‘Israel’-backing arms firm Thales chased out of Queen’s University event

Local activists have prevented supporters of Israel’s genocide and French purveyor of mass murder Thales from giving a talk at a Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) conference. The weapons manufacturer had been set to give a talk at the NI Blockchain event at the university’s Computer Science building. However, around 25 anti-genocide campaigners stormed the room and ensured the presentation could not take place. Embarrassed organisers swiftly ushered attendees out, leaving activists free to hang up Palestine flags and plaster the place with ‘boycott Israeli apartheid’ stickers.

Thales are well known to have links to the ‘Israeli’ military. Until very recently, they produced various drones through its then subsidiary UTacS, which was jointly owned by Elbit Systems. Elbit is the backbone of the genocidal settler-colony’s weapons industry. Thales recently sold UTacS to the Zionist arms firm.

Strong links between Thales and Israel

In a report entitled “Exposed: The UK firms supplying Elbit Systems”, the always excellent Declassified UK reported on how:

Thales in Crawley has exported radar components to Elbit in Haifa. On 6 November 2025, the company also sent an “I-Master airborne surveillance radar” to Israel.

The I-Master “delivers all-weather surveillance, pattern of life monitoring, change detection and wide area-coverage”, according to Thales. “It detects and locates moving and stationary targets at long stand-off ranges over land and sea”.

It was exported under the ML5b licence, according to the shipping document, which covers “target acquisition, designation, range-finding, surveillance or tracking systems”.

Thales claim the materials it sends to the settler-colony are:

…intended for re-exporting purposes to a European end user.

Declassified UK point out how meaningless this is, as the British government does not have a means of checking whether Israeli Genocide Forces use anything sent to so-called ‘Israel’.

This shipment seems to directly contradict a statement Thales gave in December 2025, in which they said:

Thales has not delivered any defence equipment, or any equipment enabling the operation of a defence system, to the Israeli armed forces or to Israeli manufacturers.

Thales has not exported any weapon or any lethal system to the Israeli armed forces, either directly or through third-party manufacturers.

This was in the wake of opposition from parents who opposed local schools partnering with the criminal company to boost its recruitment. Thales also has a factory in East Belfast which is a regular target for pro-Palestine protesters.

Students call for QUB to end its complicity

The protest at QUB was led by Connolly Youth Movement activists. In a statement, they said:

Anti-imperialists from the Connolly Youth Movement, QUB Palestine Assembly and BDS Belfast, disrupted Thales’ talk at the conference and the war criminals immediately packed up and left. These arms manufacturers raise millions in profits off the back of genocide and have no place on our campuses.

This shows the power of collective, direct actions which ensure that these vultures have no room to breathe. This action is part of a long-running campaign to pressure QUB to sever all its links with Zionism and arms manufacturers, driving them off our campus and divesting from all complicit institutions.

The university continues to partner with these vile merchants of death. At a protest in October 2025, students highlighted its ongoing relationship with BAE Systems, which helps to manufacture the F-35 warplane used to murder innocent Palestinians. They said:

Queen’s boasts of “Partnering with BAE Systems on video based semantic analysis of crowd behaviour” and provides placements for students.

They also highlighted similar arrangements with Caterpillar, notorious for supplying the bulldozers used to wreck Palestinian homes. QUB also insists on maintaining indirect investments in ‘Israeli’ companies.

But we’re still not done – despite cutting ties with Epstein associate and alleged rapist George Mitchell, the university persists in keeping fellow Epstein fraterniser Hillary Clinton as chancellor. The former US secretary of state is a perpetual warmonger and committed Zionist. QUB’s continued backing of Clinton, and its support for ‘Israel’ – a practitioner of mass sexual abuse – shows it does not care about basic morality, truth, or even its own reputation.

It is instead an institution that cares only about money and proximity to power, even if it’s done on the backs of rape victims and dead Palestinians.

Featured image via the Canary