Stop arming Israel! - Actions and resources against the arms trade with Israel

The latest episode of criminal aggression by Israeli forces in Gaza killed 1,330 Palestinians and injured 4,500: it destroyed about 5,000 homes and severely damaged 17,000 severely damaged. These crimes have been executed using technology of war for bombardment from air and land, weapons which have been imported from a number of countries and produced by a large number of war profiteers.
During the attacks against Gaza from Israel, there were number of actions against war profiteers supporting the Israeli army and a series of reports on the weapon exports to Israel. Here we provide a summary of some of them.

Actions

Die-in against the war in Gaza, Tel Aviv, Israel: Early in the morning of the 2nd of January, activists from Anarchist Against the Wall out smarted the police, shortly blocked the road and staged a street theatre of a "die in" at the entrance to the military air port of Tel Aviv - where the pilots and other high ranking are flayed daily to the far bases in the south and north for the daily war crimes in Gaza.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpeC7P-2LfU

EDO/ITT actions in Brighton, UK: Anti-militarist activists entered the ITT/EDO MBM arms factory in Moulescombe, Brighton in the early hours of the 17th of January, where they caused extensive damage to the offices, and to equipment used to make arms, including the 'zero retention force arming units' and 'ejector release unit 151' which the Smash EDO/ITT campaign says are supplied to the Israeli Air Force. The campaign became aware of the action when they received a phone call from those inside the factory this morning who said that they were 'decommissioning' the factory in solidarity with the people of Gaza, who are at the receiving end of the factories products.
http://www.smashedo.org.uk/news.htm

Actions at universities across the UK: Students across the UK held occupations and sit ins in solidarity with Gaza, with SOAS shutting down a MOD exhibition on their campus.
They were followed by others at King's College,Essex, Warwick, Sussex , Birmingham and over 80 Oxford University students occupied the historic Bodleian building to demand that the university releases a statement condemning the attack on Gaza and cancel the lecture series at Balliol College inaugurated by Israeli war criminal Shimon Peres. There have been actions at many more universities for full report go to: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/01/419762.html

Raytheon actions in Derry, Northen Ireland: On Friday 9th January, as Israel continued its attack on Gaza, over 70 anti-war protesters took part in a dawn blockade of the Raytheon offices in Derry, organised by Derry Anti-War Coalition (DAWC); this continued until 10 a.m. with Raytheon workers not crossing the line (they may have worked at home). See report in Indymedia at http://www.indymedia.ie/article/90505
On Monday 12th January at 2.30 pm, nine women from DAWC entered the building in Springtown that houses Raytheon and chained themselves to each other and to the internal doors leading to Raytheon's part of the building. The women made it clear that they were there to highlight Raytheon's participation in war crimes and that they would come out if the police agreed to investigate the extent to which Raytheon was implicated in the war crimes being carried out in Gaza using weapons created and supported by Raytheon.

Protest at Arms to Israel from Staffordshire, UK: A protest was held on the 19th of January outside UAV Ltd. in Shenstone, Staffordshire to protest against the company's link with the repression and massacre in Gaza. 30 protesters from around the Midlands, including locals from Shenstone, gathered to draw attention to the fact that this company is owned by the Israeli defence contractor Elbit systems, and all the evidence points to them producing the engines for the drones which have been used to carry out surveillance and targeting for the IDF strike fighters.
Read full story at: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/nottinghamshire/2009/01/419376.h…

South African Dock Workers Won't Unload Israeli Goods: South African dock workers won't unload ships carrying goods from Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians.
On February 4, Randall Howard, general secretary of the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union, said it appeared a ship carrying goods from Israel was nearing Durban's port. If once the ship docks its cargo is determined to be Israeli, he said, union workers won't unload it.

Academic boycott of Israel: The academic boycott is part of a comprehensive civil society programme of boycott and divestment aimed at exerting international pressure on Israel. as Ilan Pappe (an Israeli scholar) puts it, “it makes no sense . to call on sanctions or pressure on business, factories, cultural festivals etc., while demanding immunity for [our] own peers and sphere of activity - the academia. This is dishonest.. In fact it makes more sense to try and affect the economic, political, cultural and academic elites on the way to a policy change. The socio-economic realities are such that if you affect the life of the wealthy and influential, you get results, not if you add misery to those who are already deprived and marginalized”.
http://www.monabaker.com/noteonboycott.htm

Boycott Motorola: Motorola makes a lot more than cell phones - they also make at least four products that directly support Israel 's occupation of and assaults on Palestinians. There is a tool-kit for boycotting Motorola until its products are no longer used by Israel to abuse Palestinian human rights.
Read full story at: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/641/t/6225/petition.jsp?petition_K…

General resources

Israel and the United States: Article by Frida Berrigan and William Hartung on how Israel has been fuelled largely by U.S.-supplied weapons paid for with U.S. Tax dollars.
Read article at: http://www.newamerica.net/publications/articles/2009/israel_and_united_…

Stop arming Israel: Resources on the complicity of the UK in arming Israel. ome weaponry is supplied directly - military equipment valued at £24 million in the first two quarters of 2008 was licensed for export from the UK. However, UK arms are also supplied via the US as components and subsystems of weaponry such as F-16 aircraft and Apache helicopters.
http://www.caat.org.uk/issues/israel.php

Bombs on Gaza, business for The Netherlands and Belgium: Press release from Campagne tegen Wapenhadel and Vredesactie on the connection between The Netherlands and Belgium and the export of weapons to Israel.
http://www.stopwapenhandel.org/

Overview of arms trade to Israel: 2009 Overview of the weapons trade with Israel from a number of countries in Europe.
Read overview at: http://www.stopwapenhandel.org/publicaties/factsheets/israelpageuk.html

Spanish arms exports to Israel: Israel ranks 24th among importers of Spanish weapons, Exports to Israel in the year 2007 were for an amount of 151593 Euro. For information on Spanish arms export to Israel go to:
For report on Spanish at: http://www.centredelas.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id…
For more info (in Spanish) at: http://antimilitaristas.org/spip.php?article4060&var_recherche=gaza

Israel, Boycott, Divest, Sanctions - Article by Naomi Klein: According to Naomi Klein "The best strategy to end the increasingly bloody occupation is for Israel to become the target of the kind of global movement that put an end to apartheid in South Africa.
Read article at: http://www.naomiklein.org/articles/2009/01/israel-boycott-divest-sancti…