[News] The Siege Against Leicester’s Israeli Weapons Factory Begins

[Anti-Imperialist News]

popularresistance.org
<https://popularresistance.org/the-siege-against-leicesters-israeli-weapons-factory-begins/>
The Siege Against Leicester’s Israeli Weapons Factory Begins
By Palestine Action.
May 2, 2023
------------------------------
[image: image.png]

Above Photo: Images and videos from The Siege can be accessed via
bit.ly/SiegeMedia.

NOTE: Listen to a recent interview with a co-founder of Palestine Action on
Clearing the FOG here
<https://popularresistance.org/direct-action-succeeds-in-weakening-support-for-israeli-apartheid/>
.

Palestine Action’s siege has begun. Hundreds have descended on Meridian
Business Park in Leicester to force Elbit’s factory to shut down. The
crowds began arriving this afternoon, and have been growing in number
through the day. With banners, chants, flags, and rousing speeches
delivered so far, the mass of people were welcomed later by an empowering
performance by rapper and activist Lowkey, along with award winning actor
and playwright Tayo Aluko, Palestinian Dabke, poetry, and more.

The Siege against Leicester’s Elbit-owned UAV Tactical Systems (‘U-TacS’),
is a mass action which involves huge numbers willing to remain at the site,
using themselves to disrupt the flow of business [1
<https://www.palestineaction.org/siege/>]. Palestine Action refuse to leave
until Elbit does.

There is a heavy police presence on the ground, with riot vans deployed and
a metal wall erected around the factory, but actionists, undeterred,
continue to arrive on the scene. Police have been conducting raids and
arrests at random – smashing their way into parked cars to ‘search’ them.
Ahead of the action, the company has also reinforced its site with extra
fencing, cameras, and shuttered their windows. Despite this, a woodland
camp was built by actionists days before the siege began and initially went
unnoticed for 12 hours — even with Elbit’s ‘state-of-the-art’ surveillance.
Others have now decamped on the road leading to the factory, pledging to
stay there for as long as they can.

U-TacS is a drone factory owned and operated by Israel’s largest weapons
company, Elbit Systems, in partnership with French arms firm Thales. Its
flagship product is the *Watchkeeper* drone, modelled on the Hermes 450
after the latter was “battle-tested” on Palestinians [2
<https://waronwant.org/sites/default/files/Killer%20Drones%2C%20War%20on%20Want.pdf>].
The company boast that the *Watchkeeper* allegedly operated for over
100,000 hours over Afghanistan and Iraq [3
<https://u-tacs.co.uk/product/watchkeeper-x>]. Despite insisting that they
only sell to the British military, U-TacS, in fact, export around £5
million worth of military equipment to Israel yearly, consisting primarily
of drones and/or drone components, along with targetting and surveillance
technologies, and other military equipment [4
<https://caat.org.uk/data/exports-uk/licence-list?index=date&region=Israel&company=Elbit+Systems>
].

Elbit manufacture 85% of Israel’s military drone fleet [5
<https://corporatewatch.org/elbit-systems-company-profile-2/>], not only
arming the Israeli military with these drones and developing the
technology, but also operating the drones alongside the military, directly
assisting them in their attacks. Palestine Action occupied Leicester’s
Elbit site for six days in May 2021 [6
<https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-57243045>] at the
height of the Israeli aggression on Gaza in 2021 — a bombing campaign which
left over 250 Palestinians dead, including over 60 children [7
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220506-remembering-israels-2021-onslaught-on-gaza/>
].

The siege intends to sever what Palestine Action describe as the *apparatus
of the Israeli military working from Britain*:

“Protests, petitions and all appeals to the British establishment to end
their century-long complicity have failed. However, the mass movement of
people willing to mobilise to shut Elbit down demonstrates that the route
to victory lies with the people – and with not the powers that be. We will
resist until we win.”

Reporters are encouraged to continue attending the site throughout the
month of May and witness the public’s drive and determination to kick Elbit
out of the city.

Regular updates can be found on Palestine Action’s Twitter [8
<https://twitter.com/Pal_action>] and social media accounts [9
<https://www.instagram.com/pal_action/?hl=en>].

[1] https://www.palestineaction.org/siege/
[2]
https://waronwant.org/sites/default/files/Killer%20Drones%2C%20War%20on%20Want.pdf
[3] https://u-tacs.co.uk/product/watchkeeper-x
[4]
https://caat.org.uk/data/exports-uk/licence-list?index=date&region=Israel&company=Elbit+Systems
[5] https://corporatewatch.org/elbit-systems-company-profile-2/
[6] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-57243045
[7]
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220506-remembering-israels-2021-onslaught-on-gaza/
[8] https://twitter.com/Pal_action
[9] https://www.instagram.com/pal_action/?hl=en
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