Protesters shut down Israeli arms company factories in UK
WAVE OF UK PROTESTS SHUT DOWN ISRAELI ARMS COMPANY SITES ON GAZA WAR ANNIVERSARY
6 July 2015
Protesters today (Monday 6 July) shut down four factories owned by Israel’s biggest arms company to mark the one year anniversary of the 2014 attack on Gaza.
Hundreds of Palestine solidarity campaigners from around the country are arriving at one of three UK protests. At UAV Engines Ltd (UEL), a drone engine factory near Shenstone, Staffordshire, a number of activists have been locked-on since early this morning, blocking the road and entrance to the factory.
Production has also been halted at Elbit’s Elite KL factory in Tamworth, Staffordshire and at an Elbit factory called Instro Precision in Broadstairs, Kent, with activists on the roof of both factories. A similar occupation has been ongoing in Melbourne, Australia, since late last night.
The activists accuse the company of complicity in Israel’s alleged war crimes in Gaza [1].
The Shenstone and Broadstairs factories have been targeted by protesters before. At the height of Israel’s 51-day assault last year, nine protesters staged a sit-in on the roof of UEL for two days in August, costing the company over £100,000 [2].
Charges against the 9 people arrested were dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service in January, just hours before a deadline to provide the defendants with details of arms export licences granted to UEL to send its hi-tech engines to Israel for use in the Hermes 450 – a drone widely deployed by the Israeli military.
Elly Hassan, from London Palestine Action, one of the groups co-ordinating today’s ‘Block the Factory’ actions, said: ‘UK government data shows that drone engines manufactured here are exported to Israel. These Israeli-owned factories are very much a part of Israel’s brutal regime of apartheid and settler-colonialism over the Palestinian people.
‘Israel was only able to massacre 2,200 Palestinians in Gaza last summer because factories like these are allowed to operate and because governments such as the UK government continue to allow arms exports to Israel.’
‘People have come here from all over the country to show their solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice and equality and to demand that the UK government imposes a two-way military embargo on Israel.’
‘Today in Shenstone we are transforming the space around the UEL arms factory, converting it from a site of destruction into a fun, creative and child-friendly environment. We’re creating a space that meets our needs and not the needs of Israeli and multinational corporations that export death for profit.’
‘We urge people that share our opposition to Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people to join the growing movement for a boycott of Israel.’
According to the UN, during its attack on Gaza last summer, Israel killed over 2,200 Palestinians including more than 500 children. Approximately 11,000 people were injured, including 1,000 children left with permanent disabilities. An estimated 18,000 homes were destroyed or severely damaged, making 100,000 people homeless [3].
During the 2014 bombing, arms sales to Israel became a topic of intense political scrutiny in the UK. Tory minister Baroness Warsi quit her post in the cabinet, calling the UK government’s stance ‘morally indefensible’.
A report released last Thursday by Campaign Against Arms Trade, War on Want and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign found that fresh arms exports to Israel worth nearly £4m - including components for drones - were approved by Britain within weeks of the attack. These deals show that despite Israel’s alleged war crimes, the government’s attitude to the arms trade with Israel is ‘business as usual’, they said.[4]
The action also marks ten years since the launch of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement that pressures Israel to comply with international law. The movement is backed by major UK trade unions, the Green Party and the National Union of Students. Recent successes include the announcement by Orange that it intends to leave the Israeli market and the news that foreign direct investment into Israel has dropped by almost 50% last year, partly due to the growth of the boycott movement.[5]
Email: blockthefactory@gmail.com
Web: blockthefactory.org
Twitter: @blockthefactory and @LondonPalestine and #StopArmingIsrael
Notes
1. Amnesty International research into the UAV Engines Ltd factory indicated that components made in the factory, engines for armed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) – better known as drones – were used in Israel’s 2008-9 attack on Gaza, code-named ‘Operation Cast Lead’, when it killed 1,400 Palestinians in Gaza. http://www.amnesty.org.uk/blogs/press-release-me-let-me-go/gaza-are-israels-pilotless-drones-powered-british-made-engines
2. After the two-day occupation of the UEL factory in August 2014, the nine protesters, who were charged with ‘aggravated trespass’, argued that they had acted to prevent a greater crime. Charges were dropped by the CPS because the prosecution failed to release documents the court had ordered to be disclosed relating to arms export licences granted to UEL to send its hi-tech engines to Israel for use in the Hermes 450 drone. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/outcry-as-cps-drops-trial-of-antidrone-protesters-at-last-minute-10014839.html
3. Gaza is home to 1.7 million people who live under an illegal siege imposed by Israel from land, sea and air. A 22 June 2015 UN report documented evidence of numerous suspected war crimes committed by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza in its 2014 assault, codenamed ‘Operation Protective Edge’. The attack was just one of the most brutal effects of Israel’s ongoing occupation and colonisation of historic Palestine.
4. Campaign Against Arms Trade, War on Want and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign released the report ‘Arming Apartheid: UK complicity in Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian’ people on 2 July.
5. Foreign direct investment in Israel dropped by 46% in 2014 compared to 2013, according to a 2015 World Investment Report issued recently by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. http://mondoweiss.net/2015/06/foreign-investment-dropped#sthash.OLRUNSB7.dpuf
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