[News] Palestine Action On Day Ten Of 'The Siege'

[Anti-Imperialist News]

popularresistance.org
<https://popularresistance.org/palestine-action-on-day-ten-of-the-siege/>
Palestine Action On Day Ten Of 'The Siege'
By Palestine Action - May 11, 2023
------------------------------
[image: image.png]

Above Photo: Images and videos from The Siege can be accessed via
bit.ly/SiegeMedia.
Locks Down Leicester’s Israeli Weapons Factory.

Yesterday the Israeli occupation bombarded densely populated areas of Gaza,
murdering 13 Palestinians including 4 children. Not willing to tolerate
British complicity in these sort of abuses, two actionists retaliated, this
morning, against the British roots of Israeli aerial domination over
Palestinians.

Palestine Action drove a car through the inner perimeter of Leicester’s
Israeli drone factory, UAV Tactical Systems (U-TacS), blockading the only
entrance for the site. Two activists are using a lock on device to maintain
the block in place, which immediately stopped a delivery from entering the
premises. The action was completed despite enhanced security by the company
and a permanent police operation put in place to protect the factory.

This comes on Day 10 of Palestine Action’s declared siege, which has seen
U-TacS operations undermined and severely disrupted. The lock-on, the
second such action in one week, has compounded the disruption for the
Leicester subsidiary of Israel’s largest weapons company [1]. Last week,
four activists blockaded the factory, using lock-on devices to connect
themselves to each other – lying across the factory’s access roads, they
put their bodies on the line to keep the factory shut down [2
<https://www.palestineaction.org/siege-lock-ons/>].

Today’s action, and the continued mass action in Leicester generally, has
seen hundreds turn up to mobilise against the weapons factory, with
dedicated actionists maintaining a camp outside the factory since May 1st.
They have persisted despite police desperation to shut down the siege, with
police measures including the forceful removal of tents, mass arrests and
seizure of property. Since the beginning of the siege, police have arrested
over 41 people using disproportionate measures, and yet people remain
defiant, and the siege is well into its 10th day of disruption caused to
Elbit operations.

UAV Tactical Systems, is majority owned by Israel’s largest arms firm,
Elbit Systems. In Leicester and across Elbit’s other 7 remaining sites in
Britain, military technologies are manufactured for export directly to
Israel. The UAV Tactical Systems site regularly sends drones and drone
technologies to Israel [3
<https://caat.org.uk/data/exports-uk/licence-list?index=date&region=Israel&company=Elbit+Systems>],
where Elbit’s drone products brutally enforce the Israeli occupation of
Palestine. UAV Tactical Systems’ flagship drone, the *Watchkeeper*, has
been used by the British military in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the English
Channel – but is itself modelled on the notorious and deadly *Hermes* drone,
after it was ‘battle-tested’ on Palestinians [4
<https://waronwant.org/sites/default/files/Killer%20Drones%2C%20War%20on%20Want.pdf>
].

This *Watchkeeper* program, through being funded by the British Army,
effectively funnels British taxpayer money to the development of the
occupation’s military power. This is because profits made here are sent, as
dividends, to Elbit’s parent company in Israel [5
<https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/05241592/filing-history/MzM1MzE2NTg2N2FkaXF6a2N4/document?format=pdf&download=0>].
Even in years when a loss is declared, their financial reporting reveals
that this site sends millions to Elbit’s other arms through purchases.
Elbit supplies 85% of Israel’s military drone fleet and land based weaponry
[6 <https://corporatewatch.org/elbit-systems-company-profile-2/>]. It’s
products, including the *Hermes*, have been linked to documented
attrocities by the Israeli military occupation [7
<https://theintercept.com/2018/08/11/israel-palestine-drone-strike-operation-protective-edge/?comments=1#comments>
, 8 <https://whoprofits.org/company/elbit-systems/>].
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