Six arrested after rooftop protest at Israeli-owned ‘drone parts’ factory in UK
The plant, owned by Israeli firm Elbit Systems UK, has been repeatedly targeted by activists who claim the factory is involved in the supply of parts for drones used by the Israeli military against Palestinians.
Six people have been arrested after a rooftop protest at a factory which pro-Palestinian activists have claimed supplies engines for Israeli military drones.
A handful of protesters from the group Palestine Action got onto the UAV Engines site in Shenstone, Lichfield, Staffordshire, in the early hours of Tuesday, according to the organisation.
Red paint was daubed across the front of the building and windows smashed with hammers, in what protesters claimed was the fourth such protest at the plant since September 2020.
The front gates were chained shut by activists, and one of their numbers was seen waving the Palestinian flag from the main building’s flat roof.
The plant, owned by Israeli firm Elbit Systems UK, has been repeatedly targeted by activists who claim the factory is involved in the supply of parts for drones used by the Israeli military against Palestinians.
Palestine Action asserted an earlier three-day “rooftop occupation” on the site in September 2020 had cost the firm £145,000.
In a statement following its latest “direct action”, Palestine Action said the group, formed in August 2020, would not rest until Elbit’s “chain of weapons factories are hounded out of the UK”.
The protest comes after the Ministry of Defence confirmed last month that Elbit had won a £102 million contract for new “sensor-to-shooter” surveillance system, which feeds real-time battlefield targeting information to infantry, aircraft and artillery.