Violence against Israeli defense cos in UK escalates

Over the past year the UK has become one of the European countries in which the struggle against Israel and the war in Gaza has become the most violent, with Israeli defense companies, their subsidiaries, corporations and banks with any connection to Israel, and anyone connected to Israel’s military being targeted. An investigation published earlier this week in “The Sunday Times” revealed the scope of the anti-Israel campaign with more than 170 incidents over the past year, and new details about the organization behind them, which calls itself Palestine Action. “The group has caused millions of pounds worth of damage,” the newspaper estimated, “and has no intention of stopping.”

One of the incidents that received widespread coverage was the violent takeover last December of the offices of Teledyne Labtech last December – one of 16 Elbit Systems subsidiaries in the UK, according to the newspaper. The pro-Palestinian group, which is very active on social media, organized a partial siege by blocking the access roads to the factory. Other activists broke into the company’s offices using sledgehammers and filmed and shared online how they had destroyed computers and workstations. The newspaper stressed that this was a company that supplies equipment to the British army. Some of the company’s employees who were there fled as the activists threw smoke grenades.

The four arrested during the operation revealed Palestine Action’s links to radical left-wing UK organizations, and the connection to environmental organization Extinction Rebellion, which in the past has tried to disrupt public life in European cities by vandalizing public buildings, blocking roads, chaining themselves to buildings, and more, in the name of protecting the climate.

The main victims: the British public and the military

“The Sunday Times” estimated that 170 incidents over the past year caused by Palestine Action had cost the British taxpayer millions of pounds “and affected factories that supply defense equipment to the Royal Navy and the British military.” In total, the group has taken responsibility for 356 cases since it was founded in July 2020. In 2020, there were “only” 17 attacks.

Some of the incidents have been featured by the UK media, the most recent of which occurred over the past week, when the entrance to the Allianz insurance company headquarters in London was vandalized, and a large sign was hung up calling on it to “get rid of Elbit.” In June, the head office of Barclays Bank was also attacked, after the group accused it of holding shares in Israeli defense companies. Those defense companies themselves, such as Elbit and Rafael, and companies linked to the F-35 fighter jet project, like Lockheed Martin have also been attacked as well as accounting firms, universities and public buildings, which it is suspected have ties to Israel and especially to Israeli defense companies. In one case, last November, the group’s activists vandalized the statue of Chaim Weizmann, the first president of the State of Israel, at the University of Manchester.

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The group’s aim is “to remove all Israeli weapons factories from Britain,” as an official spokesman told “The Sunday Times”, and the group promised that the attacks would increase. Sources who criticized the group’s activities clarified in an interview with the newspaper that those who are affected are British taxpayers and the British defense sector, where some of the 148 companies that have been targeted in recent years operate.

Demonstrations against the supply of weapons to Israel have also taken place in other European countries, from Spain to Denmark, but the organization’s violent activities distinguish it from others and have led to calls for tougher action against it.

A Palestinian and environmental activist: Who is behind the organization?

Palestine Action was founded about five years ago by Richard Barnard and Huda Ammori. Ammori has said in an interview that her father is Palestinian, and that her grandfather was killed by the British in 1936 in the Great Arab Revolt against the Mandate rule. Barnard, on the other hand, was one of the main activists in the radical environmental organization Extinction Rebellion. While the group initially targeted the headquarters of Elbit’s UK subsidiary, over the years and after the October 7 attacks it spread to many other companies. 148 companies, including Britain’s BAE Systems, Italy’s Leonardo and more, have been targeted by the group.

Polls show that public opinion in Britain has turned against Israel since October 7. This has enabled Palestine Action to recruit many activists, and hold “training days” in London, Birmingham, Liverpool and Glasgow, where it instructs on how to carry out “resistance actions.” Among other things, it has carried out 13 such actions against a real estate company that rents properties to an Elbit subsidiary in Birmingham.

The UK government’s announcement last summer that it would immediately freeze about 30 export licenses for defense components to Israel due to the risk of “violating international law”, did not change the group’s course of action. While on the legal side, various pro-Palestinian organizations are petitioning the court demanding an extension of the partial embargo, and are focusing on the F-35 project, the group announced that it would intensify its activities in the coming year.

“They called us child murderers, and spat on us at work”

A former UK government official interviewed by “The Sunday Times” said that “the high number of attacks shows the industrial scale of the group’s attempts to sabotage the British defense industry, terrorize workers and leave our country weaker.”

British police have used anti-terrorism laws to arrest the group’s activists. In 2022, prosecutions brought eight verdicts against members of the group, and in 2023 the number rose to 48. In total, since its inception, there have been 118 convictions against members of the group, 38 acquittals and 24 cases are still ongoing. Four of the attackers of the Elbit subsidiary in December have been charged and all four have expressed remorse for their activities.

Workers at one of the defense companies told the newspaper that the protests were disrupting their lives. “We have been called child murderers, and spat on when we arrived at work… They tried to take pictures of us and beat hard on our cars.” In one of the group’s most audacious attacks, it used a former prisoner transport vehicle to drive through the gates of Elbit’s Bristol subsidiary, and activists vandalized the front of the building. Two police officers and a security guard were injured in the incident. They also broke into a company that makes F-35 jet ejection seats and vandalized its offices.

Next month, a trial is expected to begin against Barnard, one of the group’s founders. He is charged with supporting Hamas after encouraging public support for the organization during public speeches. He will also be charged with encouraging criminal activity after calling for attacks on factories linked to Israeli defense companies.

Elbit told the newspaper that the company is responsible for employing hundreds of British workers, and that it “strongly condemns this campaign of violence and intimidation by a criminal group.”

Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on March 11, 2025.

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2025.