Israeli Drone Company Will Not Release Export Data, So Case Against 9 Gaza Activists is Dropped

posted on: Feb 3, 2015

Last August at the height of Israel’s assault on Gaza, nine activists occupied the roof of a Staffordshire factory that supplied engines to Israeli drones and shut down the factory for two days. Now the British government has dropped a case against the nine, evidently because the Israeli arms company was unwilling to produce evidence of its arms exports.

A report from London Palestine Action says the government and the company Elbit Systems, a manufacturer of drones, are “running scared”:

Activists have accused the UK government and Israeli arms company Elbit Systems of running scared from a court case that would have put their collusion with Israeli war crimes on trial.

This follows the announcement that all charges have been dropped against nine campaigners who occupied the roof of an Elbit Systems factory in Staffordshire during Israel’s 2014 assault on Gaza. This means that the UK government will no longer be required to reveal details of the arms trade with Israel, and Elbit will avoid having to testify about the use of its drones during Israel’s massacre in Gaza last summer….

The activists pleaded not guilty to charges of “preventing lawful activity” on the basis that the operations at the Staffordshire factory were aiding and abetting war crimes and therefore illegal.

Lawyers for the defendants say it appears the case collapsed either because the prosecution had been told either that Elbit Systems were unwilling to testify in court about their activities or because the UK government was unwilling to comply with the court’s order to disclose information it holds about licenses for arms exports to Israel, or both.

Source: mondoweiss.net