When on Thursday morning they arrived to work to find their usual entrance cordoned off by City of London police, staff at 33 Cannon Street told Real Media that they had no idea the multi-storey offices harboured a company connected to war crimes. On the canopy above, were two supporters of Palestine Action who had climbed up at around 6am and unfurled banners claiming “Mark Poffley – War Criminal” and “UDSS Supports Apartheid”.
The woman and man took turns to shout out why they were there. They claimed that a military consultancy, Universal Defence and Security Solutions (UDSS), operated from that address, and that one of their directors, retired Lieutenant General Sir Mark Poffley KCB OBE, is also a director of Elbit Systems UK, which develops and supplies drones to the Israeli Occupying Force used in surveillance, and to terrorise, kill and maim civilians in Gaza and the illegally occupied territories.
UDSS advertises their address as 33 Cannon Street, and Mark Poffley is listed at Companies House as claimed. UDSS were contacted for comment but declined.
The Fire Brigade attended in order to assess risk, but as their union policy is to not assist police in removing peaceful protesters, they soon left.
The directors of UDSS are mainly former high-ranking British Defence staff, and Poffley was the Deputy Chief of Defence working for the government until at least 2019. On their website, UDSS boast of their close connection to the Ministry of Defence, providing “military and defence consultancy, assistance, and solutions” to governments, organisations, and manufacturers throughout the world, “both in an independent capacity as well as being part government”.
Evidence of UK complicity in Israel’s war crimes grows almost weekly, with evidence of spy flights over Gaza, and even current training of IDF troops on British soil. Within days of Keir Starmer’s promise of trade sanctions on Israel, the UK government Trade envoy Ian Austin was visiting sites and business projects in Haifa.
During the afternoon, a specialised Police Protest Removal Team attended, at which point the two activists locked on to each other with piping, in order to continue the protest presence longer. Eventually after around ten hours, they were brought down and arrested.
A spokesperson at Palestine Action commented:
“Palestine Action will not allow war criminals to hide in plain sight. Mark Poffley used to oversee a £38billion budget for the UK Ministry of Defence. Now he’s using his connections and access to profit from the Gaza genocide and benefit Israel’s biggest weapons producer, Elbit Systems.”
The two activists were released by police later that night.
