Disarm Bristol blockade Israeli weapons factory Elbit Systems

On 5 December, 70 people from Bristol anti-war and Palestine solidarity groups demonstrated outside of an Elbit Systems weapons factory in Filton.

The facility, which anti-war activists have targeted numerous times in the last two years, manufactures drones that the Israeli state uses in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Protest with a message

The protest was loud and energetic, featuring a sound system, drumming, chanting, Palestinian flags and large banners proclaiming ‘Stop arming genocide’ and ‘Disarm Bristol’.

Protestors read testimonies of Palestinians enduring the horrors of living under Israeli attack.

They also read messages from the hunger strikers currently incarcerated awaiting trial for alleged direct actions against Elbit and the Brize Norton RAF base.

Elbit ‘battle-testing’ weapons in Gaza

One demonstrator said:

We take this action against Elbit for the Palestinians and those on hunger strike in British jails. Despite the UK government claiming to have suspended arms licenses to Israel and thousands of people demonstrating in the streets, weapons continue to flow from Bristol. We take this collective action today because Elbit Systems, as Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer, is directly participating in Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people. Elbit’s stocks have soared whilst they boast their military drones are ‘battled-tested‘ in Gaza. Yet we know from eye-witness accounts of doctors in Gaza that these weapons are targeting and killing children. Bristolians will not sit idly by as Elbit stains our beloved city by linking us directly to the genocide.

Prisoners of conscience

There are currently at least 33 people in British jails for allegedly taking part in pro-Palestine direct action. Some of them have now been in detention for almost eighteen months awaiting trial. Six of these have been on hunger strike since early November. Their health is deteriorating dangerously as two (Amu Gib and Qesser Zuhrah) are now on their 34th day without food. There is very little in the press about their fight.

The hunger strikers have five demands:

1. End censorship and to be able to send and receive communications without restriction, surveillance, or interference from the prison administration.

2. Immediate bail now. Many of the hunger strikers have been held on remand for almost 2 years in an unprecedented abuse of the legal system.

3. Right to a fair trial. All relevant documents related to the hunger strikers’ cases must be released in full. This includes all meetings between British and Israeli state officials, the British police, the attorney general and Elbit Systems representatives.

4. De-proscribe Palestine Action. The government’s use of counter-terror laws to target those engaged in protest and direct action is unjustified and unprecedented, and must be stopped.

5. Shut Elbit Down. Elbit’s factories on UK soil directly link our Government, our taxes and us to the Genocide.

Another protestor stated:

Since 7 Oct 2023, cautious estimates of the number of Palestinians killed at Israel’s hand run into the hundreds of thousands.

We can’t stay silent as Israel commits war crimes by starving the entire population. This is a community-led response to the ongoing horror.

For the last two years, we have used our bodies to block workers and deliveries and disrupt business as usual for arms companies profiting from genocide.

As each day passes the genocide takes a higher toll.

Closer to home, the hunger strikers are literally wasting away as the media, the political class and polite society remain silent.

Today’s action in part amplifies the words of hunger striker Teuta Hoxha:

Our demands are simple and I want it stated for the record that our collective strike should only be interpreted as a will to live, using nothing but our hunger to resist the imperial war machine.

We are prepared to push to the very end for these rights. Any harm we sustain lies at the door of the government. Please act.

Featured image via Carry On Screening / Instagram