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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">"Huge Victory": Elbit forced to sell Ferranti after sustained direct action campaign</h1>January 11, 2022<br></div>
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<p>Oldham (QNN)- Members of Palestine Action celebrated a “huge
victory” on Monday after Israel’s largest privately-owned arms company
of Elbit Systems sold off one of its UK factories.</p>
<p>After 18 months of sustained direct action taken at the Elbit
Ferranti site in Oldham, Greater Manchester, with 36 people arrested,
Elbit has now sold Ferranti technologies in Oldham.</p>
<p>The Power and Control Business of Ferranti Technologies has been sold
to TT Electronics, a British electronics firm, for $12 million in a
deal which the Israeli firm completed, apparently, as part of its
restructuring of its UK operations.</p>
<p>Since August 2020, Palestine Action’s occupations of the site have
caused weeks of forced factory closure, and have cost millions in
damages to the company.</p>
<p>At the end of November 2021, Elbit began packing up their Oldham
operation – now the majority of the Ferranti business has been sold off,
according to the group.</p>
<p>Activists in Palestine Action have occupied, blockaded, smashed,
disrupted, and protested regularly at the site, ultimately succeeding in
ending the factory’s production of specialist military technologies for
Israel’s fleet of combat drones. </p>
<p>In November 2021, anonymous sources revealed to Palestine Action that
mass redundancy notices had been issued to staff working at the
factory, and that premises were being cleared in preparation for Elbit
leaving the site.</p>
<p>On Monday, it was publicised that Ferranti has indeed been sold to TT Electronics.</p>
<p>This major restructuring – selling a subsidiary which Elbit has
consistently promoted as a success and which has helped Elbit to land
multi-million pound contracts with the British government – suggests
that Elbit is under significant pressure to tighten its UK operations,
said Palestine Action.</p>
<p>“This is most likely due to the impossibility of continuing at the
often-occupied site, the massive financial impact of occupations, and an
attempt to avoid more bad publicity,” it added.</p>
<p>Although Elbit attempted to make the Oldham factory a viable
production site by improving security, early in 2021, and increased
spending massively for round-the-clock security, and also benefitted
from a rapid police response for protestor removal, neither of these
measures succeeded in keeping out the activists, with the site
continuing to be targeted regularly.</p>
<p>The first action taken in Oldham by Palestine Action, in late August
2020, involved spraying premises in blood-red paint, symbolising the
Palestinian bloodshed made possible with Elbit Ferranti technologies.</p>
<p>Following this, actions accelerated. Windows were smashed in an
occupation in November 2020, while an action taken in collaboration with
XR North in February 2021 caused over £20,000 in damages.</p>
<p>In April 2021, activists not only occupied the site but gained entry
to the factory, smashing the roof, windows, air vents, and undermining
future operations by covering equipment and computers in red paint –
over £100,000 of damages were caused, and the site remained shut for
well over a week.</p>
<p>On July 5th, three activists gained entry to the site, allegedly
causing £500,000 of damage and closing the factory for a number of
weeks. More recently, in August of this year, activists blockaded the
factory – blocking roads with vehicles and locking onto gates – and
occupied the factory itself again.</p>
<p>There have been a number of other actions taken at the Oldham site,
with the factory forced to close for a significant number of weeks in
total due to damage caused.</p>
<p>The site has also been subject to regular protests called by Oldham
Peace and Justice and Manchester Palestine Action, with large crowds
gathering outside the factory on a weekly basis since the massive and
brutal bombardments of Gaza by ‘Israel’ in May.</p>
<p>Following the announcement, a Palestine Action spokesperson stated,
“The sale of Ferranti and the closure of the Oldham factory is a huge
victory for the movement. So far, our actions have undermined and
disrupted operations – but this news vindicates our long-term strategy.”</p>
<p>“Direct action works – the brave individuals who occupied the factory
over the past year can proudly say that drone technologies are no
longer in production in Oldham.”</p>
<p>“But it’s not enough that just one of these death-factories shuts
down. We want to see Elbit itself shut down for good, and all of their
businesses forced out of Britain – we will keep escalating our actions
until that happens.”</p>
<p>Elbit systems, Israel’s largest privately-owned arms company,
provides the Israeli occupation with around 85% of its killer drones.
These drones terrorise the people of Gaza and Israeli occupation uses
them in daily surveillance and regular attacks.</p>
<p>The company’s profits skyrocketed after its equipment was used in the
brutal 2014 assault on Gaza, helping ‘Israel’ to seal contracts with
militaries all over the world.</p>
<p>In 2018, Elbit purchased IMI Systems, known for producing cluster
munitions, the IOF’s sole supplier of small calibre ammunition.</p>
<p>So not only are the drones in the skies made by Elbit, the bullets
being shot by Israeli occupation snipers are also made by Elbit.</p>
<p>Israeli F-16 fighter jets and Apache and Cobra attack helicopters are all made with Elbit equipment.</p>
<p>They have repeatedly been used to attack civilian areas, homes and
refugee camps, resulting in thousands of casualties in Gaza, the West
Bank, and Lebanon.</p>
<p>Also, Elbit’s Hermes 450 is one of the most used drones in the world.
The company markets the drone as “combat proven”, having battle-tested
it on Palestinian people.</p>
<p>The group ‘Palestine Action’ was set up in 2020, breaking onto the
activist scene by its targeting of Elbit Systems factories around
Britain to end the UK complicity with Israeli apartheid.</p>
<p>The group has been described as using creative tactics to disrupt
Elbit facilities, as well known Climate Change activist group
‘Extinction Rebellion’.</p>
<p>Palestine Action has pledged that the campaign of direct action taken
to shut Elbit down will continue to escalate and expand – both by
preventing operations and occupying Elbit sites, or by cutting off
Elbit’s supply chain and halting operations as Elbit’s partners,
landlords and suppliers are targeted.</p>
<p>Palestine Action has called on to an end to the continued
facilitation of Elbit Systems and, by extension, of Israeli war crimes.</p>
<p>They say Elbit’s biggest single customer is the “Israeli Ministry of Defence,” the war criminals.</p>
<p>“The production of arms, drones, and military technology relies on an
interconnected and massive network of complicit firms – Palestine
Action are dismantling this network, demanding that firms cease their
partnership with Elbit unless they want to be shut down along with
them,” a Palestine Action spokesperson stated.</p>
<p>“The message to all other firms with Palestinian blood on their hands
is simple: until you end your facilitation of Israel’s brutal
repression of Palestinians and sever ties with Elbit, Palestine Action
will shut you down and cease your contribution to genocide for you.”</p>
<p>Elbit Ferranti site in Oldham had been targetted due to the crimes
committed against Palestinian civilians using Elbit Ferranti products.
The Oldham factory was used for the manufacture of specialist military
products and technology, including the SkEyepersistent surveillance
system aboard Elbit’s Hermes 450 and 900 drones.</p>
<p>Ferranti also manufactures the SpectroXR ultra long-range imaging
system for Hermes drones. Hermes drones have been used extensively by
Israel in bombardments of Gaza, notably during Operation Protective Edge
in 2014 in which over 2,200 Palestinians were killed, including 526
children.</p>
<p>The site was also used for the production of IronVision helmets for
use in battle tanks such as the Carmel – specifically designed for
operations in densely built urban areas, such as Gaza.</p>
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