This week saw a further escalation in the direct action campaign to #ShutElbitDown which was launched 10 months ago by Palestine Action.
In the early hours of Thursday morning three activists climbed onto the roof of a factory in Runcorn. Over the course of two days, they shut down the factory and according to police, caused damage amounting to more than million pounds.
The target of this action was APPH Ltd, which is part of a Canadian aerospace company Héroux-Devtek which manufactures military technology.
The Elbit-owned subsidiary of UAV Tactical Systems Ltd, which has been targeted by the group in the past had a ‘supply chain’ link on their website showing that APPH makes landing gear for the drones which are assembled by UAV in Leicester. Shortly after the action began at APPH, the link and map was removed from their website.
Real Media approached APPH for comment, but the phone numbers and email addresses on the APPH website all appear to be non-functional, and the parent company Héroux-Devtek have not responded to inquiries. Despite repeated requests, neither Elbit nor any of their subsidiaries have offered statements, but this is the first time that contact information on a business website appears to be false.
On Wednesday morning, the entrance to LaSalle Investment Management in London was sprayed with blood-red paint.
LaSalle are the landlords of Elbit’s London office in Kingsway. They are a subsidiary of Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. which has also been the target of paint attacks. There was one on Thursday morning on their Manor House branch in north London, and recent actions at a branch in Bristol.
On Saturday a lively protest took place outside a JLL branch in Manchester, while in Oldham unknown activists smashed windows and sprayed red paint at the Elbit subsidiary Ferranti Technologies, which has been the target of several previous actions.
Also on Saturday in Kent there was a protest and vigil organised by Palestine Solidarity Campaign and East Kent Campaign Against the Arms Trade at Discovery Park, a business estate where Elbit subsidiary Instro Precision is based.
The campaign against Elbit appears to be growing fast, spreading to its suppliers and enablers, and attracting support from other campaigns such as PSC and CAAT – Extinction Rebellion joined a recent action in Oldham.
