On Tuesday morning, an underground group dubbed the ‘Doncaster Dismantlers’ took action at the site of two companies with links to Israel’s war machine. These actions are another instance of targeted economic sabotage brought under the banner of ‘Palestine Action Underground’, wherein autonomous cells have taken covert direct action against companies complicit in the ongoing colonisation of Palestine. This Underground movement marks a new phase in the three-year-long campaign of Palestine Action.

French-owned arms company Thales and British-owned property managers Fisher German found their Doncaster offices smashed and premises sprayed in blood-red paint, as the Doncaster group targets businesses with ties to Israel’s drone manufacturers.

The companies hold extensive business ties to Israel’s Elbit Systems, a military technology company providing 85% of Israel’s drones and land-based military equipment. Thales are part-owners, along with Elbit, of the drone company UAV Tactical Systems, which has made numerous weapons exports to Israel from its Leicester-based factory. Fisher German, meanwhile, is contracted to provide property management services for the same site. Both have been targeted extensively by Palestine Action in the past, and the ‘Doncaster Dismantlers’ have taken it upon themselves to ensure that their town is free of complicity in the crimes committed with Israel’s British-made drones.

This autonomous direct action represents new strength in the anti-imperialist movement in Britain, as independent groups take up the mantle of ensuring that Israel-supplying companies cannot go about their ‘business-as-usual’ while Palestinians are killed daily by the occupation regime. Today has brought news that a Palestinian teenager was killed by Israeli forces, meaning that since the start of this year, at least 216 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, including 37 children.

These murders are made possible only by continued international silence on the crimes of the occupation regime, along with the continued supply of weapons and technologies to Israeli forces. Israel is aware of this, hence their efforts, as revealed this week by the Guardian, to interfere in the court cases of individuals standing against their bloodshed. Palestine Action supports the autonomous acts of those working to undermine this complicity and calls on other regions to replicate the bravery of the Doncaster Dismantlers.

Image: Guy Smallman / Shenstone near Birmingham / Jan 2022