[News] Palestine Action shut down Elbit for TWO DAYS and break into another arms manufacturer's factory

[Anti-Imperialist News]

thecanary.co
<https://www.thecanary.co/trending/2024/07/16/palestine-action-elbit-bristol-israel/>
Palestine Action shut down Elbit for TWO DAYS and break into another arms
manufacturer's factory
The Canary
July 16, 2024
------------------------------

Palestine <https://www.thecanary.co/topics/palestine/> Action have shut
down arms manufacturer Elbit System’s Bristol HQ for two days running –
along with damaging the factory of one of its suppliers in the process.
Once again, the group has shown direct action can actually make an impact;
here, disrupting the supply of arms to Israel
<https://www.thecanary.co/topics/israel/> amid its ongoing genocide in Gaza.

>From 6.30am on Tuesday 16 July, three activists from Palestine Action
<https://www.palestineaction.org/> locked themselves to a vehicle blocking
the only access point to the UK headquarters of Israel’s biggest weapons
producer, Elbit Systems. Police have arrived at the scene and cordoned off
the area:

As of 12pm on 16 July, the cops were still scrabbling around trying to stop
Palestine Action:

Yesterday, another three activists similarly blocked the entrance, forcing
the site to close:

<https://www.thecanary.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image08-5-scaled.jpg>

So, for the second day in a row, Palestine Action have shut down Elbit’s
Bristol HQ at Aztec West 600, Bristol:

<https://www.thecanary.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image04-5-scaled.jpg>

They also broke inside Hydrafeed’s central premises in Milton Keynes,
damaging the company who provide machinery for Elbit’s Instro Precision
factory in Sandwich, Kent:
Supplying Israel’s war machine

Hydrafeed’s machinery is used to produce arms by Elbit’s Instro Precision
factory which have had over 80 separate licenses to export weapons to
Israel since 2016.

Hydrafeed’s involvement in the production of Israeli arms was confirmed
during a break in of the Instro factory by Palestine Action last month. By
dismantling the inside of the machinery maker’s central premises, activists
have prevented the company’s ability to provide Elbit Systems with “a rapid
response for breakdowns, repairs, spares and replacement parts”.

They have also disrupt the supply of machines to be used for arming the
Gaza genocide.

Meanwhile, according to Elbit’s CEO Bezhalel Machlis, Elbit Systems
weaponry is “currently being used extensively by the Israeli military”. The
Israeli weapons maker produces 85% of Israel’s military drone fleet and
land-based equipment, ammunition, missiles, digital warfare and training
simulators.

During the onslaught of Gaza which the ICJ has ruled is a plausible
genocide, Elbit have “ramped up production” to meet the increased demand of
the Israeli military for munitions.

Elbit Systems are the majority provider of Israel’s military drone fleet
and land-based equipment, as well as bullets, bombs, missiles and digital
warfare.
Palestine Action ‘will not stop’

Over the weekend more than a hundred Palestinians were massacred by the
Israeli military. On Saturday, Al-Mawasi refugee camp which was an Israeli
designated safe zone was targeted by Israeli air strikes killing over 90
Palestinians. The next day Israeli missiles struck a UN school sheltering
hundreds of displaced Palestinians, killing 16 of them and injuring many
more.

The Bristol HQ which activists have once again shut down is owned by
Somerset Council.

In April 2024, a motion was passed by councillors calling for Somerset
Council to explore all legal routes to evict Elbit before disposing of the
Bristol premises. The council also received legal advice from Palestine
Action’s lawyers, Public Interest Law Centre, setting out a clear route to
remove Elbit as a tenant[6]. Despite this, the council continue to fail
their legal and moral obligations to evict Elbit.

A Palestine Action spokesperson said:

Under Article 1 of the Genocide Convention, parties are obliged to prevent
the commission of genocide and punish those responsible. When our
government remains complicit in genocide and allows Israel’s Elbit Systems
to operate in this country, it’s the responsibility of ordinary people to
take direct action.

Anyone who remains a partner of the Israeli weapons maker has done a
serious moral and financial miscalculation as Palestine Action will break
every link of Elbit’s supply chain, which involves targeting Elbit’s
suppliers and of course, shutting Elbit down. We will not allow any
institution to continue facilitating the bloody massacres of the
Palestinian people.

We will not stop until Elbit is shut down.

*Featured image and additional images and video via Martin Pope Photography*
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