[News] Palestine Action Crash Europe's Largest Business Event On Drones

[Anti-Imperialist News]

popularresistance.org
<https://popularresistance.org/palestine-action-crash-europes-largest-business-event-on-drones/>
Palestine Action Crash Europe's Largest Business Event On Drones
By Palestine Action - September 27, 2023
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[image: 2023927-4.jpg]

Above Photo: https://bit.ly/DronePal. <https://bit.ly/DronePal>

Today, Palestine Action crashed the DroneX Trade Show & Conference at ExCel
London, advertised as ‘Europe’s Largest Business Event Dedicated to the UAV
industry’. During a keynote speech by Dave Drewitt (Head of Sales and
Business Development at Thales’ ‘Flight Avionics’) on ‘Sharing Skies –
Enabling Safe & Secure Drone Operations’, activists took to the stage to
highlight the hypocrisy of the talk and raise the Palestinian flag.
Exposing Thales’ role in facilitating crimes against the Palestinian people
through their manufacture of Israeli drones, activists made clear that no
apartheid-supplying business has the right to lecture on safe & secure
drone operations.

Thales is one of the world’s largest arms companies, whose products include
military drones, armoured vehicles, missile systems and more [1
<https://caat.org.uk/data/companies/thales/>]. They work in partnership
with Israel’s biggest weapons manufacturer, Elbit Systems; the two
companies jointly own UAV Tactical Systems (U-TacS) [2
<https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/05241592/persons-with-significant-control>].
U-TacS operates a military drone factory in Leicester, which predominantly
manufactures the Watchkeeper drone, modelled on Elbit’s Hermes 450 drone
which has been routinely used to massacre and surveil the Palestinian
people, and is marketted as “battle-tested” upon them as a result [3
<https://waronwant.org/sites/default/files/Killer%20Drones,%20War%20on%20Want.pdf>].
The factory also holds several licenses to directly export military drone
weaponry to the apartheid state of Israel [4
<https://caat.org.uk/data/exports-uk/overview?company=Elbit+Systems>] .

Amongst representatives from the National Health Service (NHS), were senior
members of weapons companies and the British Army. Craig Palmer, a senior
British army officer, who works with Elbit Systems and Thales on deploying
the Watchkeeper programme was also in attendance. Palestine Action have
previously occupied the roof of Thales at their Glasgow factory twice last
year [5
<https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/20180620.thales-glasgow-factory-evacuated-pro-palestine-activists-storm-roof/>
][6
<https://freedomnews.org.uk/2022/07/11/palestine-action-scale-up-occupy-and-dismantle-thales-weapons-factory-in-glasgow/>].
More recently, their headquarters in Doncaster was targetted by a Palestine
Action Underground group [7
<https://www.doncasterfreepress.co.uk/news/doncaster-dismantlers-claim-responsibility-for-pro-palestine-attack-as-second-office-smashed-4265684>],
and today’s disruption continues Palestine Action’s prior claims that all
businesses which collaborate with or otherwise facilitate Elbit Systems’
actions will be targeted, at their factories, offices, ceremonies and
anywhere else.

Other attendees included Irene Ruiz-Gaberne from Airbus Military UK Ltd [8
<https://www.dronexpo.co.uk/speakers/irene-ruiz-gabernet/>], Phil Hanson
from Maritime and Coastguard Agency Aviation Evolution[9
<https://www.dronexpo.co.uk/speakers/phil-hanson/>]  and Jeremy Hartley
from the UK Civil Aviation Authority[10
<https://www.dronexpo.co.uk/speakers/jeremy-jam-hartley/>]. All the
organisations and companies they represent, work with Israel’s Elbit.
Notes:

[1] https://caat.org.uk/data/companies/thales/

[2]
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/05241592/persons-with-significant-control

[3]
https://waronwant.org/sites/default/files/Killer%20Drones,%20War%20on%20Want.pdf

[4] https://caat.org.uk/data/exports-uk/overview?company=Elbit+Systems

[5]
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/20180620.thales-glasgow-factory-evacuated-pro-palestine-activists-storm-roof/

[6]
https://freedomnews.org.uk/2022/07/11/palestine-action-scale-up-occupy-and-dismantle-thales-weapons-factory-in-glasgow/

[7]
https://www.doncasterfreepress.co.uk/news/doncaster-dismantlers-claim-responsibility-for-pro-palestine-attack-as-second-office-smashed-4265684

[8] https://www.dronexpo.co.uk/speakers/irene-ruiz-gabernet/

[9] https://www.dronexpo.co.uk/speakers/phil-hanson/
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