PALESTINE ACTION shut down the Bristol headquarters of Israel’s largest private arms company today, halting work at a key manufacturing hub.

Activists occupied the building of Elbit Systems, which supplies the Israeli military with equipment including drones and other electronic weaponry.

Some protesters climbed onto the roof and occupied it, while others used fire extinguishers to cover the building in red paint to represent the Palestinian blood that has been shed.

Palestine Action has been shutting down Elbit’s sites for over a year to highlight Britain’s complicity in Israeli apartheid.

The latest action came on the anniversary of the signing of the Balfour declaration, with which Britain pledged to support the establishment of a “home for the Jewish people” in Palestine regardless of the impact on the existing population.

Simultaneous action also took place outside the London offices of Jones Lang LaSalle, a transnational property firm that is Elbit’s landlord, where the building was daubed with blood-red paint.

In a statement, Palestine Action said: “Elbit’s supplying of arms to the Israeli apartheid regime, with their murderous products being manufactured with impunity across British towns and cities, is just the latest instance in a long tradition of British complicity in Israeli war crimes.

“Since the signing of the Balfour declaration, in which Britain signed away Palestinian land which was not theirs to give, and the providing of geopolitical support for Israeli land seizures, Israeli apartheid and global impunity has been bolstered by British complicity.

“Nowadays, not only does the UK operate an extensive army, navy and air force training and strategic partnership with Israel but [it] also deals with Elbit Systems directly, employing their Watchkeeper drones for both foreign invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as for repressing migrants in the English Channel.

“These drones are also under consideration for domestic policing usage.”