[News] Palestine Action Hits Every Office of Elbit Recruiters iO Associates in One Night

[Anti-Imperialist News]

palestineaction.org
<https://www.palestineaction.org/io-associates-nationwide-actions/>
Palestine Action Hits Every Office of Elbit Recruiters iO Associates in One
Night
October 9, 2023
------------------------------
[image: op-0Wwhg-2048x1365.jpeg]

Images are available, free to use, via https://bit.ly/iOAssociates

In the early hours of Monday morning, Palestine Action struck four offices
home to iO Associates, the sole recruiters for Israeli arms manufacturer
Elbit Systems. Offices in Manchester, Bristol, London, and Reading were
sprayed with red paint from fire extinguishers, to symbolise the blood of
the Palestinians that Israel continues to spill. This action follows two
occasions in which activists stormed the new Manchester offices [1
<https://www.palestineaction.org/io-associates/>], the first time
confronting iO’s Director Ross Markall, who assaulted the protestors
unprovoked. Shortly after this, iO Associates removed all of Elbit’s job
offers from their website, however they have since been put back up [2
<https://www.palestineaction.org/job-vacancies-down/>].

This action, and Palestine Action’s 3-year campaign targeting Elbit Systems
and their affiliates, is part of an international movement to end the
colonisation of Palestine. The ethnic cleansing of Palestinians has been
underway since at least 1948, a year when Zionist militia forcibly expelled
over 750,000 indigenous Palestinians from their homes, destroyed over 500
villages and massacred many families [3
<https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2017/5/23/the-nakba-did-not-start-or-end-in-1948>].
Since then, the ethnic cleansing never stopped and the Zionist regime
formed into apartheid rule and military occupation. Over 2 million
Palestinians in Gaza have been under a brutal land, air and sea blockade
for 15 years. Despite the majority of the Gazan population being children
and refugees, Israeli bombardments have continued to destroy hospitals,
schools, homes and civil infrastructure. Currently, Israel is using
internationally-banned white phosphorus in its assaults on the Strip [4
<https://new.thecradle.co/articles/operation-al-aqsa-flood-rages-on-as-israeli-jets-pound-gaza>
].

This process relies on the facilitation by international actors, not least
of all weapons companies supplying the apartheid regime. iO Associates are
the sole recruiters for Elbit Systems UK, the UK arm of Israel’s largest
weapons manufacturer. Elbit Systems have openly been using military
bombardments on Gaza as a means to develop their weaponry, which they
market as having been “battle-tested”. They supply 85% of Israel’s military
drone fleet and land based equipment, as well as bullets, tear gas and
internationally banned weapons [5
<https://corporatewatch.org/elbit-systems-company-profile/>]. Not only are
they the majority provider of weaponry for the Israeli military, they work
alongside the occupying force, with Elbit staff themselves supporting and
conducting attacks against the indigenous population of Palestine.

On 7th October, the world bore witness to the most significant Palestinian
resistance operation since the Second Intifada, with operation ‘Al-Aqsa
Flood’ seeing a massive deployment of resistance fighters who have taken
occupation settlements in the Gaza envelope. Gazans have demolished the
Israeli ‘security’ border which, for almost two decades, has kept over 2
million Gazans captive in the world’s largest open air prison. Intensifying
their usual bombardments of Gaza and killings of Palestinians, the Israeli
military continues to use air strikes to target hospitals, UN schools which
are used as shelter, and residential tower blocks. In the past two days,
Israel has massacred at least 400 Palestinians.

ENDS

If you would like any further information on Palestine action, please
contact info at 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.

[1] https://www.palestineaction.org/io-associates/
[2] https://www.palestineaction.org/job-vacancies-down/
[3]
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2017/5/23/the-nakba-did-not-start-or-end-in-1948
[4]
https://new.thecradle.co/articles/operation-al-aqsa-flood-rages-on-as-israeli-jets-pound-gaza
} <https://corporatewatch.org/elbit-systems-company-profile/>[5]
https://corporatewatch.org/elbit-systems-company-profile/
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