In the late spring of 2021, a small group of protestors wearing red boiler suits smashed the windows of a factory just off the A62 before making their way inside. This was the first time any protestor had ever got in. During this first foray into the bowels of the factory, (allegedly) £100,000 worth of damage was caused. Activists (allegedly) destroyed several invaluable computers with thick red paint, occupied the roof and held the site down for an entire day before being pulled off the roof by police. They uncovered pro-war propaganda on the walls aimed at the Oldham factory’s workers, many of whom did not know what the factory was producing. Five activists were arrested and charged with criminal damage, held for between fifteen hours and over a day by the police and were eventually released with suffocating bail conditions. 

The protestors in question were from Palestine Action, a group whose aim is to end the complicity of Britain in the subjugation of Palestine, and the factory was one of ten in the UK belonging to Elbit Systems, the Israeli weapons manufacturers responsible for producing 85% of Israeli drones and complicit in the murder of thousands of Palestinians. The events of spring 2021 were part of eighteen months of direct action against the Elbit factory in Oldham carried out by Palestine Action. Palestine Action would regularly shut down Elbit factories for the day, occupying the roofs, holding down the site, waiting for the evening arrests. 

This sustained level of resistance against Britain’s complicity in the arms trade has required a huge pool of protestors willing to be arrested. Many protestors were only able to carry out one action before having bail conditions imposed on them which demanded they not “attend or partake in any demonstration organised by or in support of’’ Palestine Action or go within 100 metres of any building owned or leased by Elbit. A continuous rotation of new activists would filter through the movement before being forced to take a step back. Planning, occupation, arrests. And so the cycle seemed set to continue. 

Then, in January 2022, Elbit announced that it was closing its Oldham Factory. 

Elbit have left the building 

This has been a huge victory not just for Palestine Action but also for the local community who have been coming out every Tuesday to protest having a death factory on their doorstep, and for campaigning groups such as Oldham Peace and Justice. Celebratory signs have been posted around the perimeter- “ladies and gentlemen, Elbit have left the building. Thang u veh much”. 

This is a story that emphasises the power of the people, one that proves that direct action works. But Elbit’s withdrawal from Oldham has not come easy. Sustained protests every week, the support of the local community, thirty-six arrests, hundreds of collective hours where activists remained chained on the roof, local children pleading “please stop, stop the fighting”, were all necessary conditions for this breakthrough to occur. Activists have sacrificed a lot- left waiting for trial, their charge sheet hanging over their heads for months and sometimes close to years. The Palestine Action founders, Huda Ammori and Richard Barnard, have faced ridiculous state-sanctioned intimidation attempts, such as in April 2021 where the police charged Barnard with blackmail for threatening to hunger-strike against Elbit’s landlords, charges that were unceremoniously thrown out of court at the first opportunity. Their passports have been confiscated. They have been stopped and interrogated for hours at the border, and the word “terrorism” has been thrown around by the authorities against them- a little reminder of just what the state can do if it feels like it. And still- despite being buoyed up by their Big Pal Big State-  Elbit Systems, the $7.14 billion Goliath, will not face their David where they want to be faced: in the courtroom.

The accused become the accusers 

Political trials are all about sleight of hand. One of their defining features is the ability to fundamentally shift who is on trial and for what- to bring political discourse into the courtroom. They are arenas of sacrifice, a distillation of the Goliath narrative, and paramount for bringing the actions of powerful actors to light. The necessity defence- a crime committed to stop a larger crime- has acted as the legal structure around which protest cases wind in service of a wider political discourse about the nature of crime itself. This is about activists transcending traditional legal arrangements, becoming the “accusers, not the accused”. 

But this is also not solely about the opportunity to give political speeches from the dock. The courtroom is a unique arena in which businesses and individuals usually deemed untouchable can be compelled to give certain types of evidence, where the specifics of their dealings can be freely hung out to dry. Palestine Action wants Elbit in court so that Elbit can be subject to court injunctions compelling them to provide evidence of who they are selling arms to, and what exactly they are selling. Yet, despite the many arrests and charges, Palestine Action have only had two trials since they began their work. Activists’ court cases have been consistently pushed back or dropped, particularly, as Huda Ammori notes, at times where they would coincide with bombing campaigns in Gaza. This raises the question, as one Palestine Action activist put it, “what on earth is going on here? How can people come in here, shut down a factory that is supposedly ‘law-abiding’ and no action be taken?” 

