- Activists from Palestine Action occupied an Elbit Systems drone engine factory in Lichfield, UK, demanding its closure due to its role in producing drone engines for surveillance and bombings over Gaza.
- This factory, one of eight Elbit facilities in the UK, has been accused of manufacturing engines for the Hermes 450 drone, linked to war crimes, highlighting the intersection of commerce, geopolitics, and human rights in the Palestinian crisis.
Last week members of the Palestine Action group protested outside a drone engine manufacturing facility located in Lichfield, United Kingdom, which is owned by the Israeli company Elbit Systems. Their compelling demand for the factory’s immediate closure is rooted in its complicity in the production of drone engines employed in surveillance and airstrikes over Gaza. This particular facility is one among the eight operated by Elbit Systems in the United Kingdom and fabricates engines for the Hermes 450 drone, which has been linked to war crimes.
With the closure of two Elbit facilities (London and Manchester) following earlier protests, the activists hope to shut all of the sites down.
Amongst the activists is Martin Lynch who persists in his fervent opposition to what he “demands the closure of this death factory…it produced the engines for the drones of Gaza as we speak” thus bringing into sharp focus the intricate nexus of commerce, geopolitics, and human rights in the context of the Palestinian crisis. they are involved in surveillance but also in actual bombing.
“It’s an absolute obscenity that this factory should be here. It’s owned by Elbit Systems which has eight facilities in the UK,” Lynch said. “I’m glad to say that they’ve lost two of them. They were forced to close their Manchester factory as a result of protests and they’ve closed their London headquarters.”
Sophie, another activist who was present at the protest said, “Those drones fly over the skies of Gaza 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Outside of what the horrific situation that’s currently happening now, they’ve been surveilling the captive population of Gaza for years and then of course the Israeli military use that information to specifically target people and as we’ve seen in the news recently, they use that information to target hospitals and to target schools,” she said. “They know exactly how many people how many refugees are sheltering in hospitals before they target them because of the information that they get from these drones.”
