Palestine Action started the week with a bang – despite the state having locked up so many of their activists. Undeterred, people once again shut down a weapons factory in Staffordshire crucial to the supply of arms to genocidal Israel and war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu.
Palestine Action target Elbit in Staffordshire
On Monday 25 November, activists from Palestine Action returned to the site of UAV Engines, locking on inside vehicles in front of the gates of the factory to prevent production of Israeli drone engines:
BREAKING: Palestine Action blockade the gates of Elbit’s drone engine factory in Staffordshire.
From inside two vehicles, actionists put themselves in the way of the Israeli weapons maker.
No matter what, we will #ShutElbitDown! pic.twitter.com/oFU9h2wvmB
— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) November 25, 2024
Operated by Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons company, the site has once again been targeted by Palestine Action activists, refusing to bow to unprecedented police repression:
UAV Engines manufactures drone engines for Elbit’s drones, which are tested on Palestinians and are currently used for genocidal attacks against Palestinians in Gaza. While the company denies it exports to Israel, export license data for military end-use by the State of Israel proves their denials false. Elbit’s and its UAV Engines-designed and produced parts have been linked to documented war crimes, including the murder of seven aid workers in Gaza in April 2024.
Currently, 22 Palestine Action political prisoners are detained in Britain for resisting complicity in genocide, some subjected to repressive ‘counter terror’ powers. So, activists have made clear in Staffordshire today: Elbit are the criminals. Those resisting Elbit’s role in genocide will not relent.
After tireless action by Palestine Action, the Staffordshire firm last year reported its first ever operating loss, with continuous impacts on productions and profits caused by those determined to see Israel’s arms trade forced out of Shenstone.
Since 7 October 2023, in the face of continual government participation in the genocide, activists have worked without fail to intensify actions against Elbit’s Shenstone operations: shutting it down with occupations, blockades, and vehicular lock-ons again and again, against a factory targeted since the very start of Palestine Action’s four-year long direct action campaign.