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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-analysis/2026/02/16/israel-thales/">thecanary.co</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">\u2018Israel\u2019-backing arms firm Thales chased out of Queen\u2019s University event</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Robert Freeman</div>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time">February 16, 2026</div>
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<p>Local activists have prevented supporters of Israel\u2019s
genocide and French purveyor of mass murder Thales from giving a talk at
a Queen\u2019s University Belfast (QUB) conference. The weapons manufacturer
had been set to give a talk at the NI Blockchain event at the
university\u2019s Computer Science building. However, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DUtf5y1jm-x/" rel="external noopener noreferrer">around 25 anti-genocide campaigners stormed the room</a>
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 \u2018boycott Israeli
apartheid\u2019 stickers.</p>
<p>Thales are well known to have <a href="https://caat.org.uk/data/companies/thales/" rel="external noopener noreferrer">links to the \u2018Israeli\u2019 military</a>.
Until very recently, they produced various drones through its then
subsidiary UTacS, which was jointly owned by Elbit Systems. Elbit is the
<a href="https://bdsmovement.net/news/elbit-systems-war-criminals-and-genocidaires-face-financial-woes" rel="external noopener noreferrer">backbone of the genocidal settler-colony\u2019s weapons industry</a>. Thales recently <a href="https://milmag.pl/en/elbit-systems-uk-acquired-u-tacs/" rel="external noopener noreferrer">sold UTacS to the Zionist arms firm</a>.</p>
<h2>Strong links between Thales and Israel</h2>
<p>In a report entitled \u201cExposed: The UK firms supplying Elbit Systems\u201d, the always excellent <em>Declassified UK </em><a href="https://www.declassifieduk.org/exposed-the-uk-firms-supplying-elbit-systems/" rel="external noopener noreferrer">reported on how</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>Thales in Crawley has exported radar components to Elbit
in Haifa. On 6 November 2025, the company also sent an \u201cI-Master
airborne surveillance radar\u201d to Israel.</p>
<p>The I-Master \u201cdelivers all-weather surveillance, pattern of life
monitoring, change detection and wide area-coverage\u201d, according to
Thales. \u201cIt detects and locates moving and stationary targets at long
stand-off ranges over land and sea\u201d.</p>
<p>It was exported under the ML5b licence, according to the shipping
document, which covers \u201ctarget acquisition, designation, range-finding,
surveillance or tracking systems\u201d.</p></blockquote>
<p>Thales claim the materials it sends to the settler-colony are:</p>
<blockquote><p>\u2026intended for re-exporting purposes to a European end user.</p></blockquote>
<p><em>Declassified UK </em>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 \u2018Israel\u2019.</p>
<p>This shipment seems to directly contradict a statement Thales gave in December 2025, in <a href="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" rel="external noopener noreferrer">which they said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Thales has not exported any weapon or any lethal system to the
Israeli armed forces, either directly or through third-party
manufacturers.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>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.</p>
<h2>Students call for QUB to end its complicity</h2>
<p>The protest at QUB was led by Connolly Youth Movement activists. <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DUtf5y1jm-x/" rel="external noopener noreferrer">In a statement, they said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p dir="auto">Anti-imperialists from the Connolly Youth Movement, QUB
Palestine Assembly and BDS Belfast, disrupted Thales\u2019 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.</p>
<p dir="auto">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.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>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. <a href="https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2025/10/09/protesters-call-out-queens-uni-belfast-links-to-hillary-clinton-again/" target="_self" rel="noopener noreferrer">They said</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>Queen\u2019s boasts of \u201cPartnering with BAE Systems on video
based semantic analysis of crowd behaviour\u201d and provides placements for
students.</p></blockquote>
<p>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 \u2018Israeli\u2019
companies.</p>
<p>But we\u2019re still not done \u2013 despite <a href="https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-analysis/2026/02/02/george-mitchell-has/" target="_self" rel="noopener noreferrer">cutting ties with Epstein associate and alleged rapist George Mitchell</a>,
the university persists in keeping fellow Epstein fraterniser Hillary
Clinton as chancellor. The former US secretary of state is a <a href="https://www.thecairoreview.com/essays/hillary-the-hawk/" rel="external noopener noreferrer">perpetual warmonger</a> and <a href="https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2025/10/09/protesters-call-out-queens-uni-belfast-links-to-hillary-clinton-again/#:~:text=She,civilians" target="_self" rel="noopener noreferrer">committed Zionist</a>. QUB\u2019s continued backing of Clinton, and its support for \u2018Israel\u2019 \u2013 <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/03/more-human-can-bear-israels-systematic-use-sexual-reproductive-and-other" rel="external noopener noreferrer">a practitioner of mass sexual abuse</a> \u2013 shows it does not care about basic morality, truth, or even its own reputation.</p>
<p>It is instead an institution that cares only about money and
proximity to power, even if it\u2019s done on the backs of rape victims and
dead Palestinians.</p>
<p><em>Featured image via the Canary</em></p>
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