Paper trails

What is going on here appears to be as follows. This is about money- of course. The global arms trade is huge business. The most recent figures we have for its net-value stand at around $118 billion in 2019. The one hundred biggest arms companies made $531 billion in profits the following year. The CEO of Elbit makes over $3 million a year. And warfare needs its state sponsors. Between January and November 2021, the UK awarded Elbit contracts worth collectively over £165 million. But the UK has been surprisingly brazen about their relations with Elbit. In other examples the paper trail is more obscure- and for a clear reason. 

Of all the arms companies in all the world, Elbit appears to be one governments particularly do not want to be associated with. Elbit markets its drones as “battle-tested” on Palestine- a term that reveals the depths of its insidiousness when twinned with Amnesty International’s findings that Israel has deliberately targeted civilians in its bombing raids. Quite how carpet bombing a residential tower block constitutes a ‘battle’ is mystifying, rooted in the doublespeak of war criminals. It was an Elbit drone that murdered the four Palestinian boys, all aged between ten and eleven years old, playing on a beach in 2014 who, as Robert Mackey writes, “were pursued and killed by drone operators who somehow mistook them, in broad daylight, for Hamas militants”. 

And even when the bombing stops, the noise of Elbit’s drones permeate the childhoods of Palestinians. They hum, just out of sight, off camera, in the wings until they are not. As Andrew Feinstein, an ex-ANC politician and anti-arms trade campaigner, remarked in a 2021 interview, Palestinian children articulate “the trauma of living with the sound of drones”, a noise that constantly hangs in the air and one which they associate with “death and dying”. Elbit’s drones are a constant presence, a form of Panopticon, an abiding reminder of how little control they have over their own safety.

From their “testing” ground in Palestine, Elbit’s reach extends globally, and here their USP is their discretion. If you look at some of Elbit’s recent press-releases, they have announced deals with “a country in the Asia-Pacific” and “an undisclosed Western customer”. Who they are selling arms to is shrouded in secrecy; ever the murderous concierge, they pride themselves upon their discrete business dealings. They have also been involved in manufacturing illegal arms such as cluster munitions; something which it is worth noting led to HSBC divesting from Elbit four years ago. HSBC: Europe’s second-largest financier of fossil fuels. A bank still involved in the funding of other arms companies such as Lockheed Martin. Supporter of multiple human rights violators. Not exactly Joan Baez. 

The service Elbit offers to their clients in staying quiet and taking the (minimal) flack for their illegal armaments is therefore crucial. One trial in court could bring that crumbling down. So terrified are they of this prospect, that even the £22 million worth of damage caused to them by Palestine Action since the organisation’s beginnings in July 2020 has not swayed them. The damage Palestine Action could inflict on them through transparency is far greater. So, the cycle continues. Elbit Systems do not show up in court. Activists are acquitted, Palestine Action soldiers forth. 

Rising action 

More charges against Palestine Action protestors were dropped on the 28th January 2022, the day before Palestine Action’s third ever trial was due to start. The CPS conceded they had dropped the charges the day before the trial as there had been “no realistic prospect of conviction”. Why this took until the day before to work out remains a ‘mystery’, an open secret like so many aspects of the Elbit saga. But it led to the brilliant headline in The Electronic Intifada: ‘Palestine Action is legalizing the smashing of Israeli arms factories’. This idea is doubly inspiring in the face of the terrifying implications that the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill has brought to the fore. The notion that direct action can help to force a legalisation of protest rather than a suppression of it is refreshing to the nth degree. Palestine Action is leading us to water, all we have to do is drink. 

The success of direct action in Oldham is deeply humbling. It speaks to a profound international solidarity and to the continuing effectiveness of action in the face of growing state repression. But this is merely the beginning. Palestine Action still hopes to see Elbit in court, they still hope to force divestment in other sectors, they still hope to shut more factories. They are not going to stop until every Elbit factory is closed down, until Britain ends its involvement in Elbit’s spilling of blood in Palestine, Kashmir, Myanmar, Yemen. One factory down, nine to go.

If you have a spare twenty-five minutes, please watch the Real Media documentary to which this article owes a great deal: 

‘PALESTINE ACTION – A YEAR OF DIRECT ACTION AGAINST ELBIT SYSTEMS UK’ Real Media, August 2021 (on YouTube)

Also, have a look at @eva.docs and @pal_action on Instagram to find interviews with activists, footage from actions, information on the movement and more.

Go to https://www.palestineaction.org/ to donate or get involved.