Activists Break Into UK-Based Israeli-Owned Arms Firm

Date: 17 June 2024 - 22:03

News ID: ۱۲۸۴۲۲

LONDON (Dispatches) – Pro-Palestinian activists broken into a UK-based Israeli-owned arms manufacturer, which provides weapon parts for the Israeli military amid its ongoing genocidal war against the Gaza Strip.
It took place on Monday by members of Palestine Action, a UK-wide network of activists which focuses on “direct action” to try to disrupt and shut down arms makers that are headquartered in the country and contribute to the Israeli regime’s deadly aggression against Palestinians.
The activists cut their way through three security fences at Instro Precision, a factory located in Kent in southeastern UK, which makes “weapons sight and target acquisition products” for the Israeli military. Specializing in military-grade electro-optical equipment, Instro is a major exporter to the Israeli regime and its products are likely to be used in ground invasion in Gaza, Palestine Action says.
During their operation, the activists smashed a glass door and stormed the factory, where they began destroying equipment.
Kent Online, a news outlet, cited the group as saying that it was “dismantling technology, machinery, and parts used to produce weapons of war in a bid to prevent the export of arms to Gaza.”
“Some [activists] also laid stinger spike strips at the roads leading to the factory to prevent any vehicles from entering,” the outlet reported.
The development comes as the chief executive of London-based charity organization Oxfam has censured the UK as “intellectually and morally incoherent” over supplying arms to the Zionist regime while attempting to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza.
“Whether you say they are components or whole weapons [being sold] is a moot point, because individual components collectively constitute these devices that are killing so many innocent people,” Halima Begum said in an interview with the British daily newspaper The Guardian.
“The UK needs to stop selling these arms. The government can’t simultaneously give humanitarian aid and talk about its aspirations for peace in the region, then also ship bombs – it’s intellectually and morally incoherent.
“That the law doesn’t prevent the trade seems immaterial. If you knowingly sell weapons that are being used to kill thousands of innocent children and their parents, why would you continue?” she added.
Begum, who has recently returned from a work trip to the occupied Palestinian territories and was unable to enter Gaza because of the aggression on Rafah, said she was left “shell shocked” after hearing first-hand accounts of the humanitarian crisis from Palestinian colleagues evacuated from the territory.
“Gazan children are being bombed, suffering from malnutrition and facing potential famine and the UK still can’t constrain the Israeli military. It defies belief we’d support this action, our humanity seems to be seeping away.”