Seven arrested after forming barricade outside Bristol defense factory

Seven people have been arrested after they attached themselves to two cars and blocked defense company Elbit Systems UK’s access to its base in Bristol. According to pro-Palestinian protesters, the blockade lasted nine hours and police had to drill through the concrete that had been used to weigh down the two vehicles used.

Protest organizer Palestine Action claimed to have shut down Elbit Systems operations today, Monday 24 June. Elbit Systems UK is a subsidiary of the Israeli defense company Elbit Systems. The company told BristolLive that its Bristol operation supplies equipment to the British military and does not supply the Israel Defense Forces.

It is the latest in a series of protests by Palestine Action at Elbit Systems UK, in Bristol. It also staged protests at Elbit sites in Staffordshire, Leicestershire and Kent. The protest group claims Elbit Systems UK, based at Aztec West, Almondsbury, supplies weaponry to Israel, a claim the company denies. Palestine Action wants to see the company “forced out of the UK”.

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A spokesman for Palestine Action said: “Elbit Systems uses Gaza as a laboratory to develop its weapons, a business model that has no place in any society. By arming Israel and allowing Elbit to operate in this country, our political establishment has failed to comply. by their legal and moral obligations to end complicity in the genocide in Gaza, therefore it is up to ordinary people to take direct action and shut down Elbit.”

The company says its Bristol site is not an Israeli arms factory and that Elbit Systems UK is based in the UK and supplies equipment to the British military.

A spokesman for Elbit Systems UK said: “We continue to invest and expand our range of services in the UK, providing critical support and advanced technology to the British Armed Forces at Aztec West 600 and other sites across the country.”

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