Above Photo: bit.ly/SiegeMedia.
On the 21st day of the siege against Elbit’s Leicester factory, UAV Tactical Systems (U-TacS), Palestine Action targeted two companies linked to the Israeli weapons company. Activists targeted the Precision FM headquarters in Leicester, by breaking windows and spray painting a clear message to the firm: cut ties with Elbit. Others drenched the Aldridge office of Edwards accountants with red paint, symbolising the spilt blood of Palestinians.
Precision Facilities Management provide maintenance and sterilisation services for U-TacS, boasting a good review on their website and appearing to use the company as unnamed case study for the services they provide [1]. In the case study they pride themselves on the ‘sterling’ work they do and describe their partnership as a springboard for Precision FM to move into managing other weapons industry locations.
Edwards are Elbit’s listed auditors in Britain, delivering accountancy services for Elbit’s Leicester factory, UAV Tactical Systems [2] and all their other businesses [3]. This is the second time Palestine Action have targeted the firm this year, demanding the accountants stop facilitating Israel’s weapons trading in Britain [4].
U-TacS is a military drone factory owned by Israel’s largest weapons company, Elbit Systems, and French arms firm Thales. Its flagship product is the Watchkeeper drone, modelled on the Hermes 450 after the latter was “battle-tested” on Palestinians [5]. The company boast that the Watchkeeper allegedly operated for over 100,000 hours over Afghanistan and Iraq [6]. Despite insisting that they only sell to the British military, U-TacS, in fact, export around £5 million worth of military equipment to Israel yearly [7].
Elbit manufacture 85% of Israel’s military drone fleet [8], not only arming the Israeli military with these drones and developing the technology, but also operating the drones alongside the military, directly assisting them in their attacks [9].
Both actions have been undertaken in solidarity with the ongoing siege of U-TacS, a mass action involving people staying put outside the factory since May 1st 2023 despite police repression, refusing to leave until Elbit does. Palestine Action have made clear that any companies who facilitate Elbit’s continued production of drones for Israel will be targeted and pressured until they cut ties with Israel’s biggest arms manufacturer [10].
Palestine Action is a direct-action network of groups and individuals formed with the mandate of taking action against the sites of Elbit Systems and other companies complicit in Israeli apartheid, calling for all such sites to be shut down.
[1] https://www.precisionfm.co.uk/fm-confidential-our-sterling-work-at-defence-facility/
[2] https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/05241592
[4] https://www.palestineaction.org/accounting-for-apartheid/
[5] https://waronwant.org/sites/default/files/Killer%20Drones%2C%20War%20on%20Want.pdf
[6] https://u-tacs.co.uk/product/watchkeeper-x
[7] https://caat.org.uk/data/exports-uk/licence-list?index=date®ion=Israel&company=Elbit+Systems
[8] https://corporatewatch.org/elbit-systems-company-profile-2/
[9] https://whoprofits.org/company/elbit-systems/
[10] https://palestineaction.org/siege