Friday, 24 November
9:30 am
UAV Engines, Litchfield
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/484483905267861/
Organizers have called for a celebration/protest at the Israeli Drone Factory in Shenstone, Staffordshire after the news that the activists who shut if down July 7th have had their charges DROPPED! The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has just decided to drop the case against the remaining two people that were still charged!
On the third anniversary of the Israeli attacks in 2014 that killed over 2200 Palestinians including 500 children, The UAV engines factory was closed through a mass mobilisation on Thursday 6th July and shut down again on Friday 7th July after a blockade from activists from Manchester Palestine Action, Birmingham Palestine Action and others from Brighton and Sheffield. Five were arrested for the blockade, and while three had their cases dropped in September, two charges remained and the trial was expected to be this Friday 24th November.
The CPS dropped the case because the Manager of the Drone engine factory was unwilling to take the stand and be questioned about the weapons deals the company has with Israel and other war criminal states. They said “The decision to discontinue these charges has been taken because there is not enough evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction”.
Huda Ammori, one of the activists whose charges were dropped said, “As a British Palestinian, I refuse to sit by and allow these injustices to be carried out on British soil and call on every supporter of Palestine to take similar action in Western countries where there is complicity in Israel’s war crimes. It is a green light for more action on weapons factories that are making billions off the rivers of blood that flow through Gaza and many other areas of the Middle East, devastated by such criminal assaults on entire populations.”
Instead of the trial this Friday 24th November, please come to the new celebration protest organised outside the Elbit arms factory in Shenstone this Friday, same time at 9:30am. The best message we can send to Israel and the Palestinians from the outcome of this trial is that we will we will not let UK based Israeli arms factories get away with aiding and abetting Israel’s mass murder of Palestinians and we will not stop until Palestine is free.
