Members of the CJNV delegation to Palestine didn’t just come to observe and document. They engaged in direct actions, participating in shutting down highways and attending protests.

Israel controls by detention and drone, a colonial inheritance passed down from Britain. Today, Palestine Action is committed to shutting it down by taking on Elbit Systems in the UK as Israel’s largest private weapons manufacturer.

Eight members of the direct action organization Palestine Action are facing trial on October 10th for charges that could lead to 38 years in prison. Co-Founders Huda Ammori and Richard Barnard write that this latest wave of repression is a sign their activism is working: “Every instance of state repression we’ve faced to date has been for one simple reason: Palestine Action has disrupted the smooth functioning of a business built on bloodshed.”

After relentless direct action and a number of arrests, Palestine Action has made business in Britain’s capital inoperable for Israel’s largest weapons company, Elbit Systems.

Palestine Action raided Elbit System’s subsidiary, UAV Engines Ltd, in Shenstone, Staffordshire on Monday morning in an action that drew parallels with Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes in Sheikh Jarrah.

After 18 months of sustained direct action taken at the Elbit Ferranti site, the Israeli arms maker has sold a subsidiary which produced military technologies for Israel’s fleet of combat drones.

Protestors with Palestine Action are occupying Elbit System’s London HQ, and preventing operations at the site. In the past year, Palestine Action has disrupted Elbit for 105 days of 365, across their 10 UK sites plus those of a drone parts supplier. The action taken today, as with all actions by Palestine Action, has been taken in order to end the supply of UK made arms, drones, munitions and military technology to Israel.

Eight activists from Extinction Rebellion North and Palestine Action were arrested yesterday after causing £20,000 worth of damage after shutting down an Israeli arms factory in Oldham, UK. The activists stormed the factory in the early hours of Monday morning, February 1, with six blockading three entrances and another two climbing onto the roof.

Adie Mormech writes that direct action has always been a key component of international solidarity with liberation movements that were fought and won, and we haven’t used enough of it for Palestine: “We know it works and we know what the Palestinians are facing – so we have no excuses.”