Palestine Action target Israeli arms factory in Shenstone days after forcing Elbit out Oldham

Jan 14, 2022

PRESS RELEASE

14/01/22

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

  • Activists took action against the factory to disrupt its manufacture of engines and components for Israelโ€™s killer drones, and have covered the factory in painted slogans of โ€˜Shut Elbit Downโ€™, โ€˜Free Palestineโ€™, โ€˜First Oldham, Next Shenstoneโ€™ and more
  • The action comes the same week as news that Elbitโ€™s Oldham factory has been shut down permanently, after months of intensive direct action by Palestine Action. Days after shutting down one site permanently, the group have taken on another of Elbitโ€™s remaining killer factories.
  • A Palestine Action activist has been arrested after they breached security and gained entry to the Elbit factory in UAV Engines, Shenstone.
  • Action has been taken to mark the beginning of the Week of Action to Free Ahmad Saโ€™adat, and has been taken in solidarity with all Palestinian political prisoners.

Palestine Action breached security and gained entry to the heavily guarded Israeli arms factory in Shenstone. The site, used for the manufacture of engines and components for Elbitโ€™s murderous drones,was broken into at 11:00 this morning, with the two women evading an extensive security presence. Aiming to disrupt operations at the site, the activists have covered the factory in painted slogans including โ€˜Shut Elbit Downโ€™, โ€˜Free Palestineโ€™, โ€˜First Oldham, Next Shenstoneโ€™. One activist was arrested on the site.

The site has been targetted as part of an ongoing campaign of direct action against Elbit Systems, which is Israelโ€™s largest private arms manufacturer, and which has produced 85% of the drones in Israelโ€™s drone fleet. The UAV Engines factory is crucial for Elbitโ€™s manufacturing of drones. The site produces the engines and components for Elbitโ€™s Hermes drone โ€“  which has been used extensively to surveil, repress, bomb and murder Palestinians in Gaza The drone has been linked directly to extrajudicial assassinations by Israel, as well as the murder of 4 children playing on a beach in Gaza in 2014. It also produces for Elbitโ€™s Watchkeeper drones, which are sold to the British military and border forces to surveil migrants and conduct imperialist military interventions abroad.

The action comes on the heels of a major victory in the fight to end British complicity in Israeli war crimes, with news breaking this week that Elbit have permanently closed their Oldham factory and have sold their Ferranti Technologies business. This comes after months of action by Palestine Action, with activists regularly scaling, occupying, blockading, dismantling the factory, each time covering premises in blood-red paint to signify the bloodshed facilitated with Elbit weapons.

Prior to being shut down, the Oldham factory manufactured surveillance and targetting systems for Elbit drones, and is the first of Elbitโ€™s 10 (now 9) sites in Britain to have been shut permanently. Palestine Action will continue to undermine, disrupt, and shut down Elbitโ€™s British sites until they cease to operate on the streets of Britain, and all the remaining sites are closed.

The action also marks the beginning of the Week of Action to Free Ahmad Saโ€™adat, which has been called by the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network. The Week of Action has been called on the 20th anniversary of Saโ€™adatโ€™s illegitimate arrest by Israeli police, and this action has been taken in solidarity with him and his 4,650 fellow Palestinian political prisoners. These prisoners have been detained illegally, and tried in Israelโ€™s contemptable military courts โ€“ and regularly face torture, isolation, coercive interrogation, and denial of family and lawyer visits. 

This widespread violation of basic human rights for Palestinian prisoners is furthered by Elbitโ€™s malicious operations, with the firm equipping the surveillance state under which Palestinian civilians exist. Elbit surveillance technologies fortify the apartheid walls and checkpoints which divide the country, and their combat and tactical gear is used widely by Israeli police. The unjustifiable abuses of human rights undertaken by the Israeli police and military courts system is facilitated in part by Elbit Systemsโ€™ operations.

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS
If you would like any further information 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 Systemsโ€™ 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.

Palestine Action shut down Elbitโ€™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
https://www.thecanary.co/opinion/2022/01/13/forcing-elbit-to-close-its-oldham-factory-shows-the-power-of-community-organising-international-solidarity-and-direct-action/

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 Elbitโ€™s drones upon Gaza: https://corporatewatch.org/elbit-systems-company-profile-2/

Elbit surveillance technology for Israelโ€™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 ยฃ102 million contract with Elbit Systems UK for โ€œsensor-to-shootโ€ system: https://www.army-technology.com/news/uk-mod-orders-elbit-detect-and-destroy-system/