Palestine Action has done it again and hit a cog in the machinery of Israel’s ongoing genocide – this time, a specialty metal alloys facility in Scotland.
Palestine Action Scotland: Righton Blackburns’ supply chain links to Israel
In the early hour of Friday 25 April, an autonomous group acting under the banner of Palestine Action Scotland targeted metals and plastics supplier Righton Blackburns.
The group said they targeted the company’s service centre on Fullarton Drive, Shettleston, because it is a link in the supply chain for companies in Scotland. This includes Leonardo and Thales – two companies that provide Israel with parts for arms it has used to attack Palestinians.
Activists smashed the the atrium and windows of the 20,000 square foot facility which houses Righton Blackburns:
BREAKING: Actionists target Righton Blackburns facility in Glasgow, metal suppliers to weapons companies arming Israel, including Leonardo and Thales.
We will break every link in the genocidal supply chain. pic.twitter.com/3sjRXJDgwE
— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) April 26, 2025
They sprayed red paint across the exterior and inside the building. A slogan reading “Drop Thales and Leonardo” was graffitied over its walls.
Righton Blackburns supplies aerospace and defence companies with speciality alloys that have military applications.
Notably, its customers include Thales, BAE Systems, and Leonardo. Local residents across Scotland have kept up the pressure against these genocide complicit companies in regular blockades since October 2023.
Leonardo manufactures parts for Apache helicopters and targeting systems for F-35 fighter jets. Israel has used these to bomb Gaza. Meanwhile, French company Thales, in Govan, designs the Watchkeeper drone. These are the drones that Israel uses to surveil Palestinians. BAE Systems works closely with Israeli weapons firm Plasan.
Supplying the aerospace and defence industry: complicit in genocide
The group that carried out Friday’s action said in a statement:
We are ordinary local residents taking direct action against the bloody supply chain enabling Israel’s genocide of Palestinians. Anyone similarly horrified by this state of affairs could do as we have done.
Our governments are not only standing by while a genocidal campaign is carried out in plain sight, but is actively supplying the armaments that enable Israel’s disgusting crimes against humanity. Marching from A to B to ask politely for change is no longer sufficient for people of conscience. We are all complicit. Our actions on Friday morning were not a protest, but a direct intervention to disrupt the flow of weaponry and surveillance equipment.
Israel’s overt goal of exterminating Palestinians is made possible by facilities such as Righton Blackburns, from where vital parts are distributed to the assembly lines of Leonardo and Thales that make the planes, drones and weapons that are tearing the limbs off civilians and beheading Palestinian children even as you read this.
Responding to the call from within Palestine, and inspired by decades of Palestinian resistance, we will not allow these horrors to be enabled and perpetrated by companies operating from inside our communities in Glasgow – communities that overwhelmingly oppose Israel’s crimes. Until companies such as Righton Blackburns remove themselves from the supply chain that arms Israel, they will remain a target.
