Palestine Action started the week as it probably means to go on: by blocking a weapons’ factory, taking direct action against arms trade financing and landlordism – and getting nicked in the process. All in a day’s work, though, for the campaign that is actually disrupting the supply of weapons via Elbit Systems to Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza – while MPs do fuck all.
Palestine Action: shut it down – again, and again, and again
On Monday 15 April, activists from Palestine Action attached themselves to vehicles, blockading the four entry routes to Discovery Park, the base of Instro Precision in, Sandwich, Kent. Preventing all entry, Direct action has once again halted production at Instro, a subsidiary of Israel’s largest weapons company, Elbit Systems:
BREAKING: Palestine Action blockade four entry points into Kent’s Discovery Park, making access to the business estate impossible.
Discovery Park is the base of Elbit’s Instro Precision weapons factory, who make sniper rifle sights for the Israeli army to commit genocide.
As… pic.twitter.com/MbWaEEWvB4
— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) April 15, 2024
Prior to the Kent blockade, Palestine Action struck overnight at financial corporations invested in Israel’s war machine, with all of today’s actions marking the A15 Global Day of Action, for a “Coordinated Economic Blockade to Free Palestine”:
BREAKING: Palestine Action target BNY Mellon’s Manchester office, to coincide with the ‘global economic blockade for a Free Palestine’
The bank invests in Israel’s largest weapons firm, Elbit Systems — making them complicit in the Gaza genocide#ShutElbitDown pic.twitter.com/mgwFDLgP51
— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) April 15, 2024
The Instro site, on Artillery Way in the Discovery Park estate, is normally used for the manufacture of target acquisition, surveillance and reconnaissance equipment for the Israeli military.
Since 2008, Instro Precision has applied for and been granted over 50 weapons export licenses to Israel, mostly for goods falling under category ‘ML5b’ (target acquisition and related systems), for products including imaging systems for Israel’s Hermes drones.
Instro’s reports note that:
the Directors are of the opinion that the company is ultimately controlled by Elbit Systems Limited, [ultimately] a company incorporated in Israel.
Elbit Systems itself is the largest private contractor to the Israeli Military, providing 85% of the occupying forces drones and land-based military equipment.
Targetting Elbit’s ‘systems’ – wherever they may be
Additionally, activists have struck again at the premises of BNY Mellon in Manchester, the financial services corporation which invests over £10m in Elbit Systems. The bank’s windows were shattered, covered in red paint, and spray painted with messages including ‘Drop Elbit’, ‘Child Killers’ and ‘Free Palestine’:
BREAKING: Palestine Action target BNY Mellon’s London office during the global economic blockade for a Free Palestine.
The bank must divest from Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer, Elbit Systems#ShutElbitDown #A15 pic.twitter.com/HjCicn0id3
— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) April 15, 2024
Predictably, cops swooped in to protect the corporate war machine – not those trying to protect millions of innocent civilians. Police arrested five members of Palestine Action:
Elsewhere, as part of the coordinated day of action., Sisters Uncut and other groups took action towards Elbit’s landlords;
⚪ Join us at LONDONMETRIC (W1J 5HB) as we take action in response to the call for a global economic blockade to disrupt the flow of capital arming genocide in Gaza. This is London’s resistance as part of @a15action 🇵🇸 #jointhefeministblockade pic.twitter.com/xn9xvQ1Vo7
— Sisters Uncut (@SistersUncut) April 15, 2024
A Palestine Action spokesperson has stated:
It has been clear that there is no route through government to ending the supply of British weapons to Israel’s war machine. 40,000 Palestinians have been massacred in Israel’s genocide, yet more now starving, wounded and displaced. Our government is complicit in all of that – coordinated direct action to immobilise sites of Israeli weapons production is the only possible response.
Featured image and additional images via Palestine Action
