UK-based arms manufacturer Elbit Systems has been repeatedly targeted by pro-Palestine activists for years. It’s over its supplying of weapons to Israel – which end up killing Palestinian people. However, amid Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza activists have stepped up their campaign. Now, one group has turned to ‘subvertising’ to raise awareness of just what Elbit do.
Subvertising to stop Israel’s genocide
This week, activists from Extinction Rebellion Youth Bristol (XRYB) opened bus stop advert frames and replaced the adverts with anti-Elbit designs that they made. The designs tell you how many bus stops from the Elbit Systems in Bristol you are:
In addition XRYB fly posted around the city with two other poster designs:
A QR code on the posters allow people to further find out about Elbit Systems, XRYB, and how to get involved in protests for Palestine.
This kind of direct action is called subvertising:
Subvertising (a portmanteau of subvert and advertising) is the practice of making spoofs or parodies of corporate and political advertisements. The cultural critic Mark Dery coined the term in 1991. Subvertisements are anti-ads that deflect advertising’s attempts to turn the people’s attention in a given direction. According to author Naomi Klein, subvertising offers a way of speaking back to advertising, ‘forcing a dialogue where before there was only a declaration.’ They may take the form of a new image or an alteration to an existing image or icon, often in a satirical manner.
Subvertising against Elbit is a crucial part of the fight against it – for good reason, too.
Elbit: a national and international disgrace
Elbit is Israel’s largest privately owned weapons manufacturer. They manufacture bullets, drones, combat vehicles, electronic warfare systems and missiles. They produce 85% of the land based equipment and drones used by the Israeli military. Less than three weeks ago, one of its Hermes 450 drone was used to target cars taking food to Gaza, killing seven World Central Kitchen aid workers.
Despite Elbit Systems UK being wholly owned by its parent company in Israel, the company often attempt to disassociate themselves from their parent company and global brand.
However, during Elbit’s annual investor conference 2024 in Israel, CEO Bezhalel Machlis stated that all Elbit companies in the UK are a significant part of the Israeli weapons firm who frequently work with their counterparts in Israel and share technology.
In the same conference, a video was displayed of workers saying they feel like ‘civil soldiers’ and regularly engage in ongoing debriefs with the Israeli military during the use of their weapons in Gaza.
A spokesperson for XRYB said:
These weapons are being used for genocide in Palestine and being made so close to us. We need to remind people of this and sit in the discomfort of that because that is the first step to changing things.
Featured image and additional images via XRYB
