Protesters outside the Israeli military technology company Elbit Systems’ Bristol HQPhoto: Cymru Peace Coalition
MORE than 100 Palestine supporters have laid siege to an arms company providing Israel with weapons being used to attack Gaza.
Israeli-owned Elbit Systems supplies Israel with 85 per cent of the military drones being used to attack Gaza and 85 per cent of the Israeli Defence Force’s land-based military equipment.
The weapons are produced at four Elbit factories in Britain. The company also has its headquarters offices in Bristol.
Activists mounted “peace pickets” today at Elbit’s Bristol headquarters and its factory at Aztec West in Bristol.
The action was organised by Cymru Peace Coalition.
An F-35 takes off from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, June 24, 2019
ARMS trade campaigners have produced a map showing locations across Britain where components are made for F-35 warplanes being used by Israel to attack Gaza.
The group says 15 per cent of the components used to build F-35s are made in Britain in deals worth hundreds of millions of pounds for arms manufacturers.
CAAT said: “The map will enable campaigners across the country to find out where the components are produced and to protest [against] the companies who are profiting from the genocide Israel is committing in Gaza on their doorsteps.
“Foreign Secretary David Cameron recommended continuing arms sales to Israel on December 12 2023, despite previous Foreign Office assessments stating there were ‘serious concerns’ about breaches of international humanitarian law (IHL) and Israel’s commitment and ability to comply with IHL.
“Cameron further accepted that Israel has a different interpretation of its IHL obligations.”
On January 26 the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled that there was a “plausible” case that Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
Activists say their actions in 2020 and 2021 were lawfully justified amid Israeli attacks on Palestinian civilians
The ‘Elbit Eight’ – Jocelyn Cooney, Nicola Deane, Caroline Brouard, Emily Arnott, Huda Ammori, Richard Barnard, Genevieve Scherer and Robin Refualu – at Snaresbrook Crown Court last month | Guy Smallman/Getty Images
Jurors have begun deliberations in the trial of the ‘Elbit eight’, a group of activists with Palestine Action accused of offences relating to the shutdown of UK operations by Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms producer.
The eight have been on trial for four weeks at Snaresbrook Crown Court in north-east London. They do not deny the charges of burglary, criminal damage, encouraging offences of criminal damage, possessing articles with intent to cause criminal damage, and threatening to damage property belonging to Jones Lang LaSalle – a company that provides services in relation to one of Elbit’s UK sites – but they have argued that they were lawfully justified in their actions.
Over the past month, jurors have heard how the activists, in the years 2020 to 2021, deployed tactics such as rooftop occupations, window smashing, and spray painting to force Elbit out of the UK and cease the production of lethal weapons used against Palestinian civilians.
Though the prosecution has described their actions as “wanton criminality”, defence barristers have placed great emphasis on the fact that the defendants acted under the belief that if decision-makers at Elbit UK, UAV Systems and Jones Lang LaSalle understood the true extent of the atrocities committed using Elbit manufactured systems, then they would have consented to their actions.
Richard Barnard, Huda Ammori, Robin Refualu, Genevieve Scherer, Milly Arnott, Caroline Brouard, Jocelyn Cooney and Nicola Deane are charged in various combinations on 13 counts relating to a series of incidents in London, Kent, Oldham and Staffordshire.
As barristers for each of the defendants delivered their closing speeches on Tuesday, a number of them reminded jurors that many historical rights movements were once vilified – including the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, and the civil rights movement in the US.
Barnard’s lawyer said: “It’s no good if in a few weeks’ or months’ time, if you’re pushing your trolley around Tesco, and you think: ‘Oh, I’m not sure we did get that right.’ That’s the heavy responsibility you have.”
He added: “People are allowed, in the free society that you represent as jurors, to hold strong beliefs. Some hold them more strongly than others. Not many would don an adult nappy [a reference to protests that saw activists stay in place for long periods of time]. It takes a certain type of person to do that. A certain strength of belief.
“But these people are important. [They] bring issues perhaps that most of us are content to read about or listen to from the comfort of our own homes.
“Times change, opinions change, and sometimes it takes others to bring matters to our attention which change our opinion. It’s almost laughable to think that women once didn’t have the right to vote.”
All defendants except Scherer and Cooney are charged with at least one count of criminal damage, while all except Brouard, Cooney and Deane are charged with at least one count of burglary. Cooney is charged only with encouraging offences of criminal damage and possessing articles with intent to cause criminal damage.
Acorn activists outside the entrance of aerospace and defence manufacturer Meggitt in Birmingham
THREE British arms firms supplying Israel with weapons were blockaded today when activists, local community members and tenants’ union Acorn went into action in defence of Gaza.
Acorn is active in towns and cities across Britain fighting on issues such as tenants’ rights, public transport and the cost-of-profits crisis.
Activists targeted weapons manufacturers in Birmingham, Bristol and Leeds today.
In Birmingham, the entrances to aerospace and defence manufacturer Meggitt were blocked; in Bristol, protesters turned away workers at defence and security manufacturer Leonardo; and in Leeds, the offices of BAE System were blockaded.
All three firms manufacture or provide components and systems for military aircraft being used in the bombardment of Gaza.
Acorn chairwoman Chelsea Phillips said: “Acorn will not stand by while entire communities are obliterated while ordinary people just like us are murdered in their tens of thousands by the Israeli government with the support of our government and using horrific weapons of war built by British companies.
