PRESS RELEASE
22/11/21
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
- This morning, activists from Palestine Action have scaled the roof of a Wrexham factory operated by Solvay, a firm which supplies drone manufacturers with materials and chemicals for the production of deadly arms.
- The factory has been covered with blood-red paint, marking the company’s complicity in the murder of the Palestinian people.
- The site manufactures materials and adhesives for UAV Tactical Systems, a subsidiary of Elbit Systems, for the manufacture of military drones. Specifically, Solvay supply for the Watchkeeper drone, developed and tested on Palestinians before being used by Western governments against the people of Afghanistan and Iraq
- Solvay also operate in the occupied West Bank in service of Israel’s illegal settlements.
Palestine Action activists have today scaled the roof of Solvay’s Wrexham site, as part of their ongoing campaign against the suppliers of Israeli drone manufacturer Elbit Systems Ltd. The building has been sprayed with blood-red paint, symbolising the bloodshed from which Elbit and Solvay profit. Further action has involved the dismantling of factory premises, as activists look to disrupt and undermine future operations at the site. Today’s action – the first time that Palestine Action have occupied a factory in Wales – is supported by the Welsh Underground Network, a group employing community and direct action in pursuit of a socialist republic in Wales. A representative has stated:
“The Welsh Underground Network applauds and supports all involved in the occupation of this factory. Action like this is critical to ending the apartheid regime in occupied Palestine. We call on all comrades to come together to support this action and investigate similar businesses who support the Israeli regime to also take action against”
‘Mae Rhwydwaith Tanddaearol Cymru yn cymeradywo ac yn cefnogi pawb sy’n cymryd rhan ym meddianaeth y ffatri hon.
Mae gweithrediadau fel hyn yn hanfodol i ddod â’r drefn apartheid ym Mhalestina dan feddiant i ben.
Rydym yn galw ar bob cymrawd i ddod ynghyd i gefnogi’r weithred hon ac ymchwilio i fusnesau eraill sy’n cefnogi y cyfundrefn Israel ac i weithredu’
Solvay, who operate the Wrexham site, provide materials and adhesives for UAV Tactical Systems Ltd – a subsidiary of Elbit Systems, who provide 85% of Israel’s drone fleet. Specifically, Solvay products are used in the production of the Watchkeeper drone, at UAV Tactical Systems’ factory in Leicester. The Watchkeeper drone is modelled directly on the Hermes 450 combat drone, which was developed through ‘battle-testing’ on Palestinians, and then sold on the international market to a number of Western governments. These Watchkeeper drones are used largely for surveillance and targetting purposes, having recorded over 100,000 hours of use by the British and American coalition forces in Afghanistan and Iraq. Supplying both Western governments and the Israeli military directly, UAV Tactical Systems have recently made applications for a £5million export license for shipments directly to Israel.
The involvement of Solvay in the development of the MQ-9 Reaper Drone (a long endurance hunter-killer UAV) further underlines their complicity in global supply chains which aim to profit from the oppression, surveillance and killing of indigenous groups across the world. This drone is a backbone of imperialist long-distance combat and repression. Britain has used such drones in Afghanistan and Syria, Australia to surveil refugee crossings, the US have used them extensively – as part of repressive border operations, in military operations in Yemen, and in the assassination of General Soleimani (an act widely regarded as contrary to international law). There is also evidence of Solvay involvement in Elbit-Adani’s (India) production of Hermes 900 drones, and the company also received widespread attention for an environmental catastrophe caused in Argentina – with their operations contributing to the lead and chlorine poisoning of children.
Solvay products were recorded at the construction site of a bypass pipeline in the Palestinian village of Bardala in the occupied West Bank, the function of this pipeline is to serve illegal Israeli settlements in the northern Jordan Valley. Solvay is therefore implicated in the theft of Palestinian natural resources by the Israeli settler colonial regime.
A Palestine Action spokesperson has stated ‘There is damning evidence of Solvay’s involvement in the Israeli settler colonial regime and its multifaceted violence and oppression against the Palestinian people. Companies such as Elbit and Solvay are not limited to oppressing the Palestinian people, but are also profitting from the surveillance of vulnerable migrants making life or death crossings at the sites of various border regimes. Their murderous, global supply chains make possible imperialist warfare in Afghanistan, Yemen and Syria. We will continue to take action against those who seek to profit from the suffering of people in Palestine and across the globe, we will continue until we have shut Elbit down for good.’
Palestine Action
Attached is an image of today’s action, free to print or reproduce.
If you would like any further information on this action or 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 Systems’ 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.
Recent actions: https://www.dazeddigital.com/politics/article/54688/1/palestine-action-on-shutting-down-an-israeli-arms-company-elbit-bristol-hq
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/uk-palestine-israel-activists-occupy-elbit-drone-london-office
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/palestine-action-activists-shut-down-israeli-drone-factory-in-leicester
A Palestine Action activist on why he takes action against Elbit Systems: https://tribunemag.co.uk/2021/06/why-we-took-direct-action-against-apartheid/
Solvay Ltd
- Solvay – whoprofits
- https://www.aviatorsbuzz.com/blogs/adani-defence-aerospace/
- Involvement of Solvay in the development of MQ-9 Reaper https://web.archive.org/web/20200805130549/https://www.insidecomposites.com/solvay-receives-gaasi-supplier-excellence-award/
Elbit Systems Ltd
- Elbit Systems: company profile – Corporate Watch
- Watchkeeper Tactical UAV – Army Technology (army-technology.com)
Bardala Bypass Project