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Palestine Action Are Occupying The Offices Of Aviva

From 7.30am on Wednesday 22 January, Palestine Action begun occupying ‘The Aviva Centre’ in Bristol over its ongoing complicity with Israel’s genocide in Gaza. One activist is on top of the overhang of the ‘UK’s largest insurer’: Another spray painted the front glass of the building. Messages painted on the building include ‘Pal Action’ and ‘Elbit Out.' Aviva provides the mandatory employers liability insurance for UAV Engines in Staffordshire, a drone engine factory owned by Israel’s biggest weapons manufacturer, Elbit Systems. Recent disclosures show the company no longer holds direct shares in Elbit Systems. However, as well as insuring an Israeli weapons factory, Allianz also continue to hold investments in funds which hold Elbit shares.

The Chris Hedges Report: America’s Academic Gulag

“You can’t just sit there and build drones and not talk about who it’s serving and who does it help,” says Richard Solomon, PhD student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and member of the Coalition for Palestine at MIT. On this episode of The Chris Hedges Report, Solomon and fellow MIT PhD student Prahlad Iyengar detail their battle against the historic institution’s active participation in the genocide in Gaza. Their story exemplifies the repression students face across the country who dare question how their work and labor are used to advance the illegal and morally reprehensible goals of the Israeli military.

Swedish Dockworkers Vote To Block Military Shipments For Israel

In a resounding display of international solidarity, members of the Swedish Dockworkers Union (SDU) voted by 68 percent in December to block the handling of military shipments to and from Israel. The Swedish government continues to trade arms with Israel. Exports are relatively small, totaling $4.5 million in 2023, but imports are much more significant: the Swedish defence forces have signed contracts to import more than $200 million in arms from Israel, including from two of Israel’s largest arms companies, Elbit and Rafael—both implicated in supplying weaponry used in Gaza.

Palestine Action Shut Down Israel-Supplying Arms Company

Palestine Action have shut down the factory of Leonardo, a company directly complicit in Israel’s genocide in Gaza. But also, by default the Scottish government also has a hand in this – as it funded the corporation to the tune of millions. Palestine Action returned to the Edinburgh premises of weapons firm Leonardo on Tuesday 10 December – using vans to blockade the weapons factory and halt its contributions to Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Scottish activists were secured to each other on top of the vehicles, closing both entry gates to the plant and preventing the manufacture of parts for Israel’s F-35 Fighter Jets.

Palestine Action Shut UAV Engines For Second Time This Week

Palestine Action were back in Staffordshire on Wednesday 27 November – blockading Elbit-supplying UAV Engines factory for the second time in a matter of days; disrupting Israel’s weapons supply chain in the process. Following on from Palestine Action’s blockade of UAV Engines on Monday 25 November, when activists locked on inside vehicles, blocking both gates to the site, others returned today, to once again disrupt the weapons factory. UAV manufactures engines for the killer drones of Elbit Systems, Israel’s biggest weapons manufacturer.

Why These New Russian Missiles Are Real Game Changers

In response to a U.S. decision to arrange for ballistic missile attacks from Ukraine into Russia, the great magician and President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin pull a rabbit from his hat. Yesterday the six independent war heads of a new intermediate range ballistic missile hit the Yuzhmash missile plant in Dnipro Ukraine. Until now the new missile and its mission profile had been unknown. It is the clear counter to decade long efforts of the U.S. to gain supremacy, especially in Europe, over Russia. Missiles can be classified by the range they are able to achieve

The High Cost Of Empire: US Weapons Depletion Fuels Concerns

As the United States channels tens of billions of dollars into wars in Palestine and Ukraine, data reveals a concerning depletion in its missile production capacity. Critics argue that the primary beneficiaries are weapons manufacturers, not American security. Since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, U.S. defense companies have significantly outperformed major stock indexes. RTX, which produces the 2,000-pound bunker-busting bombs used by Israel in Gaza, outpaced the S&P 500 by roughly 46 percent. In 2023, U.S. weapons sales to foreign governments surged 16% to a record $238 billion, as defense contractors report unprecedented demand and growing backlogs.

Spain To Block Maersk Ships Bound To Israel After Pressure From Activists

The Spanish government has announced it will block two ships—Denver and Seletar—operated by shipping giant Maersk and carrying military cargo bound for Israel, from docking at the port of Algeciras. This decision comes just days after the Mask off Maersk campaign released a report exposing the company’s regular use of the Spanish port for transferring cargo that enables the ongoing genocide against Palestinians, despite Spain’s stated arms embargo. Researchers from the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) and Progressive International (PI), who contributed to the report, told Peoples Dispatch that it is unclear whether Pedro Sánchez’s administration was genuinely unaware of the shipments or deliberately chose to look the other way.

