Four people have been arrested in Bristol after an arms manufacturing factory was smashed up with a cherry picker and sledgehammer over the weekend.
The group, aged 19-36, are all due to appear at Bristol Magistrates’ Court today, March 17, after all being charged with conspiracy to damage property.
Three out of the four were also charged with one count of assault by beating.
The Palestine Action protest action took place on Saturday, March 15, at the Bristol headquarters of Elbit Systems, at the Aztec West Business Park in Bristol.
It is the 17th time in the last four years that Palestine Action has shut down the firm’s headquarters in Bristol.
On this occasion, the protest group used a sledgehammer attached to a rope to smash the second-floor windows at the site, as well as dousing the building in red paint, and using a modified cherry picker to begin dismantling the factory.
The following four people have been arrested and charged following the protest on Saturday:
- Aleksandra Hobson, 36, from Halifax, West Yorkshire – charged with one count of conspiracy to damage property, and one count of assault by beating
- James Williams, 34, from Easton, Bristol – charged with one count of conspiracy to damage property
- Rosa Garland, 28, from Southwark, London – charged with one count of conspiracy to damage property, and one count of assault by beating
- Sana Kamal, 19, from Liverpool – charged with one count of conspiracy to damage property, and one count of assault by beating.
A spokesperson for Palestine Action said: “While Elbit weaponry is used for massacres in Gaza and the West Bank, twenty Palestine Action members, including the Filton18, are imprisoned without trial. Elbit, Starmer, and those facilitating war crimes are the criminals – not those taking action to stop the slaughter in Palestine.
“Activists are shutting down Elbit Bristol, making clear that we will not back down against a company whose sole purpose is to profit from the destruction of Palestinian life.”
A spokesperson for Elbit told the BBC the firm is “proud to deliver a broad range of modern and innovative equipment and services to the British armed forces”.
“Any claims that this facility supplies the Israeli military or Israeli Ministry of Defence are completely false,” the spokesperson added.