, and launder their funding of the arms industry as innocent.

Why Leonardo?

Leonardo UK makes laser targeting systems for F-35 jets, which have been used extensively in Gaza by Israel [11]. Leonardo have stated: “Our Edinburgh site is home to our world-leading laser capability, with our engineers meeting around 80% of the global demand for high-energy military lasers. The targeting laser on the new F-35 stealth fighter is one of the applications developed by our UK engineering team.’ [12]

Leonardo also supplies Israel with Aermacchi M-346 aircrafts [11, 13]. As of January 2023, Leonardo acquired Israeli defence company RADA Electronic Industries, manufacturer of tactical radar equipment [14].

Why Thales?

Thales UK is closely linked to Israel’s biggest weapons maker Elbit Systems, with whom they produce the Watchkeeper drone [15], modelled on Elbit’s infamous Hermes 450 drone, advertised as ‘battle-tested on Palestinians’ [16]. Thales also partners with Elbit under their joint venture ‘UAV Tactical Sytems’ which operates in a factory the companies co-own in Leicester. This site is used for the export of equipment for military drones to Israel [23].

 Why Now?

The Scottish Government pretends to differentiate itself from Westminster asking them to cease supplying arms to Israel whilst implying that its own hands are tied [22]. This is a disingenuous way to deflect from their multimillion pound funding of the zionist genocide, and to divert protest activity away from their own doorstep, where it can be effective, towards a more distant, more nebulous target.

Palestine Action Scotland intend to starve the logistical, financial and political ecosystem that supports Leonardo and Thales in Scotland in order to force them to shut their sites. The direct action of property damage to Scottish Enterprise’s sites is a strategy to make the so-called ‘economic gains’ of expanding in Scotland not worth the costs.

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. Palestine Action is a direct-action network of groups and individuals formed with the mandate of taking action against the sites of companies complicit in Israeli apartheid, calling for all such sites to be shut down. If you would like further information on Palestine Action, please contact media@palestineaction.org.

2. Photographs of the action against Scottish Enterprise are provided with this release.

3. Footnotes:

https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/scotland-scottish-government-must-review-due-diligence-grants-arms-companies

[1]https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.scottish-enterprise.com/media/svwpjus1/final-report-se-expenditure-over-25k-23-24-26-08-24.xlsx&ved=2ahUKEwiey9vOm7eMAxWuGhAIHbX3DOIQFnoECBUQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2CWChULBXbbQaiiNNJ-jv2 

[2] https://www.scottish-enterprise.com/our-organisation/accessing-our-information/freedom-of-information/freedom-of-information-releases/defence-awards

[3] https://www.scottish-enterprise.com/our-organisation/accessing-our-information/freedom-of-information/freedom-of-information-releases/funding-given-to-defence-aerospace-and-marine-firms-in-202122

[4] https://www.scottish-enterprise.com/media/iinbjuml/se-items-of-expenditure-over-25k-21-22.pdf

[5] https://www.scottish-enterprise.com/media/athfjjma/copy-of-final-report-se-expenditure-over-25k-22-23-09-04-24.pdf

[6] https://www.scottish-enterprise.com/media/wdelzgwd/foi-4854-appendix-a-pdf-100kb.pdf

[7] https://theferret.scot/scottish-government-grants-arms-firms-israel/

[8] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2389px8x8eo

[9] https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/24273964.2m-scots-public-grants-given-arms-firms-supplying-israel/

[10] https://caat.org.uk/take-action/campaign-with-us/stop-funding-repression/

[11] https://theaviationist.com/2015/04/27/we-flew-the-itaf-m-346/

[12] https://uk.leonardo.com › en › about › uk-locations › edinburgh

[13] https://theaviationist.com/2024/08/08/leonardo-m-346-20-years/

[14] https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/hylgfbyqq

[15] https://www.army-technology.com/projects/watchkeeper/?cf-view

[16] https://electronicintifada.net › blogs › asa-winstanley › britain-ditches-israeli-drones

[19] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/18/why-did-israel-break-the-ceasefire-in-gaza

[20] https://caat.org.uk/data/exports-uk/licence-list?index=date&region=Israel&company=Elbit+Systems

[21] https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/uk-mps-urged-support-calls-immediate-halt-uk-arms-sales-israel

[22] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/humza-yousaf-israel-prime-minister-scottish-first-minister-b2522879.html

[23] https://caat.org.uk/data/exports-uk/overview?region=Israel&company=Elbit+Systems