ACTIVISTS OCCUPY ELBIT AGAIN

FOR more than a year Palestine Action has been protesting against Elbit Systems in an attempt to shut the company down, yet this morning, when I did a search for information there was barely anything, and I found nothing in the mainstream media, though I could have missed it.

For those unfamiliar with the company, Elbit Systems, which is based in Haifa, is Israel’s largest private arms manufacturer with its biggest and best customer being Israel’s Ministry of Defence who buy up to 85% of their land-based military equipment and approximately 85% of their drones from Elbit.

The company has also struck a £102m deal with the UK’s Ministry of Defence to supply target identification systems to the British Army. This follows on from a £123m contract awarded to Elbit in January to provide the Royal Navy with training.

The latest arms deal will see the Elbit Dismounted Joint Fires Integrator (DJFI) used by the British Army.  The DJFI uses thermal sight technology to enable soldiers to locate and identify targets on the battlefield. Once locked in the system, the target can then be attacked by other offensive weapons such as artillery, fighter aircraft or military drones.

Personally, I’d like to know why our military needs this technology and where it is being used, but the focus here is on Palestine and the appalling trampling of their human rights by the Israeli Occupation Forces.

In besieged Gaza, Elbit drones enable Israel to carry out indiscriminate bombings and targeted assassinations. Most of us will have seen the aftermath of such attacks.

Elbit drones are deployed in occupied Palestine and East Jerusalem for surveillance and intelligence gathering and to enable late-night house arrests. IMI (a subsidiary of Elbit) baton rounds – which have injured many during the repression in Sheikh Jarrah this year – arm the Israeli military and police, who also rely extensively on Elbit intelligence and computer systems to maintain control over the captive Palestinian population. 

Elbit were awarded $82 million in order to strengthen and make more secure Israeli border walls which run through Jerusalem and the occupied Golan Heights, and to fit the surveillance technology which monitors and controls the Palestinian population.

I went onto Elbit Systems website and to say I was dismayed is a helluva understatement. A lot of phrases such as “surveillance & protection”, “detect ground or maritime targets”,  “surveillance and reconnaissance missions”, “loitering munitions”, and this one  – “highly covert aerial ISR asset delivering actionable, high-resolution video in real-time”.

I will readily admit that words such as ‘surveillance’, ‘covert’, ‘loitering’ and ‘targets’ frighten me. Yes, those of you who believe we should be prepared for a war, may feel at ease knowing our armed forces have these weapons at the ready, but I’m not one of them. To me, most of these weapons read as first spying on people, innocent or otherwise, and then killing them from afar.

And I don’t live in Palestine where many of these weapons are actually used. Used to repress Palestinians and keep them in a state of terror, never to feel secure even in their own homes.

Fortunately we have groups such as Palestine Action shining a light on this atrocity of a company and taking direct action against them. They have scaled the roofs of Elbit factories, locked their gates and only this morning they blocked all entrances to Elbit’s Instro Precision factory in Kent, shutting production down.

I applaud these activists, ready to go out no matter what the danger, to endeavour to stop production of these awful and unnecessary weapons which keep Palestinians in a state of occupation.

We should all applaud them, and help where and when we can.