Protest disrupts work at Israeli-owned arms factory in UK

Protesters temporarily shut down a British factory owned by a subsidiary of the Israeli weapons and machinery manufacturer Elbit Systems.

A group of 14 activists from anti-arms and pro-Palestinian organizations, including Brighton BDS and Swansea Action for Palestine, stopped production Tuesday at the Instro Precision factory in the county of Kent in Britain’s southeast, the Jewish Chronicle of London reported.

Camera systems similar to those made by Instro Precision are used in Israeli drones supplied by Elbit to survey the West Bank security fence, according to the report. No arrests were made during the protest action, the paper said.

The sit-in came two weeks after prosecutors were forced to drop a case against protesters who occupied another Elbit subsidiary last August. Prosecutors ended their case after the drone engine manufacturers’ witnesses stopped cooperating, according to the Chronicle.

Four activists made it onto the roof of Instro Precision’s building and hung banners reading “Elbit Drones Murder!” and “Stop Arming Israel!”

Both Elbit Systems and Instro Precision declined to comment on the protest, according to the Chronicle.