[News] Palestine Action target two companies at once, complicit in Israel's ongoing genocide

[Anti-Imperialist News]

thecanary.co
<https://www.thecanary.co/trending/2024/02/14/palestine-action-bristol-blockade-elbit/>
Palestine Action target TWO companies at once, complicit in Israel's
ongoing genocide
The Canary
February 14, 2024
------------------------------

Palestine Action targeted two companies complicit in Israel’s ongoing
genocide in Gaza on Wednesday 14 February – shutting down one completely
and shaming the other by painting it blood-red.
Palestine Action: drenching BNY blood-red

First, and the group “drenched” the Manchester offices of Bank of New York
(BNY) Mellon in red paint, to symbolise the bank’s complicity in
Palestinian bloodshed. Activists also sprayed a message calling for Elbit
to be shut down:

BNY Mellon invest over £10m
<https://itsgoingdown.org/global-day-of-action-against-elbit-systems-a-report-back-on-houston-actionists-blockade-of-bny-mellon/%5D>
in Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons firm, Elbit Systems, which
provides 85% of Israel’s military drone fleet and land based equipment, as
well as missiles, bullets, and other weaponry.

Speaking of Elbit, Palestine Action did actually shut Elbit down too in 14
February.
Elbit: quite literally shut down – for now

Activists from Palestine Action blockaded the Bristol headquarters of
Elbit. By attaching themselves to each other using lock ons, they prevented
access into the central hub of what Palestine Action describe as Elbit’s
“lethal business”:

The action continued for hours – stopping all deliveries coming in and
going out of Elbit’s factory:

Using Elbit’s weaponry
<https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/11/17/israels-weapons-industry-is-the-gaza-war-its-latest-test-lab>,
Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza. Most recently, the occupiers have
begun massacring Palestinians in Rafah
<https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/2/13/there-will-be-massacres-palestinians-in-rafah-speak-of-their-fears>,
where 1.5 million Palestinians were told to go in order to be safe. Over
the past few months, over 28,000 Palestinians have been killed, more than
12,000 of whom are children.

Elbit Systems produces military drones, munitions, combat vehicles,
missiles and other Israeli weaponry. The majority of their arms are
marketed as “battle-tested”, as they’ve been developed by conducting
bombardments of the Palestinian people. The Israeli weapons firm is crucial
to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, as claimed by Elbit’s CEO.
Palestine Action: shutting down the war criminals themselves

A Palestine Action spokesperson has said:

Whilst Israeli weapons companies operate on our doorstep which assist in
occupying, displacing and massacring the people in Gaza, it’s up to the
people to take direct action to shut Elbit down. Every other method
including marches, petitions and lobbying has failed to end British
complicity in the occupation. We have the power, the ability and the will
to shut the war criminals down ourselves.

As the *Canary* previously reported, the owner of Elbit’s Bristol
headquarters is Somerset council
<https://www.thecanary.co/uk/2024/02/08/somerset-council-israel/>. It was
recently targeted by locals who crashed their executive meeting in order to
call for the council to terminate the lease with Elbit.

All this comes after other Palestine Action campaigns which have
successfully ended businesses working with Elbit.

Four other companies have ended their association with Elbit’s deadly trade
in the past two months. These include Elbit’s weapons transporters Kuehne +
Nagel <https://www.palestineaction.org/kuehne-nagel-victory/>; recruiters iO
associates <https://www.palestineaction.org/recruiters-drop-elbit/>,
property managers Fisher German
<https://www.palestineaction.org/fisher-german-victory/>, and website
designers Naked Creativity
<https://twitter.com/Pal_action/status/1737532886100726016>.

*Featured image via Palestine Action*
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