OLDHAM – An 18-month sustained campaign against an Elbit Ferranti factory in Oldham, United Kingdom, has resulted in it being closed down and sold – effectively ending the manufacturing of Israeli weapons from that area. Although a few more factories remain in England, Palestine Action aims to have all of them closed down.
Speaking to Salaamedia, co-founder of Palestine Action Huda Ammori hailed the closure of the Elbit Ferranti factory as one of their ‘biggest victories’.
“Our main focus is to get rid of Elbit systems in Britain and then to move on from there and we just had one of our biggest victories. From the start of Palestine Action, people have been occupying, blockading, going inside of these buildings, climbing on top of these buildings, and throwing red paint all over them to symbolize the bloodshed by these factories.”
“People have dismantled the machinery from outside and inside making it near impossible for these factories to be able to operate and produce their machinery which will be used to kill people at the end of the day.”
Ammori claimed that Elbit used their weapons in Gaza and this was the basis for them selling them as ‘battled tested’.
“Elbit is Israel’s largest arms company and they actually market their weapons as battle tested because they are developed and tested on the captive population of Gaza which obviously is under a brutal illegal blockade by Israel…”
Ammori expressed that this campaign should be a lesson to everyone that even if your government is an ally to Israel, you can still put an end to the companies.
“For us being able to force out Israel’s arms trade from a country which Israel deemed as their strongest ally would be one of the strongest messages we could send. Even if governments are allying with Israel, which has always been the issue, but that the people will take action in order to disrupt and stop this from happening and will drive these companies out even if our governments are complicit in it.”
Julie Ali spoke to Huda Ammori, co-founder of Palestine Action, on News & Views. Listen to the full discussion here:
