LONDON (Dispatches) --
Palestine Action celebrated victory after the occupying regime of Israel’s weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems UK publicly announced on that it sold its Elbit Ferranti factory in Oldham.
While Elbit claimed the sale was part of a restructuring strategy in the United Kingdom, Palestine Action said that their sustained protests over a period of 18 months were the reason behind the sale.
The group has sprayed the premises of the factory with blood-red paint, smashed windows and occupied the entry to the factory.
According to Palestine Action, since August 2020 when it started its protests, the Oldham factory suffered damages in the “millions”.
“Our actions have undermined and disrupted operations - but this news vindicates our long-term strategy,” said Palestine Action in a statement.
“Direct action works - the brave individuals who occupied the factory over the past year can proudly say that drone technologies are no longer in production in Oldham.”
The activist group said that 36 people were arrested since their campaign started but no one has been charged with a crime or prosecuted yet.
The Elbit Ferranti factory in Oldham is one of 10 owned by Elbit in the UK. A majority of it was sold to British firm TT Electronics for $12 million.
When it announced the sale, Elbit did not mention anything about Palestine Action and claims its decision was based on consolidating its position in the market.
The remaining parts of the company will be integrated into Elbit Systems UK.
Elbit is well known for producing drones and is responsible for 80 percent of the Zionist regime’s military drones.
The Israeli company’s products have been used to target Palestinians in Gaza and equip the occupying regime’s apartheid wall with surveillance technology.
Elbit UK claimed in a second press release that the sale was merely the company “consolidating its market position.”
But Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori told The Electronic Intifada that the sale was “an absolutely tremendous victory” which she said “shows the power of the people when they come together.”
Ammori said that while the occupying regime of Israel’s arms trade benefits from being partly based in Britain, this would “also be their biggest downfall because the people here will not stand for it.”
She said her group plans to “continue our direct action campaign, targeting all of Elbit’s sites until they’re forced out of Britain for good.”
As recently as November, the Ferranti factory appeared to be facing an abrupt shutdown and job losses.
Oldham council listed Ferranti’s building on its website as one of “the commercial properties currently available” in the town, touting it as “the perfect location for businesses wanting flexible office space.”
Reached by The Electronic Intifada via phone, a council spokesperson in November denied the business was shutting down, saying that the listing was “an old link” from around six years ago.
Soon after the phone call, the page was deleted from Oldham council’s website.
Palestine Action says that the same month anonymous sources revealed to the group “that mass redundancy notices had been issued to staff working at the factory, and that premises were being cleared in preparation for Elbit leaving the site.”
Last month a jury acquitted three Palestine Action activists of criminal damage at another Elbit site in Shenstone near Birmingham.
The activists successfully argued that while their actions constituted damage to the factory, it was not criminal damage.
Rather, they argued that their actions were proportionate to prevent a much bigger crime – that of Israeli violence against Palestinians such as the Zionist regime’s bombardment of Gaza in May.