Palestine Action: Resisting Imperialism From Within
‘Settle your quarrels, come together, understand the reality of our situation, understand that Fascism is already here, that people are already dying who could be saved, that generations more will live poor butchered half-lives if you fail to act. Do what must be done, discover your humanity and your love in revolution.’
George Jackson, Blood in my Eye
In January 2022, it was announced that Israeli weapons company Elbit Systems would be permanently closing one of its British sites, a factory in Oldham. The firm is a lynchpin in the occupation of Palestine, Elbit being the largest supplier of arms to the Zionist project; and more broadly an instrument of imperialism, boasting a large clientele of Western-aligned states. This victory for the Palestinian struggle didn’t come out of nowhere – it followed an 18-month campaign of community organising and sustained direct action at the hands of Palestine Action, for whom militancy is key.
In almost two years of operation, the group has shone light on what successful resistance to imperialism can look like in countries such as Britain, and exposed the need for urgent and militant opposition to imperialism. A quick search will show the group’s numerous successful occupations, blockades, and attacks carried out on Elbit infrastructure. In its first year of operation, Palestine Action caused over £15 million in losses to Elbit sites alone, and shut down site operation for 105 days, preventing the manufacture of arms at the base of production.
The campaign to #ShutElbitDown has acted as a stimulus for community organisation and consciousness-raising, drawing attention to the criminal activities of the arms industry, and exposing the British state’s willingness to defend it. Every factory shut down is a call to action, and a demonstration that anti-imperialist struggle is an active duty for people residing in Britain. Palestine Action are taking action here and now, working through cracks in the existing social order – exacerbating them and lending concrete support to a people who are at the forefront of resisting violent imperialism.
It’s not hard to see why Elbit has been the campaign’s principal target. The company is most notorious for its production of the Hermes 450 and 900 series of drones, the same kind used last May when Gaza was being levelled to the ground. They also produce the highly incendiary white phosphorus, used routinely on Palestinian men, women, and children; and the Skylark drone, used for surveillance and policing of Palestinians, among other military goods. Elbit supply the occupation’s military with approximately 85% of its drones, which they boast to be the backbone of the Israeli Occupation Forces.
Surprisingly though, 80% of the company’s market is outside of the settler-colonial state. Anyone familiar with the campaign to shut Elbit down will likely know of how the company markets their weapons as ‘battle tested’ – made in Britain, tested on Palestine, exported elsewhere. Among its customers are the governments of Colombia, a US stronghold in Latin America; India, where Elbit weaponry enforces the Kashmiri occupation; and the Philippines, where resistance to US neo-colonialism is rife and met with state-sanctioned aerial bombings.
If we look to the US, EU, and Britain, we also see Elbit’s role in maintaining their borders. The company won a $145 million contract to aid in surveillance of the US-Mexico border, and its drones are used for the monitoring of British and Mediterranean waters. Elbit subsidiary Cyberbit develops surveillance software that has been used extensively around the world. When Palestine Action target Elbit, it’s not just about one company but a network of occupation, looting, and borders marked by immense human cost.
You need only look to the invasion of Iraq, 19 years on, to see the failures of the British anti-war movement in opposing warfare and imperialism. Despite a march of one million plus and mass public opposition, efforts to stop the war failed. This should not surprise us – the movement favoured passivity, formal protest, and appeals to the British state. Britain has a century long history of nurturing and enabling the Zionist project. It was Britain that issued the Balfour Declaration, that trained and funded Zionist militias, and that (under a Labour government) supplied the occupation with tanks used in the Six Day War.
So-called ‘progressive’ sects in the West will regard these deeply violent acts to be aberrations; regrettable, yes, but not to be seen as the norm. In truth, any basic study of how Britain has operated internationally (and domestically) will tell us this violence is inextricable from the workings of the British state. Support for Palestine holds no substance when channelled through the institutions and mechanisms of an imperialist state, nor when aimed at appealing to that state. Our support is concrete and uncompromising or it is non-existent; our solidarity should be practiced with the intention of forcing imperialism’s hand, rather than appealing to its absent conscience.
We provide no legitimacy to actors in the imperialist system – just as support for the Palestinian struggle ought not to be fought on the terrain of the occupation’s own depraved and colonial morality, we should apply the same principles when resisting within Britain. Those who would consider themselves anti-imperialist should act in constant opposition to, and in a high degree of removal from a social system that has conquest and warfare embedded deep within it. Palestine Action are firm in our commitment to derailing Britain’s wing of the global military industrial complex. We do not appeal to the powers that be. We have an enemy that is operating under our feet, and we have the means to take that enemy head on.
Situated in the imperial core, we hold a privilege and a duty. The social conditions we find ourselves in (though concessionary and often limited) allow us to successfully combat imperialism through direct action as practiced by Palestine Action. What’s more, it can be done at what is relatively little cost to ourselves – the frequency with which cases are dropped, and the consistent failure of the Crown Prosecution Service to prosecute members, proves this; and the sacrifice of certain liberties, although impactful, pale when the human cost of Elbit’s business is considered.
It is worth reminding ourselves that if those in occupied Palestine could take down the supply chain that digs their graves en masse, it would no longer exist. These factories exist on our doorsteps, and it is well within the capability of many of us to take action and shut them down. After the Oldham factory’s closure, 9 Elbit sites remain in Britain, and this year Palestine Action are set to heighten the campaign against Elbit. In the US, newcomer group RAM INC have drawn inspiration from Palestine Action, commencing struggle against weapons giant Raytheon through the occupation of one of its facilities in Massachusetts. This February, Berlin-based activists joined forces with Palestine Action to target DIEHL BGT Defense, a German arms manufacturer working with Elbit. Also recently launched is Block Lockheed, targeting Lockheed Martin’s British operations. These groups and activists are leading the way and working to dismantle the military industrial complex and strike back at imperialism wherever it has laid its deadly roots.
It is our absolute and immediate duty to target the arms trade. Simply put, we don’t have the time for anything but militancy. For Palestinians living under the occupation, there is no tomorrow. Colonial violence dominates daily life. Liberation is the question. Inertia and reformist strategies are not the answer. To aid in the dismantling of the settler-colonial project, Palestine Action are picking up the hammer to smash our enemies – out of love for our siblings in Palestine and across the world.