THREE British arms factories owned by subsidiaries of Israel’s Elbit Systems were closed down yesterday as hundreds of pro-Palestinian campaigners occupied the Staffordshire and Kent sites.

On the first anniversary of the 2014 Gaza attacks, activists and local residents took over the UAV Engines drone factory in Shenstone, Staffordshire, nearby Elite KL and optical sensors maker Instro Precision in Broadstairs, Kent.

The sites were patrolled by local police, but a blockade at Shenstone lead to confrontations between officers and activists.

“These Israeli-owned factories are very much a part of Israel’s brutal regime of apartheid and settler-colonialism over the Palestinian people,” said London Palestine Action member Elly Hassan.

“Israel was only able to massacre 2,200 Palestinians in Gaza last summer because factories like these are allowed to operate and because governments such as the UK government continue to allow arms exports to Israel.”

Block the Factory spokesman Alex Levan was among the 200 people preventing traffic from arriving at and leaving from UAV Engines.

“We are not moving,” he declared, despite being slapped with an injunction to stop the protest.

Police attempts to move people out of the way resulted in 10 arrests and the removal of children and elderly protesters from the scene by force.

The protest was supported by a series of campaigning groups and charities including War on Want, Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Campaign Against the Arms Trade.

Ms Hassan branded the actions a show of “solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice and equality.”

In Kent, four people took the rooftop of the Instro Precision building at 3.30am and one man chained himself to the front gate.

“People here regard this area as a peaceful community and every time we tell people that there is a major arms company making drone parts, they are extremely shocked usually,” said local resident Patrick O’Hare.

“Their jaws drop and their gobsmacked and dismayed. They can’t believe these things are made in their communities.”
A sister action also took place in Melbourne, Australia, at an Israeli arms factory.