[News] ‘Israel’-backing arms firm Thales chased out of Queen’s University event

[Anti-Imperialist News]

thecanary.co
<https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-analysis/2026/02/16/israel-thales/>
‘Israel’-backing arms firm Thales chased out of Queen’s University event
Robert Freeman
February 16, 2026
------------------------------

Local activists have prevented supporters of Israel’s genocide and French
purveyor of mass murder Thales from giving a talk at a Queen’s University
Belfast (QUB) conference. The weapons manufacturer had been set to give a
talk at the NI Blockchain event at the university’s Computer Science
building. However, around 25 anti-genocide campaigners stormed the room
<https://www.instagram.com/p/DUtf5y1jm-x/> and ensured the presentation
could not take place. Embarrassed organisers swiftly ushered attendees out,
leaving activists free to hang up Palestine flags and plaster the place
with ‘boycott Israeli apartheid’ stickers.

Thales are well known to have links to the ‘Israeli’ military
<https://caat.org.uk/data/companies/thales/>. Until very recently, they
produced various drones through its then subsidiary UTacS, which was
jointly owned by Elbit Systems. Elbit is the backbone of the genocidal
settler-colony’s weapons industry
<https://bdsmovement.net/news/elbit-systems-war-criminals-and-genocidaires-face-financial-woes>.
Thales recently sold UTacS to the Zionist arms firm
<https://milmag.pl/en/elbit-systems-uk-acquired-u-tacs/>.
Strong links between Thales and Israel

In a report entitled “Exposed: The UK firms supplying Elbit Systems”, the
always excellent *Declassified UK *reported on how
<https://www.declassifieduk.org/exposed-the-uk-firms-supplying-elbit-systems/>
:

Thales in Crawley has exported radar components to Elbit in Haifa. On 6
November 2025, the company also sent an “I-Master airborne surveillance
radar” to Israel.

The I-Master “delivers all-weather surveillance, pattern of life
monitoring, change detection and wide area-coverage”, according to Thales.
“It detects and locates moving and stationary targets at long stand-off
ranges over land and sea”.

It was exported under the ML5b licence, according to the shipping document,
which covers “target acquisition, designation, range-finding, surveillance
or tracking systems”.

Thales claim the materials it sends to the settler-colony are:

…intended for re-exporting purposes to a European end user.

*Declassified UK *point out how meaningless this is, as the British
government does not have a means of checking whether Israeli Genocide
Forces use anything sent to so-called ‘Israel’.

This shipment seems to directly contradict a statement Thales gave in
December 2025, in which they said
<https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/northern-ireland/we-dont-supply-israel-with-weapons-thales-refutes-claims-after-belfast-grammar-school-recruitment-row/a/112256101.html>
:

Thales has not delivered any defence equipment, or any equipment enabling
the operation of a defence system, to the Israeli armed forces or to
Israeli manufacturers.

Thales has not exported any weapon or any lethal system to the Israeli
armed forces, either directly or through third-party manufacturers.

This was in the wake of opposition from parents who opposed local schools
partnering with the criminal company to boost its recruitment. Thales also
has a factory in East Belfast which is a regular target for pro-Palestine
protesters.
Students call for QUB to end its complicity

The protest at QUB was led by Connolly Youth Movement activists. In a
statement, they said <https://www.instagram.com/p/DUtf5y1jm-x/>:

Anti-imperialists from the Connolly Youth Movement, QUB Palestine Assembly
and BDS Belfast, disrupted Thales’ talk at the conference and the war
criminals immediately packed up and left. These arms manufacturers raise
millions in profits off the back of genocide and have no place on our
campuses.

This shows the power of collective, direct actions which ensure that these
vultures have no room to breathe. This action is part of a long-running
campaign to pressure QUB to sever all its links with Zionism and arms
manufacturers, driving them off our campus and divesting from all complicit
institutions.

The university continues to partner with these vile merchants of death. At
a protest in October 2025, students highlighted its ongoing relationship
with BAE Systems, which helps to manufacture the F-35 warplane used to
murder innocent Palestinians. They said
<https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2025/10/09/protesters-call-out-queens-uni-belfast-links-to-hillary-clinton-again/>
:

Queen’s boasts of “Partnering with BAE Systems on video based semantic
analysis of crowd behaviour” and provides placements for students.

They also highlighted similar arrangements with Caterpillar, notorious for
supplying the bulldozers used to wreck Palestinian homes. QUB also insists
on maintaining indirect investments in ‘Israeli’ companies.

But we’re still not done – despite cutting ties with Epstein associate and
alleged rapist George Mitchell
<https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-analysis/2026/02/02/george-mitchell-has/>,
the university persists in keeping fellow Epstein fraterniser Hillary
Clinton as chancellor. The former US secretary of state is a perpetual
warmonger <https://www.thecairoreview.com/essays/hillary-the-hawk/>
and committed
Zionist
<https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2025/10/09/protesters-call-out-queens-uni-belfast-links-to-hillary-clinton-again/#:~:text=She,civilians>.
QUB’s continued backing of Clinton, and its support for ‘Israel’ – a
practitioner of mass sexual abuse
<https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/03/more-human-can-bear-israels-systematic-use-sexual-reproductive-and-other>
– shows it does not care about basic morality, truth, or even its own
reputation.

It is instead an institution that cares only about money and proximity to
power, even if it’s done on the backs of rape victims and dead Palestinians.

*Featured image via the Canary*
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