PRESS RELEASE
24/07/22
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
- This afternoon, a team of Palestine Action activists took to UAV Engines LTD. – a factory belonging to Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms company, descending on the site and inflicting significant damage to site facilities.
- Produced at the site are the components that make up Elbit’s military drones – including the Hermes 450 and 900, put to extensive use in surveillance and attacks on the captive population of Gaza, Palestine.
- In recent months, site operations have been halted numerous times by Palestine action. The factory has long been a target by pro-Palestine activists, and is frequented by locals who protest the site’s operations weekly.
- Also manufactured by Elbit is the Watchkeeper drone – modelled on the Hermes 450 and supplied to the British military, border force and other governmental agencies, at home the Watchkeeper is used for policing British citizens and monitoring migrants attempting to cross the English Channel.
Last night, Israeli military forces raided Nablus, killing two Palestinians and injuring 9 others, armed with stun grenades and ammunition. Today, members of Palestine Action descended upon Israeli weapons company Elbit Systems’ factory in Shenstone, smashing and striking at the site exterior, throwing red paint, a message to the Israeli occupation and those who uphold it – the day has passed where your violence will go unchecked, prepare to be met with resistance every step of the way. Activists took action today seeking to dismantle an industry built on occupation, dispossession and warfare across the globe.
The site in question is UAV Engines LTD. and has faced extensive action in the past, owing to its manufacture of components used in Elbit military drones such as the Watchkeeper UAV. A direct action campaign for site closure has been fought for nearly two years under the #ShutElbitDown banner, and longer by activists taking sporadic action. It has been waged by dozens of activists who have faced arrest and loss of liberty, alongside mass support from locals who wish to see an end to a brutal industry that starts on our doorsteps. After huge successes for the broader campaign, its use of direct action and community organising culminating in the closure of two of Elbit’s sites in London and Manchester, Palestine Action is working to permanently close UAV Engines LTD.
Elbit’s clientele spans much of the world – its military goods are sold on and used for anything from violent repression en masse, to the surveillance of both sky and sea. For many years, the Hermes 450/900 drones have been a staple of life in Gaza. They hold a constant presence in the skies, made ever known by their distinct buzzing, the threat of bombing always lurking. As Elbit themselves have said, the drones are “battle-tested” on Palestine – inaugurated through testing on Palestine’s captive populations, then sold back to militaries across the world.
Elbit drones are sold on to Israel in huge numbers (Elbit drones make up 85% of Israel’s drone fleet) and used to keep entire populations living in fear, under permanent siege-mentality – 91% of children in Gaza suffering from PTSD. Today’s action has been taken in their name, with a promise of resistance until victory – an end to Britain’s complicity, and a Palestine free from the horrors of occupation and state terror.
A Palestine Action spokesperson said: “Elbit drones are made in Britain, tested on Palestine then sold back to the British military, amongst others. The British military hold deep ties with Elbit – Britain is an accomplice in an international industry built on occupation, one where technlogy is suited not to meet human needs, but to further repression and terror. We can only cut these ties with direct action taken by the masses – ordinary people, willing to make sacrifices in order to end our collective complicity.”
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/