The People Of Bristol Just Grabbed The Baton From Palestine Action

After a years-long campaign against Israel’s arms manufacturer Elbit Systems by Palestine Action, residents of Bristol have joined in – by blockading the genocide-enabling company’s factory in the city. A group of approximately 40 Bristol residents are currently blockading a weapons factory in North Bristol, UK. At approximately 7am on Wednesday 6 November, protestors arrived outside Elbit Systems with banners and Palestine flags. Protestors have chosen Elbit Systems, an Israeli-based military technology company, because Elbit currently supplies 85% of Israel’s drone fleet and land-based military equipment.

Palestine Action Targets Shareholders And Insurers Of Elbit

Palestine Action has upped the ante over UK-based companies propping up Israel’s ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza. This time, the group targeted two different companies – Allianz and BNY Mellon – from two different industries. But the common denominator was their support for the Zionist entity. First, following on from Palestine Action’s concerted actions on Allianz UK offices in October, activists made a return visit to the company’s Glasgow offices, at 58 Waterloo Street, over the weekend. Activists broke glass and sprayed the building red.

Blockade Against Use Of Ireland’s Shannon Airport By US Military

Two people were arrested at a protest in Co Clare against the use of Shannon Airport by the US military. Both people were arrested in relation to public order incidents at the airport this afternoon. There was a large garda presence ahead of today’s event with local members from the amalgamated Clare and Tipperary divisions backed up by Garda Public Order Unit officers from Clare, Limerick, Tipperary and Cork. From early this morning, one lane of the N19 main road into Shannon Airport was closed while gardaí checked vehicles including buses before they were allowed continue to the airport. Only intending passengers, airport and industrial estate workers or those with business in the airport were allowed continue past the checkpoints.

Palestine Action Hit Ten Branches Of Israel Genocide-Enabler Allianz

Allianz has previously been described as Elbit’s “principle institutional shareholder”, at-one-point owning over 2% of the company. The finance company continues to hold thousands of shares in Elbit Systems Ltd, while its subsidiary ‘Allianz Insurance Products Trust’ provides insurance services for Elbit Systems UK, including employment insurance. One year on from the start of the genocide in Gaza, these nationwide action serves as a reminder that, throughout the past twelve months, Western capital has continued to profit from the mass murder of Palestinians. Allianz’ profit books, its returns on its investments, have been bolstered by the hundreds of military technologies which Elbit provides in service of genocide.

United States Spending On Israel’s Military Operations

U.S. spending on Israel’s military operations and related U.S operations in the region total at least $22.76 billion and counting. This estimate is conservative; while it includes approved security assistance funding since October 7, 2023, supplemental funding for regional operations, and an estimated additional cost of operations, it does not include any other economic costs. This figure includes the $17.9 billion the U.S. government has approved in security assistance for Israeli military operations in Gaza and elsewhere since October 7 – substantially more than in any other year since the U.S. began granting military aid to Israel in 1959. Yet the report describes how this is only a partial amount of the U.S. financial support provided during this war.

Venezuela Arrests Another US Citizen In Alleged Mercenary Plot

The Venezuelan Minister of the Interior, Justice and Peace Diosdado Cabello reported that another US citizen linked to a terrorist plan against the peace of Venezuela was arrested. “We were following him, he took photos of military facilities, electricity infrastructure and state entities, using the excuse of being a tourist,” he said during his speech at the plenary session of the National Assembly on Tuesday, September 17, where he was invited to present of the newly unveiled mercenary plot. Following the alert about a terrorist plot to smuggle grenades and explosives into the country, an investigation was carried out that led to the capture of three citizens.

No Word On Long-Range Strikes In Russia After Biden-Starmer Meeting

Ukraine is still pushing for the US to support long-range strikes inside Russian territory after a meeting between President Biden and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer ended with no announcements about the issue. Biden and Starmer held talks at the White House on Friday, a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that if the US allowed and supported long-range strikes inside Russia, it would mean NATO is at war with Russia. Ahead of the meeting, the White House said the US hasn’t changed its policy regarding long-range strikes. “There is no change to our view on the provision of long-range strike capabilities for Ukraine to use inside of Russia,” said National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.
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