Over 100 protesters have set up ‘peace pickets’ blockading two weapons factories in Bristol that are allegedly arming the Israeli military offensive in Gaza. The group – Cymru Peace Coalition (pictured, main)– claim to have stopped all Elbit Systems weapons making operations in the South West, at their third blockade of a major arms manufacturer in the last three months.
From early this morning (Monday), activists blocked entrances, stopping workers enter, holding banners saying “stop arming genocide” and “UK weapons Kill.”
Activists arrived at both Elbit systems UK HQ, and their factory in Aztec West (Bristol), aiming to disrupt the strategic core of the Elbit supply chain of military equipment from the UK to the Israeli military. This follows sustained pickets and blockades at Elbit’s drone manufacturing location in Leicester and both of these sites in Bristol.
Elbit Systems supplies 85% of Israel’s drone fleet and 85% of its land-based military equipment, and on Wednesday last week Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made a Valentines day declaration to renew contracts with Elbit Systems using taxpayer money, days after the Netherlands ruled to ban exports of weapons to Israel citing ‘concerns they were being used to violate international law during the war in Gaza’. The UK government has awarded 25 public contracts, a total of £355m, to the company since 2014.
Families for Ceasefire Monmouthshire, one of the groups campaigning against the bombing of Gaza by Israel, said that the number of children killed in Gaza now outstrips the entire school age population of Monmouthshire.
“It is incomprehensible that the weapons being made right here on our doorstep are being used in this mass slaughter. Families for a Ceasefire represent the voice of families in Monmouthshire who want to see an immediate end to this a war on children and are calling for a permanent ceasefire now. Wales must stop arming the genocide of children and families!”
The owners of the controversial factory, Sedgemoor District council have also come under fire recently in council meetings, where local campaigners argued that Elbit Systems should be evicted from the council owned site4, and that profit from the lease of their premises to Elbit Systems is profiting on the ‘probable genocide in the light of the International Court of Justice’ that Elbit Systems weapons are enabling.
The action comes as waves of pickets and blockades in recent months at British based arms dealers and manufacturers have highlighted the role these firms are playing in fueling conflict, and the profit that is being made by arms companies.
A retired paramedic from Swansea who joined the picket, said:
“Having worked as an Emergency Nurse Paramedic in Gaza and been shot at whilst working on critically injured women and children I was horrified to learn the bullets and bombs were from Britain.”
According to the Campaign Against the Arms Trade – ‘The UK has consistently sold arms to Israel, in spite of its illegal occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem since 1967’. Between 2018-22 £146 million of single issue licensed weapons where sold – but an unknown, untraceable amount of open licensed ‘material’ was sold in addition – including 50 F35 jets (which Israel took shipment of in 2022) which alone brings the total arms sold by the UK to Israel to almost £336 million since 2016.
On Wednesday, MPs in Westminster will vote on an SNP motion calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Pressure is building on politicians to back the motion as figures show that for 135 days in Gaza, 139 children have been killed every single day.
A Spokesperson for the Cymru Peace Coalition urged others to join the action demanding a ceasefire and end to Israeli apartheid.
“Hundreds of civilian lives are taken every day by the Israeli regime, thousands have been taken through this decade long apartheid. Brick by brick, wall by wall – Israeli apartheid has to fall,” they said.
On Tuesday evening, anti-war protesters will stage simultaneous peace vigils outside the offices of all 4 Cardiff Labour MPs before the parliamentary vote on an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
With hundreds of thousands of people up and down the country demonstrating weekly, growing participation in boycott and divestment actions targetting companies linked with Israel, and news of an impending humanitarian catastrophe in Rafah, pressure is growing on politicians and corporations to distance themselves from Israel.
