Palestine Action just SHUT DOWN the UK’s largest arms exporter to Israel

Direct action group Palestine Action has once again physically stopped the manufacture of weapons going to Israel – this time, from Teledyne. These are the arms that the country uses to kill Palestinians in its ongoing genocide in Gaza – the same weapons the UK government has so far refused to ban exports of.

Palestine Action: shutting down the UK’s largest arms exporter to Israel

Palestine Action occupied the Shipley factory of Teledyne Defence and Space in Bradford, halting activity at the site from which vast exports of military electronics and munitions components are made to Israel each year:

Breaching security, the activists scaled the factory to take the roof, forcing the site closed and rendering it unable to fulfil its shipment of weapons parts to be used in the Gaza genocide:

Police were present – but as of 10am on 2 April they had not arrested anyone from the group and the action was still ongoing:

Police drone up looking for criminals, but they’re searching in the wrong place as none of them could get to work today because we SHUT DOWN the American weapons factory.

Join us at Teledyne, Shipley, BD17 7SW pic.twitter.com/gany7fL4Qi

— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) April 2, 2024

Huge killing operations

The site, between 2009 and 2014, was granted at least 86 licenses for the export of weapons to Israel – mostly for ‘ML11’-category military electronics equipment, and ‘ML4’ category explosive weapons, munitions, or parts therefor.

After 2014, the company’s sales and licensing was handled by the parent company ‘Teledyne UK’, which continued to export vast quantities of ML4 and ML11 weapons to Israel as part of its 48 export licenses granted between 2014 and 2020.

The American company Teledyne has a $5.6bn yearly turnover and is, along with its subsidiary ev2, the largest exporter (by volume of licenses granted) of weaponry from Britain to Israel. A significant proportion of the company’s almost 200 export licenses for weapons and weapons parts to the US, 2009-2020, will also form into finished products ultimately exported to Israel.

Teledyne Defence and Space, Shipley, manufactures key components for missile systems – specifically missile filters – which will comprise the ML4 exports made yearly from the site.

Teledyne Defence and Space boasts of its involvement with missile products procured by Israel including the AGM-Harpoon, AIM-120 AMRAAM, and AGM-114 Hellfire missiles deployed by Israel against Gaza – the latter reportedly being used to strike Al-Shifa hospital. Teledyne Defence and Space also produces components for the American’s Tomahawk and Patriot missiles, deployed by US forces against Yemen.

The site also produces parts, including filters and multi-function assemblies, for UAVs (drones) and aircraft, along with radar systems including the AN/APG-81 (AESA) type fitted in Lockheed Martin F-35 Fighter jets.

A history of supplying Israel

Teledyne Defence and Space, which is solely based in Shipley, has sales representatives in Tel Aviv. Shipley-made products can be seen advertised by Ormic Components, the sales company, for the Israeli military market.

Teledyne, the parent company, also produces image sensors for military applications, and radar technologies around the borders of the occupied West Bank and Gaza, while also providing armed UAVs to Israel as far back as 1973.

This is not the first time that Palestine Action have struck at a Teledyne site, having dismantled its Presteigne, Wales, ‘Teledyne Labtech’ factory in 2022 and causing £1m in losses.

Featured image and additional images via Palestine Action