This morning, activists from Palestine Action sprayed the London offices of Thales red. Using repurposed fire extinguishers, they covered the premises in blood-red paint to symbolise the company’s complicity in spilling Palestinian blood.
Thales, one of the world’s largest weapons firms, partners with Israel’s largest weapons company, Elbit Systems, under their joint venture ‘UAV Tactical Systems’ (or U-TacS). U-TacS operates from their factory in Leicester, a site which has been regularly targeted by Palestine Action since 2021. In the past few months, actions at the site have involved using vehicles to block the gates, and driving a HGV into the factory whilst others scaled the building and destroyed drones inside.
The Leicester factory specialises in building the Watchkeeper drone, which was modelled on Elbit’s Hermes 450 and routinely “battle-tested” on the Palestinian people. The Watchkeeper has been used during the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, and is also used to surveil migrants seeking refuge. In addition, U-TacS exports large amounts of equipment for military drones to Israel directly.
A Palestine Action spokesperson said: “Working hand in hand with Israel’s Elbit Systems means Thales can profit from using Gaza as a laboratory to develop “battle-tested” drones. As part of our mission to shut Elbit down, any company who benefits from and enables the same genocidal practices as Elbit will also be targeted.”
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
If you would like any further information on Palestine action, please contact media@palestineaction.org
Palestine Action is a direct-action network of groups and individuals formed with the mandate of taking action against the sites of Elbit Systems and other companies complicit in Israeli apartheid, calling for all such sites to be shut down.