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href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/activists-disrupt-entry-israeli-weapons-london-arms-fair">https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/activists-disrupt-entry-israeli-weapons-london-arms-fair</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">Activists disrupt entry of Israeli weapons
to London arms fair</h1>
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<p class="node__submitted">
<span class="field field-author"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/asa-winstanley">Asa
Winstanley</a></span> <span class="field field-blog">-</span>
<span class="field field-publication-date"><span
class="date-display-single"
content="2017-09-06T07:55:06+00:00">6 September 2017</span></span>
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<p>Protesters attempted to stop Israeli weapons entering
a massive arms fair in London on Monday.</p>
<p>Activists are this week protesting the event as it
sets up shop. The conference showcases the arms
industries of countries all over the world, including
notorious human rights abusers like <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/saudi-arabia">Saudi
Arabia</a> and Israel.</p>
<p>The <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/dsei">Defence
and Security Equipment International</a> exhibition,
or DSEI – which <a href="https://www.dsei.co.uk">advertises
itself</a> as “the world leading” arms industry fair
– opens for business next week.</p>
<p><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/amnesty-international">Amnesty
International</a> and London Mayor Sadiq Khan have <a
href="https://twitter.com/LondonPalestine/status/904703268806414336">both</a>
<a
href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/dsei-2017-london-arms-fair-weapons-saudi-arabia-excel-centre-sadiq-khan-cancel-a7853286.html">called</a>
for the event to be <a
href="https://www.amnesty.org.uk/london-arms-fair-2015-ad-campaign-dsei-torture-equipment">scrapped</a>.</p>
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<p>On Monday, activists carrying Palestinian flags and
banners delayed the entry of trucks into the ExCel
Centre, where the event is held.</p>
<h2>“Illegal and immoral”</h2>
<p>The <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/campaign-against-arms-trade">Campaign
Against the Arms Trade</a>, or CAAT, <a
href="https://twitter.com/CAATuk/status/904655448334270465">reported</a>
that some activist even boarded one of the trucks,
attempting to stop it proceeding.</p>
<p>According to CAAT, the truck was carrying a military
vehicle know as a <a
href="http://www.plasan.com/sandcat/">SandCat</a>, <a
href="http://www.plasan.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/SandCat_4x4_spear_120mm.jpg">made
by the Israeli company Plasan</a>.</p>
<p>The group said police arrested eight people on
Monday. The activists were <a
href="https://twitter.com/StopTheArmsFair/status/904829646516232194">released</a>
later in the day but it is not clear if they will be
prosecuted.</p>
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<p>Protester Sarah Wilkinson told The Electronic
Intifada that she had been supporting Palestine for
nearly 40 years. She said the British government
should “stop supporting Israel” and its “illegal and
immoral” actions. “It’s our duty to be there to
protest for Palestine,” she said.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, disruptions continued, with some
activists <a
href="https://twitter.com/CAATuk/status/905012075575037953">suspending
themselves</a> from a bridge, intending to block a
road leading to the arms fair.</p>
<p>CAAT said that 15 more protesters were arrested on
Tuesday.</p>
<h2>“Shut it down”</h2>
<p>Andrew Smith of the Campaign Against the Arms Trade <a
href="https://www.caat.org.uk/media/press-releases/2017-09-04">said</a>
of the the arms fair that it was “time to shut it down
for good.”</p>
<p>The London fair “will bring many of the world’s most
appalling regimes together with the biggest arms
companies,” Smith added. “Right now UK fighter jets
and bombs are playing a central role in the
destruction of Yemen; what will be the next atrocity
they are used in?”</p>
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<p><a
href="https://www.caat.org.uk/media/press-releases/2017-09-04">According
to</a> the Campaign Against the Arms Trade, past
DSEI events have attracted military delegations from
abusive regimes including Saudi Arabia, Pakistan,
Kazakhstan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates,
Afghanistan and Bahrain.</p>
<p>Like other Israeli arms firms, Plasan <a
href="http://www.plasan.com/profile/">advertises</a>
its weapons as “field proven” – in other words they
have been tested on Palestinians.</p>
<p>The firm is based in Sasa, a kibbutz established on
the land of a destroyed Palestinian village in the
Galilee.</p>
<p>In 1948, Zionist militias attacked the village, <a
href="http://www.zochrot.org/en/village/49344">forcing
out the population</a> in an orgy of destruction
that killed dozens.</p>
<p>According to right-wing Israeli historian Benny
Morris, the Israeli forces committed “atrocities”
against the civilian population.</p>
<p>Kibbutz Sasa – named after the Palestinian village it
erased – was established in 1949 as a Jews-only colony
by the supposedly “socialist” Hashomer Hatzair Zionist
movement.</p>
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