PRO-PALESTINE campaigners staged a demonstration outside a major factory in Edinburgh on Wednesday morning as part of a call for an end to arms sales to Israel.
The group, which is made up of local residents, trade unionists and anti-weapons campaigners, said that Leonardo UK produce components for F-35 fighter jets.
This action has been organised in collaboration with Industrial Workers of the World and with Workers for a Free Palestine.
Organisers said Wednesday’s demonstrations will form part of a month of disruptive direct action in support of Palestine.
The group claims that Leonardo holds 26 UK export licences to Israel and that it has “significant industrial capacities” in Israel.
Cam, a local resident who joined Wednesday morning’s blockade, said: “We can’t allow arms being used to massacre Palestinians to be supplied in our name and funded by our taxes.
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“And as local residents we don’t want murder being manufactured on our doorstep. It makes us feel complicit.
“As Israel threatens to invade Rafah, predicted to cause an unthinkably brutal bloodbath, we couldn’t stand by silently while a factory down the road resources that massacre. We had to act.
“We demand that the Government immediately halt arms supplies to Israel before an invasion of Rafah and ban arms sales to Israel going forward, and support a permanent ceasefire and an end to the siege.”
David, a local trade union member who is also taking part in the demonstration, said: “It’s despicable that Leonardo bosses are reaping record profits from a genocidal war in which over 30,000 Palestinians have been killed.
“We don’t blame the workers at these sites. We blame the bosses who decide to sell these components to Israel so they can be used to slaughter tens of thousands of Palestinians, and displace the rest of Gaza’s population and now push them into famine.”
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Around 5.40am on Wednesday, 20 March, 2024, police were made aware of a protest outside a site in the Crewe Road North area of Edinburgh. Officers are in attendance.”
A Leonardo spokesperson told The National: “This morning a group of protestors assembled outside the Edinburgh site.
"The safety and wellbeing of our employees, contractors, and neighbours is our first priority. The protest has been a peaceful one so far, however Police are in attendance.
"Leonardo UK complies fully with all the UK Government’s export control protocols, the legal obligations and the processes in place to operate those protocols.”
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