To Force Companies Complicit In The Gaza Genocide Out Of The Brooklyn Navy Yard.
Most New Yorkers are not aware companies contributing to the Gaza genocide operate in their backyard, but at least two are housed in the city-operated Brooklyn Navy Yard. Now, activists and local residents are banding together to get them evicted.
Most New Yorkers are not aware that companies contributing to Israel’s genocide in Gaza operate in their backyard. That is, unless they happen to walk, bike, or drive down Flushing Avenue outside the Brooklyn Navy Yard on a Wednesday afternoon, as I did a month ago—in which case, they are absolutely aware.
The campaign Demilitarize Brooklyn Navy Yard (DBNY) organizes weekly noise demos and pickets, demanding the eviction of two companies from the city-owned industrial park on the East River, where 550 businesses are located. Protestors bang drums, blare airhorns, picket, chalk sidewalks, fold zines, and hand out flyers reading: “MEET YOUR NEIGHBORS, EASY AERIAL & CRYE PRECISION, LOCAL WEAPONS MANUFACTURERS IN OUR BACKYARDS.” Most passersby honk their horns, ring their bells and shout their praise; some others gawk at the commotion or scoff in disapproval. But all who pass know that the Brooklyn Navy Yard houses genocide-profiteers.
These companies are Easy Aerial, an autonomous drone manufacturer, and Crye Precision, a tactical gear company. Both make products used by the Israeli military in Gaza.
Since September 2024, a decentralized coalition of Brooklyn Navy Yard neighbors, workers, and community members have organized under the banner Demilitarize Brooklyn Navy Yard. Affinity groups operate autonomously, pursuing diverse tactics in their own arenas and then converging for Wednesday noise demos. Together, DBNY’s tactics are plentiful, persistent, and vociferous. The strategy of pairing escalated direct action with consistent public rallies was inspired by campaigns in Cambridge and the U.K. that successfully pressured landlords to evict weapons manufacturers.
The landlord in question is the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation (BNYDC), a non-profit developer charged with managing business leases at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, which is owned by the City of New York. DBNY’s demands are simple: evict Easy Aerial and Crye Precision from the Brooklyn Navy Yard and establish a policy of no weapons manufacturers.
Technologies Of Genocide: Made In Brooklyn
Before the public launch of their campaign in September 2024, a group of organizers who became part of Demilitarize Brooklyn Navy Yard were discouraged by the state of the Palestine Solidarity movement. Israel had consistently escalated its genocide in Gaza, but it seemed like the movement was unwilling or incapable of meeting the gravity of the moment. Marches through Union Square were easily ignored, and sporadic, escalated actions were too disjointed. “Symbolic solidarity is not enough,” said Leila Rafiq, a pseudonym for a DBNY organizer who asked to remain anonymous, “how can we escalate to material solidarity?” Searching for answers, they scanned the local supply chain of weapons manufacturers and contractors. After intensive research, they turned their attention towards the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where they discovered several companies with ties to Israel.
Easy Aerial, founded and managed by ex-IDF soldiers, manufactures autonomous drones called “unmanned aerial vehicles” (UAVs) and sells surveillance software to governments and other weapons companies. Two varieties of its drones, hexacopters and quadcopters, are capable of deploying bombs and carrying snipers—Easy Aerial claims their primary function is surveillance, though it is unclear if they have any control over how clients use them. According to an online drone marketplace where its products are listed for sale “all drones are designed, built, and tested at Easy Aerial’s Brooklyn, NY headquarters.”
In a 2021 YouTube video, IDF drone operators show off their latest surveillance technology weaponized on the Gaza border–Easy Aerial UAVs. Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer, also has a contract with Easy Aerial to retrofit ground vehicles with UAVs.
Drones have been Israel’s weapon of choice in waging genocide against Gaza. In 2024, Easy Aerial’s Chief Product Officer told Truthout that their products found “an immediate need after October 7.” Israel is not their only client–the Department of Homeland Security also contracts with Easy Aerial, and the U.S. Border Patrol is currently soliciting a $1-2 million contract to purchase its drone software for “airborne reconnaissance, surveillance and tracking capability.”
DBNY’s other primary target, Crye Precision, has operated in the Brooklyn Navy Yard since 2002; in 2017, they signed a 20-year lease extension with the BNYDC, expanding into a nearly 100,000 square foot facility. Crye Precision manufactures custom camouflage vests, shields, combat pants, and body armor called MultiCam, which they sell directly to the U.S. Military, police departments, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and retailers like Walmart. They also license their products to third parties, including Agilite, an Israeli military equipment manufacturer. In September 2024, a whistleblower at Crye Precision informed Drop Site News that MultiCam gear sold to Agilite was being used by the IDF.
