Declassified UK published the following important information approximately six hours ago which confirms the UK’s complicity in the war crimes and genocide being committed by Israeli forces in Palestine.
Arms factories hit by pro-Palestine protests over the last 15 months were sending supplies to Israel, an investigation by Declassified has found. The revelation has been called a vindication by Palestine Action, the direct action group which has led efforts to shut down Israel’s war machine in the UK. Several of the companies are associated with Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms manufacturer which produces many of the drones and missiles used to slaughter Palestinians. The information is contained within cargo documents obtained by Declassified and The Ditch.
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There are further details in the following report by John McEvoy, the Acting Head of Investigations for Declassified UK.
Police arrest a Palestine Action member at an Instro Precision factory last March. (Photo: Martin Pope / Alamy)
Published in partnership with Irish news site The Ditch
Arms factories hit by pro-Palestine protests over the last 15 months were sending supplies to Israel, an investigation by Declassified has found.
The revelation has been called a vindication by Palestine Action, the direct action group which has led efforts to shut down Israel’s war machine in the UK.
Several of the companies are associated with Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms manufacturer which produces many of the drones and missiles used to slaughter Palestinians.
The information is contained within cargo documents obtained by Declassified and The Ditch.
While it remains unclear precisely what was exported, the cargo handling locations combined with UK arms export data strongly suggest the shipments involved weapons parts.
Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori told Declassified: “This revelation confirms that taking direct action against the Israeli weapons industry in Britain is a crucial element to resistance against colonialism and genocide”.
She continued that the new information “not only exposes these death merchants, it vindicates those who’ve put their liberty on the line to shut them down”.
Dozens of Palestine Action activists have been arrested over the last 15 months, with many still being held on remand or serving prison sentences.
More than 64,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, according to a study published in the Lancet, with Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch accusing Israel of genocide.
An Elbit Systems UK spokesperson told Declassified that the company “and its subsidiaries comply with all relevant UK government regulations on export control”.
The cargo documents show that at least four companies associated with Elbit Systems have exported to Israel since the Gaza bombing began.
One of those firms is Instro Precision, whose annual financial statement notes that “the company is ultimately controlled by Elbit Systems Limited”.
Instro Precision produces military electro-optical sensors which are used for target acquisition, surveillance, and reconnaissance.
The company has been granted scores of licences for arms exports to Israel including components for “targeting equipment” and “military aircraft head-up/down displays”.
Its factory in Kent was targeted twice by Palestine Action last year, with activists destroying over £1m of property and arguing that the company “makes equipment to locate targets (i.e. people) in order to destroy or kill them”.
Cargo documents now show that four shipments were sent from Instro Precision’s site in Kent to Elbit Systems factories in Israel between November 2023 and January 2024.
The main delivery location in Israel, Elbit Systems EW and SIGINT (Elisra), manufactures “comprehensive solutions in the electromagnetic spectrum domain” for “electronic warfare (EW), spectrum control, communications, and Signal Intelligence”.
Elbit Systems’ Horizon facility in Filton, Bristol, has also been targeted by Palestine Action since being opened in 2023 by Israel’s ambassador Tzipi Hotovely.
18 people are currently imprisoned for alleged actions against this “research, development and manufacturing hub”, with the UK police using counter-terrorism powers to question them.
At least one shipment was dispatched from Filton to Elbit’s Advanced Technology Centre in Haifa in October 2024, according to the cargo documents.
Other UK-based firms have also shipped to Elbit Systems factories in Israel since October 2023.
Based in Wrexham, Syensqo (formerly Solvay) produces composites for Elbit’s Hermes 450 drone, according to the aircraft directory Airframer.
This model of drone has been linked to the killing of scores of civilians in Gaza including Israel’s airstrike on seven international aid workers, including three Britons, last year.
The site in Wrexham was targeted by Palestine Action in 2021 when activists climbed onto the roof and caused over £20,000 worth of damage.
Solvay’s manager was subsequently forced to admit in court that the site had been supplying composites for “fixed-wing [military] aircraft such as the F-35 fighter jet” which are “sold to another company, who then supply to Lockheed-Martin”.
Israel has used its fleet of F-35 jets to pound Gaza, including a strike on a humanitarian zone that killed 90 Palestinians.
The cargo documents expose at least 10 exports from Syensqo’s Wrexham site to an address corresponding to Elbit Systems Cyclone Aviation in Israel between November 2023 and March 2024.
A Syensqo representative did not dispute that the shipments were for military use but told Declassified that the company’s “business practices strongly embed ethics and integrity”.
They added that “Syensqo observes and supports all laws and regulations governing the export and import of products, technologies, services, and information throughout the world”.
UK-based engineering firm Martin-Baker also exported to an Elbit Systems facility in Karmiel, Israel, in October 2024.
Martin-Baker specialises in ejection seats which are found in military planes across the West, including in the cockpit of the IAF’s T-6 training fleet. These aircraft are maintained by Elbit Systems under a $38m contract.
It’s not just Elbit Systems which has benefited from UK exports to Israel amid the Gaza genocide.
Teledyne Defence and Space has exported to Israel since October 2023.
Based in Shipley, Yorkshire, Teledyne Defence and Space specialises in supplying electronics to the aerospace and defence sectors.
The company has been granted 28 military export licences to Israel since 2021, with the Shipley facility being occupied and dismantled by Palestine Action in April 2024.
Cargo documents now reveal that Teledyne in Shipley exported to Israel at least twice between November and December 2023.
The shipments were addressed to a location near the Israeli air force’s (IAF) Hatzerim air base in the Negev desert, which houses fighter jets as well as the IAF Flight Academy.
Campaign Against Arms Trade spokesperson Emily Apple told Declassified: “These shipments show these companies believe they can act with impunity and continue their complicity in Israel’s genocide.
“If our government refuses to halt all these shipments and impose a full arms embargo, it is down to ordinary people to keep up the pressure and show that we will not allow these death merchants to continue profiting from Palestinian lives”.
Thanks for this important post, Azra!