PRESS RELEASE
04/07/22
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
- Through lock ons and paint-throwing, activists from Palestine Action have shut down Elbit Systems’ (Israel’s largest arms company) factory in Shenstone.
- The site (UAV Engines LTD.) is used for the construction of drone engines – two of Elbit’s most notorious drones are the Hermes 450/900, used by the Israeli occupation to pummel Gaza in May 2021.
- Operations are successfully halted at the site for the third time in two weeks, with a rooftop occupation and community protest closing the site on two seperate occasions in weeks prior.
- Elbit Systems supply the Israeli occupation with 85% of its drone fleet, whilst exporting its drones (amongst other military hardware) to oppressive states across the world.
- “A hat trick for our movement as we close Elbit Shenstone for the third time in two weeks, our activists and supporters working to shut down the next of Elbit’s eight remaining sites.”
Elbit Systems is met with direct action once more, as Palestine Action activists have taken to Elbit Systems’ (Israel’s largest arms factory) factory in Shenstone and closed the site for the third time in two weeks. The Elbit subsidiary operates as UAV Engines LTD. and is responsible for manufacturing Elbit’s military drone engines. Activists have locked on across the factory gates and hurled symbolic blood-red paint onto the premises, leaving the site inoperable.
On June 22nd, activists took to the roof of UAV Engines LTD., proclaiming ‘2 down, 8 to go’ – a warning to Israel’s arms manufacterers. They caused significant site damage, and successfully shut down the site as did residents of the community on June 28, when a protest forced site closure for the day. As the recent closure of Elbit’s London headquarters will prove, it is direct action that forces weapons companies out, it’s on this basis that activists have today taken action, seeking to end the bloodshed that is British backed.
The site has been shut down today in order to prevent the manufacture of drone parts used for either military purposes or popular repression. Elbit manufacture drones and drone products for a range of clients, not only for Israel’s war-crime-linked Hermes drones, but also the Watchkeeper drone sold to the British government for use by military, border force, and other agencies, for military interventions abroad and for police and border force surveillance, manufactured in large part by UAV Engines LTD in Shenstone.
A Palestine Action spokesperson said: “We have once again taken aim at Elbit’s Shenstone factory, where UAV Engines Ltd manufacture engines for Israeli drones, which have been previously “battle-tested” on the captive population of Gaza. Our activists are determined to dismantle the base of their crimes and #ShutElbitDown across the firm’s eight remaining sites in Britain using the ever effective means of direct action.”
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
Pictures are free to use, with credit to be given to VX Pictures.
Elbit forced to close its London HQ: https://mondoweiss.net/2022/06/israeli-weapons-maker-shuts-london-hq-following-sustained-protest/
Elbit closes Oldham factory in January: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/uk-admits-activists-forced-elbit-sell-factory
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 direct action against Elbit Systems’ British 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 SYTEMS
Elbit Systems is Israel’s largest arms firm, with 8 remaining sites in Britain. They build weapons include drones, artillery and target acquisition software in Britain. All of which are marketed as “battle-tested” or “combat-proven”, as they’ve been tested on the captive population of Gaza.
Company profile on Elbit Systems: https://whoprofits.org/company/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 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/