Until a decision is made after a November judicial review as to whether Yvette Cooper acted lawfully July when she proscribed the organisation Palestine Action under terrorism legislation, it remains illegal to show support for, or be a member of the group.
For five years, Palestine Action non-violently targeted Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems, with protests, occupations and direct action, also extending their campaign to include the company’s supply chain.
Since proscription, there has been a chilling effect, in that anyone taking direct action against Elbit or other companies complicit in Israel’s genocide might be arrested under suspicion of supporting the proscribed group even if they have no prior connection.
However in the last few days, as Western countries still do little or nothing to stop the forced starvation and ethnic cleansing of Gazan civilians, medical staff, journalists and aid-seekers, there have been two copycat actions – one in Austria on Friday, and another in the UK early this morning.
In Gunskirchen on Friday morning, activists occupied the roof and blockaded the entrances at BRP Rotax-Gelände. Rotax is a large company employing many people in the local area, and according to activists it builds and supplies engines for Elbit’s Hermes 900 and Hermes 650 drones which not only provide surveillance, but also carry guns and bombs used in the Israeli genocide.
The attempt to close down the factory for a day was designed to highlight that Austria is a signatory to international laws and should not be allowing exports of equipment to aid the genocide. Around a dozen people took part, with several making it on to the roof with flares, Palestine flags, and various banners, including one that read “We are all Yvette Cooper” – a cheeky reference to the possibility of renaming the proscribed group as “Yvette Cooper” and forcing the Home Secretary to proscribe her own name. As the UK legislation does not extend to Europe, although there were no logos directly referencing the proscribed group, some activists wore similar red boiler suits.
Although in a 2022 press release Rotax claimed that its engines “are produced, designed and certified for civil use only”, activists point to Rotax’s General Manager Thomas Uhr’s attendance at various Elbit-sponsored symposiums where the IDF’s use of Rotax-engined drones in a military setting is discussed openly. Austrian law (§ 1 Z III lit. b KriegsmaterialV) would require Rotax to halt sales and export where there is evidence of crimes against humanity.
Elbit advertises its weaponry as ‘battle-tested’ – widely recognised as meaning tested in the walled enclave of Palestine, which the Zionist state has blockaded and controlled for decades. The large majority of surveillance and armed drones continually buzzing in the skies and terrorising the entire population for many years, are all designed and manufactured by Elbit. More recently, the drones have been fitted with AI-assisted autonomous weaponry, and there are multiple credible sources describing drones fitted with loudspeakers broadcasting the sound of babies crying, to draw concerned citizens out of hiding and into the crosshairs.
While Germany announced a partial arms embargo earlier this month (theoretically at least halting exports that would be used in Gaza), Austria has yet to follow suit and its government is against any Europe-wide embargo expressing solidarity and affirming Israel’s right to ‘self-defence’.
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In the UK early this morning, new non-violent direct action group Palestine Martyrs For Justice took dramatic action in Wolverhampton, driving a vehicle through entrance gates and climbing on to the roof, which they have begun to dismantle, exposing military equipment below.
According to research by DeClassifiedUK, in the previous 8 months the US-owned Moog Aircraft Group has exported at least ten shipments of equipment to the Elbit-operated Lavi training facility at Israel’s Hatzerim airbase. The shipments are believed to contain spare components for M-346 training aircraft, a sophisticated platform training pilots ready for combat in F-16 and F-35 jets.
Last September, the UK government restricted export of components for trainer aircraft, so the protest this morning was designed to highlight Moog’s potentially illegal trade as well as take direct action to halt it.
The new group wore T-shirts depicting the faces of four Palestinians murdered in Israel’s onslaught. The youngest, 17 year-old Raghad al-Jabri, died with her mother and sibling in a targeted airstrike in December 2023. Later that month, poet and academic Refaat Alareer was killed with members of his family. Orthopaedic surgeon Dr Adnan al-Bursh was tortured to death by the occupiers at Ofer prison in April this year, a month after journalist Hossam Shabat was the victim of a targeted airstrike as part of Israel’s criminal campaign against press reporting. In a press release, the new group said that they dedicate their inaugural action to these four named martyrs.
