On January 23rd, activists targeted Kelvinside Electronics in Glasgow, spraying the interior with red paint and leaving signs that read: “Drop Leonardo Contract” and “Don’t Profit from Genocide”:
Kelvinside Electronics: complicit
Kelvinside Electronics has supplied services for both Leonardo and Thales.
Leonardo, one of the worlds largest arms manufacturers, has close ties to the Israeli state and to the Israeli based Elbit Systems, a major supplier of the Israeli army. The Edinburgh site manufactures the laser-targeting systems for F-35 fighter jets, the model used by Israel to bomb Gaza.
Thales UK is also closely linked to Elbit Systems, with whom it produces the Watchkeeper drone.
In July the International Court of Justice (ICJ) set out clear obligations for UN states. This includes; not supporting Israel’s unlawful acts and the unlawful situation it has created in the Occupied Palestinian Territories; and ensuring Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law, or the laws of war.
A spokesperson for the activists said “Leonardo and Thales do not supply weapons systems to Israel in isolation – they require a network of inter-company contracts to function. By targeting Kelvinside Electronics we are directly responding to calls from Palestine to disrupt the supply chain of arms from Scotland to Israel”:
It is unconscionable to profit from genocide and human suffering. Boycott Thales and Leonardo. Don’t make Scotland a hospitable place for the business of war and colonialism.
Israel’s aggression continues despite the so-called ceasefire
Although a fragile ceasefire has taken effect in Gaza, Israeli aggression has intensified in the Occupied West Bank.
While 90 Palestinian captives were released on the first day of the ceasefire, just as many were arrested by Israeli forces in the West Bank in the following 24 hours. As one of his first acts in office, Donald Trump has dropped sanctions on extremist settler organisations and individuals, giving tacit support to further illegal land grabs. And on Tuesday the 21st January the Israeli military launched a large scale attack on the city of Jenin.
A spokesperson for the activists said:
After a 15 month war of extermination on the people of Gaza, we welcome the news of a ceasefire with cautious hope, but not complacency. Israel has repeatedly violated the terms of the ceasefire, it continues to bomb Lebanon, Syria and Yemen and only days after the agreement has killed at least 10 and injured 70 in airstrikes on Jenin in the Occupied West Bank.
Extremist settler organisations are planning land grabs in North Gaza and South Lebanon; we fear we are witnessing the next phase of a genocidal logic. Just as Israeli oppression is not going to end with this ceasefire, we will not stop taking action to disrupt Scottish complicity in the war machine. Free Palestine.
Featured image supplied
