Guardian: Two weeks ago, nine of us from the London Palestine Action networktravelled to the village of Shenstone in Staffordshire and occupied the roof of an Israeli-owned drone engine factory. We closed the factory down for two days before being arrested.
The factory is owned by Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons company, and manufactures engines for a type of drone called Hermes, which has, according to Human Rights Watch, been used in attacks that killed Palestinian civilians and in incidents that may have been war crimes.
The factory is also a fundamental part of the Watchkeeper programme, under which Elbit Systems is leading production of a new generation of drones for the UK military that is modelled on the Hermes drone. Elbit uses the murderous impact of its weapons for profit, marketing the drones as “field-tested” – in other words, proven to successfully kill Palestinians with nowhere to run. The UK government is importing technology that has been developed through the course of Israel’s military operations against Gaza.
A recent report by the office of the UN high commissioner for human rights stated that almost 2,000 people, including 456 children, had been killed during Israel’s latest assault on Gaza. This death toll is set to rise after the collapse of the ceasefire on Tuesday evening. Countless have been left injured. Hospitals and UN schools have been attacked by the Israeli military. Mosques, universities and untold numbers of homes have been demolished.
As has so often been the case, the international community has done nothing to prevent the aggression by Israel, a state with the world’s fourth largest military. In the words of Pierre Krähenbühl, commissioner-general of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, the world stands disgraced.
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