Disrupting The Supply Chain
Back at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the ruckus momentarily subsides as a speaker hops onto a picnic table. “Right here in the heart of Brooklyn are some of the most spineless genocide profiteers,” says A.B. Youssef, a journalist and DBNY organizer, “When you see videos of Palestinian journalists being harassed by drones, that’s made in Brooklyn… When you see the NYPD cosplaying the military in their vests and helmets, that’s made in Brooklyn.”
Easy Aerial’s and Crye Precision’s ties to both Israel and local law enforcement convinced many community members to get involved. “Part of what makes this campaign compelling,” said H.K., a DBNY organizer and Navy Yard neighbor, “is that it not only has implications for Gaza, but also for us locally.” Local organizing is the bedrock of DBNY—they plan teach-ins, circulate petitions, and knock on neighbors’ doors. “The neighbors I’ve been talking to about this were shocked to learn there are companies with ties to Israel in the Navy Yard,” said H.K.
Because the Brooklyn Navy Yard is city-owned property and the BNYDC Board–which makes decisions about business leases–are appointed by the New York City mayor, one lever available to organizers is to build power as constituents. DBNY neighbors have spoken at their local Brooklyn Community Board meetings, seeking the support of their elected officials. There’s some cautious optimism that a potential Zohran Mamdani mayorship could be more amenable to pressure than the current administration.
Another potential pressure point is inside the Navy Yard itself, through tenants and workers organizing. The Brooklyn Navy Yard has a long military history, dating back to 1801 as a shipbuilding facility owned by the U.S. Navy. In 1966, the Navy Yard closed and was sold to the city, which developed it into an industrial park. The BNYDC was established in 1981 and has been recruiting businesses ever since, with a marketing strategy geared towards sustainability and the arts. They label Crye Precision as a “fashion/accessories” business and Easy Aerial under “fine art/photography,” which DBNY organizers believe is an attempt to conceal what these companies really manufacture.
Lucy, a pseudonym for another DBNY organizer who was recently hired at a climate-tech company in the Navy Yard, was drawn to the Navy Yard’s “green tech” marketing, which she now describes as greenwashing. “When I found out what else was going on in the Navy Yard, I was disgusted,” she said. To Lucy, it is incongruent for a facility that claims to prioritize climate action to also house companies contributing to genocide. Lucy isn’t alone–a DBNY petition collected 115 signatures from Navy Yard workers and tenants.
Disrupting business-as-usual through escalated action is another core tactic. On June 18, four climate activists blockaded turnstiles inside the Navy Yard building 77, where Easy Aerial is located, preventing employees from entering their workplace. A video from the action shows a Crye Precision employee wearing their custom camo pants assaulting protesters. Student protestors with DBNY disrupted public speaking events by the BNYDC’s CEO, Lindsay Greene, including at Pratt Institute, a public arts college in Brooklyn. One protestor told Mondoweiss they had attended Greene’s talk and found out about DBNY from this action.
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The pressure is mounting. BNYDC moved its regular board meeting to avoid protestors, workers have quit their jobs after finding out they work across from genocide-profiteers, and members of BNYDC’s leadership team (at least one board member and two executives) resigned this year for undisclosed reasons. Mondoweiss contacted the ex-board member to clarify their reasons for stepping down, and they declined to comment. DBNY told Mondoweiss it believes these resignations signify that their campaign has diminished the public appeal of being associated with the BNYDC.
DBNY organizers are well-studied on recent movement history and know what works. They cited BDS Boston, Palestine Action, and Stop Cop City as inspirations–all of which employed a diversity of tactics, including escalated direct action.
They share many tactics with BDS Boston, a campaign that pressured a landlord to evict Elbit Systems from its facility in Cambridge–including weekly noise demo disruptions and working with business tenants who share a building with genocide-profiteers. “We quickly found that even a small group of folks, if well-organized, loud, creative, and consistent, can cause a remarkable amount of damage to a target in an urban area,” reflected a BDS Boston organizer in a Q&A with the activist publication, the Harvard Crimeson.
Direct action often takes the spotlight, which was certainly the case for Palestine Action–known for rooftop occupations and machinery destruction–in its campaign to evict Elbit Systems from Oldham, England, but according to organizer Huda Ammori, speaking with Progressive International, it was “the perfect duo” of direct action and community work that successfully shut down several Elbit facilities.
DMBY organizers share this sentiment. “It’s going to be the multiplicity of tactics all together,” said Rafiq, “Between making it unpleasant for them to conduct business as usual and pressure from many different points, we will win this campaign.”
For H.K. and her Brooklyn Navy Yard neighbors, the consistency of the campaign is one of its great strengths. The noise demos are an opportunity to show up week after week and keep the pressure on.
As the Wednesday noise demo wraps up, protestors chant, “We’ll be back, we’ll be back, we’ll be back!”
