Guerrilla Nature

The protest groups who co-ordinated the action last year at the UAV Tactical systems manufacturing facility, owned by Thales and Elbit, are once again involved in demonstrating at the site on Meridian Way East in Leicester.

Representatives of Palestine Action and other affiliated collectives blocked the gates at the entrance to the production plant from around 7 am on the morning of Thursday 15^th February and again on Thursday 22^nd February.

Chants of ‘End the genocide, end apartheid’ and ‘Stop bombing Palestine’ were joined by some other, stronger language, but, as usual, the protests were otherwise peaceful. The demonstrators insist that they will keep returning until they ‘Shut Elbit Down’ because the company makes drones which are used to locate and kill innocent Palestinians.

The 2023 protests came well after other action had been carried out at the site years before and following the subsequent release of an Amnesty International report which used the term apartheid to refer to the treatment of the Palestinian people in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Last year, the protesters staged a very successful day of protest on 1^st May before the police abused the powers conferred upon them by the PCSC Bill to raid the camps that had been set up to blockade the road. Demonstrators then held a position by the side of the road until the middle of September 2023 when the uneasy decision was made to temporarily disband the camp due to low activity levels. See previous articles The Siege Part 1, The Siege Part 2 and The Siege Part 3 for more on that.

The events of October 7^th 2023 came less than three weeks after the closure of the camp. Some of the resources which might otherwise have been available for reinvigorating the movement at UAV Tactical Systems may have had to be redirected for other causes after that incident and what followed. It seems something of an understatement to point out that a lot of distress resulted from the carnage brought about by the conflict. Perhaps those are two possible explanations as to why has taken this long for the local groups to gather their faculties and return to the Thales / Elbit factory.

On Thursday 15^th February, the protesters were generally fortunate with the weather and remained reasonably dry, with relatively ambient temperatures. The police turned out in force on that day and made several attempts to engage with the activists, who largely remained staunch in their insistence on not engaging, even when several vehicles and around a dozen police were on the scene. The police were polite in their defence of employees and property of a corporate entity which, the activists say, is responsible for manufacturing the Hermes drones used by Israeli military forces to bomb innocent civilians, hospitals and other non-military targets, as well as military ones. The protesters moved away even before threats of arrest were made, which was unusually co-operative of them. It seems that they felt they had made an adequate point for the time being.

On Thursday 22^nd February, the campaigners for Palestine braved far harsher weather conditions than they had done a week beforehand. The wind swirled the cold rain around their bodies and their chants but they stayed for much longer this time. Members of the constabulary were just as polite on this occasion, calmly asking if people would move but making no threat of arrest even when demonstrators stood their ground outside the gates of the site for over an hour. It seemed like the police were prepared this time, as they had apparently parked a car in front of the gates before the protesters had arrived. The demonstrators say that they appreciate the police’s professional behaviour but feel that how courteously someone does their job means little if their job is protecting those who oppress others through violence. There were frank expressions of distaste for the police’s presence but the atmosphere remained relatively cordial and no arrests were made.

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