In London, York And Manchester.
Palestine Action’s campaign of direct action against Elbit Systems and its partner organisations has continued, with the offices of JLL – Elbit’s landlord – targeted overnight.
Palestine Action have taken action at the London offices of LaSalle Investment Management, and at two other sites of Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), demanding an end to their facilitation of Elbit Systems’ contributions to Israeli war crimes. Elbit Systems’ drones, military hardware, surveillance tech and more are used extensively in Israel’s repression of the Palestinian people, and their UK headquarters is in LaSalle’s building at 77 Kingsway, London. This operational hub is where Elbit’s manufacturing of drones and arms in Britain is organised, with LaSalle thus complicit in the war crimes committed with these products.
JLL and LaSalle have declined to respond to repeated requests to evict Elbit or to recognise the role Elbit plays in repression of Palestinians. Activists have now stepped up their campaign of direct action against JLL – as they will with all firms facilitating the production of weapons used to repress Palestinians. Two sites in York and Manchester have been targeted overnight, with activists covering the premises in blood-red paint, symbolising the business of bloodshed from which Elbit pays their rent. The door to the Manchester site was broken, with paint sprayed inside the office. Further action was taken this morning, with activists covering the London offices of JLL, on Curzon Street, Mayfair, with paint and disrupting operations. Activists were joined by on-street protestors chanting for JLL to “evict Elbit”. The site has been forced to close.
Palestine Action have claimed that the campaign of direct action against JLL will continue until Elbit are evicted from their property, while their campaign to shut down Elbit’s factories in Britain will also escalate as long as Elbit continue to operate here.
This campaign of direct action aims to undermine British complicity in Israeli apartheid and war crimes, and to sever the supply chain which funnels British-made arms and drones into the hands of those repressing Palestinians. This involves shutting down the sites of Elbit Systems and other arms manufacturers, as well as exposing and disrupting firms like JLL which generate profit from Elbit’s facilitation of war crimes.
An activist involved has stated the following:
“We send our solidarity to the people of Palestine. There is no place in our city for people who profit from genocide, as JLL do. This is just one small act, but we are proud to be part of a wider movement fighting for freedom and justice for the Palestinian people”
Elbit Systems is Israel’s largest arms manufacturer, producing 85% of Israel’s combat and surveillance drones and their land-based military equipment. Many Elbit products, in particular their Hermes combat drones, are employed directly in the indiscriminate killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and in the repression and surveillance of Palestinians in the occupied territories. These products – which Elbit market as “battle tested” following use against Palestinian civilians – are then exported to repressive regimes across the globe, having been deployed against civilians in Myanmar, Armenia and Sri Lanka, and against refugees and asylum seekers crossing the Mediterranean and English Channel.
Palestine Action
Palestine Action is a direct-action network of groups and individuals formed with the mandate of taking direct action against Elbit Systems’ UK locations at grassroots level, calling for them all to be shut down and for the British government to end its complicity in Israeli apartheid.
Recent actions:
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/uk-palestine-israel-activists-occupy-elbit-drone-london-office
A Palestine Action activist on why he takes action against Elbit Systems: https://tribunemag.co.uk/2021/06/why-we-took-direct-action-against-apartheid/
Elbit Systems
Role of Elbit drone in killing of four children paying on Gaza beach in 2014: https://theintercept.com/2018/08/11/israel-palestine-drone-strike-operation-protective-edge/
More on the death and destruction inflicted by Elbit’s drones upon Gaza: https://corporatewatch.org/elbit-systems-company-profile-2/
Elbit surveillance technology for Israel’s apartheid wall: https://www.facing-finance.org/en/database/cases/elbit-systems-surveillance-system-torch-for-the-separation-barrier-in-israelpalestine/
UK Ministry of Defence signs £102 million contract with Elbit Systems UK for “sensor-to-shoot” system: https://www.army-technology.com/news/uk-mod-orders-elbit-detect-and-destroy-system/