Palestine Action has hit offices of another institution – Scottish Enterprise – propping up Israel’s genocide in Gaza – in five separate locations across the UK all at once. This time, activists were calling out this key arm of the Scottish government for its ongoing complicity with major companies supplying arms to the genocidal state.
Scottish Enterprise Palestine Action target the Scottish government over its complicity
On Monday 7 April, Palestine Action activists splashed their signature red paint across the entrances of five Scottish Enterprise offices in Dundee, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Glenrothes, and London.
In Glasgow, activists left no entrance pillar uncovered at its site at Atrium Court on Waterloo Road:
Activists rendered the entrance inoperable in the most effective way – smashing the glass panels in the doors:
Of course, the damage pales in comparison to the utter devastating scale of destruction Israel has wrought in Gaza. So the group’s action was there to call this out, with spray-painted messages daubed across the building’s frontage:
Scottish Enterprise’s office in London got the Palestine Action treatment as well:
They left messages like “Scottish Enterprise funds genocide” over its building in Glenrothes:
BREAKING: Palestine Action target the Glenrothes office of Scottish Enterprise.
The government body funds Israeli weaponry manufacturers through public funds.
Overnight, five of their offices in Scotland and London were hit. pic.twitter.com/5wGkx99JBg
— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) April 7, 2025
Scottish Enterprise is just the latest in Palestine Action’s long list of genocide-complicit targets. Notably, as the business-granting body of the devolved Scottish Government, funded by Scottish tax revenues, it has supported some of the most notorious arms companies supplying Israel.
Freedom of Information requests by Amnesty International have revealed that Scottish Enterprise has provided millions to multiple major arms corporations. This includes £159,125 in grants to Leonardo UK since October 2023, and £9,247,974 to Leonardo UK and Thales UK collectively from 2015 to 2023.
Leonardo, Thales, and Elbit: manufacturers for Israel’s genocide
Leonardo UK makes laser targeting systems for F-35 jets, which have been used extensively in Gaza by Israel. The company has stated how its Edinburgh site is “home” to its:
world-leading laser capability, with our engineers meeting around 80% of the global demand for high-energy military lasers. The targeting laser on the new F-35 stealth fighter is one of the applications developed by our UK engineering team.
Leonardo also supplies Israel with Aermacchi M-346 aircrafts. As of January 2023, Leonardo acquired Israeli defence company RADA Electronic Industries. It’s a manufacturer of tactical radar equipment.
Meanwhile, Thales UK is closely linked to Israel’s biggest weapons maker Elbit Systems. Together, the two companies produce the Watchkeeper drone, modelled on Elbit’s infamous Hermes 450 drone, advertised as “battle-tested on Palestinians”.
Thales also partners with Elbit under their joint venture ‘UAV Tactical Systems’ which operates in a factory the companies co-own in Leicester. The company uses this site to export equipment for military drones to Israel.
Scottish Enterprise flying under the radar of complicity no more, thanks to Palestine Action
Scottish Enterprise has yet to have any meaningful discussions about changing its policy on giving grants to defence companies linked to the Israeli genocide.
The Scottish government has claimed that it has given no grants to the manufacture of arms in Scotland. Instead it claimed that the funding Scottish Enterprise awarded “supported research, training and apprenticeships”. However, Amnesty’s 2022 FOI request to SE details a grant awarded to Thales for:
support to develop two new and distinct products with application and interest to defence
Moreover, Amnesty has revealed that Scottish Enterprise’s so-called ‘human rights checks’ on arms companies do not meaningfully take account of where the products are used.
In May 2024, Campaign Against Arms Trade stated how:
each arms company that has received funding from the Scottish government [via SE] are also profiting from, and exporting arms to, countries on the FCO’s Human Rights Priority list.
According to Amnesty:
Money from Scottish Enterprise could directly or indirectly find its way into the supply chain sending weapons for use in the conflict in Gaza…the supply chain of arms is complex, with some companies selling component parts to one country – such as the US – for them to be assembled into planes and sold on to others.
Scottish Enterprise hide their complicity behind the complexity of arms industry supply chains, and the vague and imprecise technical jargon of their grants remits, to deflect legitimate criticism as misinformed, and launder their funding of the arms industry as innocent.
The Scottish government can’t hide from its role in genocide
The Scottish Government pretends to differentiate itself from Westminster asking them to cease supplying arms to Israel. It does so whilst implying that its own hands are tied. This is a disingenuous way to deflect from their multimillion-pound funding of the Zionist genocide.
Palestine Action calls it out for the shameful tactic it is to divert protest activity away from the Scottish government’s own doorstep. That it, it’s attempting to redirect it from where it can be effective, towards a more distant, and nebulous target.
A spokesperson for Palestine Action said:
Despite the Scottish Government’s “talk” about an arms embargo, they have been using our tax money to fund arms companies profiting from the wholesale bombing of Palestine. Since the Scottish Government’s actions boost this genocidal industry, we have decided that all Scottish Enterprise offices will be targeted until they stop giving grants to the weapons manufacturers, Thales and Leonardo. We will take back via property damage every penny Scottish Enterprise uses to fund Palestinian genocide, making them think twice about writing another stimulus cheque to these companies. We will make sure this is not a friendly place for genocidal business growth. Free Palestine.
Palestine Action Scotland intend to starve the logistical, financial, and political ecosystem that supports Leonardo and Thales in Scotland. It intends to keep up the pressure in order to force them to shut their sites. The direct action of property damage to Scottish Enterprise’s sites is a strategy to make the so-called ‘economic gains’ of expanding in Scotland not worth the costs.
Feature image and additional images via Palestine Action/Siobhan Chalmers
