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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220621-israels-leading-arms-dealer-is-running-scared/">middleeastmonitor.com</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Israel's leading arms dealer is running scared</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Yvonne Ridley</div><br><img src="cid:ii_l4omzpgx2" alt="image.png" width="459" height="306"><br><br></div>
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June 21, 2022 </span>
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<p>It must be rather humiliating when you claim to be a world leader in
security and surveillance systems but have your own headquarters
breached frequently by a disparate group of angry citizens armed with
nothing more than red paint and innovative ideas about peaceful
resistance to a brutal military occupation enabled by your company's
products. That is the dilemma facing Elbit Systems UK, Israel's largest
private arms manufacturer and dealer, which has been forced to quit its
prestigious London headquarters for the city of Bristol in the
south-west of England. Israel's leading arms dealer is running scared.</p>
<p>The retreat from the British capital is indeed humiliating, and is
yet another major victory for Palestine Action, which claims that it was
<a href="https://www.theoldhamtimes.co.uk/news/19840066.arms-firm-sells-part-oldham-business-months-protests/" target="_blank">behind the closure</a>
of the Elbit factory in Oldham in January. Elbit Systems UK announced
that it had sold Ferranti Technologies Power and Control business
(Ferranti P&C), based in Waterhead, to British company TT
Electronics for £9 million. PA activists had targeted the Ferranti
Technologies site for 18 months, making the continued operation of Elbit
in Oldham unfeasible.</p>
<p>Despite these two victories, the activists in Palestine Action — many
of whom are already facing trial in Crown Courts around England on
charges of criminal damage — say that they will not stop until all of
Elbit's factories of death are closed for good.</p>
<p>Elbit is an Israel-owned international defence electronics company
that is "engaged in a wide range of homeland security and commercial
programmes around the world". That's the proud boast on its website and
at arms fairs, but the ugly reality is that many of its weapons have
been battle-tested on Palestinian civilians in the besieged Gaza Strip
and elsewhere in occupied Palestine.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220328-the-makers-of-israels-deadly-drones-continue-to-evade-british-justice/">I wrote in <i>MEMO</i></a>
in March, one of the most heinous crimes Israel has carried out in
recent years took place in Gaza when four schoolboy cousins aged ten and
eleven years were killed as they played football on the beach in 2014.
The war crime — what else can you call a missile attack on children
playing in the sand? — unfolded in front of representatives of the
world's media, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/17/world/middleeast/gaza-strip-beach-explosion-kills-children.html" target="_blank">who witnessed the slaughter</a> of the Bakr family boys.</p>
<p>We now know that the <a href="https://theintercept.com/2018/08/11/israel-palestine-drone-strike-operation-protective-edge/" target="_blank">children were killed by missiles launched from an armed drone</a>;
possibly even a drone containing parts manufactured in Britain. That is
just one of the reasons why activists belonging to Palestine Action
target drone factories in Britain owned by Elbit.</p>
<p><strong>READ: </strong><strong><a title="The makers of Israel's deadly drones continue to evade British justice" href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220328-the-makers-of-israels-deadly-drones-continue-to-evade-british-justice/">The makers of Israel's deadly drones continue to evade British justice</a></strong></p>
<p>I have tried to contact Elbit for a comment, but the company doesn't
make it easy as there's no phone number to find. Nevertheless, I left a
polite media request which, at the time of writing, had not received a
response. I asked why Elbit has quit its London HQ and is currently
advertising jobs on its website saying: "All the positions will be based
full-time or with alternative flexible arrangement from our offices in
Bristol or home-based (where the job allows)."</p>
<p>It's difficult to know if Elbit quit its Central London office
voluntarily or was told by the landlord to leave following complaints
from other tenants in the Kingsway office block. The final straw may
well have come at the start of this month when the pro-Palestine
campaigners launched the seventh attack on the HQ in under four weeks.
While they were targeting the London site, around a dozen other "red
paint" operations were launched across the country in the same period.</p>
<p>Police have arrested the activists on numerous occasions, but while
some trials have been abandoned other defendants have been acquitted on
the grounds that they committed a crime to prevent a greater crime: the
slaughter of innocents in Palestine. Elbit executives appear reluctant
to push for prosecutions; could that be because they would be required
to give evidence under oath about the weapons they make and how they
have been and still are used?</p>
<p>There are thought to be 20 other criminal cases in the pipeline
emanating from direct but peaceful action by members of the
pro-Palestine group. Understandably, the activists say that they would
welcome their day in court to explain why they've damaged Elbit
property.</p>
<p>Palestine Action has made it abundantly clear that its members'
conscience-led vandalism won't stop until the UK-backed oppression of
Palestine ends. I have to admit that there's something rather pleasing
about the group's direct action and effective use of blood-red paint.</p>
<p>However, isn't it time for the police to stop acting as enforcers for
the Israeli arms dealer and start instead to ask more direct questions
about why these activists are prepared to risk their liberty to stop
these weapons from being made?</p>
<p>There are, without doubt, crimes being committed, but not by
Palestine Action. The activists' inspired and inspirational courage
reminds me of my youth in the turbulent, rebellious 70s, when the iconic
rock band The Clash, symbolising intelligent protest and stylish
insurrection, had a hit with the song "I fought the law and the law
won". Perhaps the lyrics are worth revisiting as a tribute to Palestine
Action. How about: "We fought the law and we won?"</p>
<p>Seriously though, has it ever occurred to the police that Elbit
Systems is reluctant to go to court and give evidence against the
activists in case their lawyers start asking awkward questions? It's
blindingly obvious that Elbit has something to hide, and yet it is
hiding in plain view: its products are used by an <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution" target="_blank">apartheid state</a>;
apartheid is akin to a crime against humanity. Moreover, Israel is
committing war crimes on a daily basis in the occupied Palestinian
territories.</p>
<p>Sherlock Holmes might well have observed about Elbit that, "It has a
grand gift for silence," but that's not good enough. The full weight of
the law should not be focused on the activists of Palestine Action, but
turned on those who arm and enable Israel to conduct its brutal military
occupation. Elbit should be in the dock; not the activists of Palestine
Action.</p>
<p><strong>READ: </strong><strong><a title="London protests arms fair equipping Israel" href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220125-london-protests-arms-fair-equipping-israel/">London protests arms fair equipping Israel</a></strong></p>
<p>The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not
necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.</p>
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