Statement below from community members taking direct action to shut down the Elbit Systems’ Cambridge facility:
“GET ELBIT OUT OF CAMBRIDGE!
A statement from Shut Elbit Down Boston:
CAMBRIDGE, MASS – Yesterday, community members blocked the entrances of Elbit Systems’ Cambridge facility to prevent Elbit employees from going to work. Elbit Systems will not conduct business as usual in our city while profiting from the ongoing mass murder of Palestinian People.
The weapons Israel is deploying to surveil, maim, and mass murder Palestinians are supplied by a company that operates right here in our city. Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons dealer, operates an “innovation centre” at 130 Bishop Allen Drive in the heart of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Elbit supplies 85% of Israel’s military drone fleet, land-based equipment, bullets, tear gas and internationally banned weapons. Elbit weapons are being used to murder Palestinians right now. We will not let Elbit continue business as usual! Weapons companies don’t belong in our neighbourhoods!
Groups like Palestine Action in the UK have shown how sustained direct action can make business inoperable for Elbit. Palestine Action permanently closed an Elbit factory and their London HQ and has made Elbit stocks drop after relentless direct action and several arrests. Elbit stocks are surging as they churn out more weapons for Israel’s genocidal siege of Gaza. While Israel inflicts this genocidal violence, it does so with the full support and financial backing of the United States, the world’s biggest arms dealer and purveyor of violence. We know Elbit’s trail of death and destruction goes beyond Palestine, from the US-Mexico border to the Mediterranean to the Philippines. Living in the United States, we have an obligation to take direct action against murderous companies like Elbit.
The mass murder of Palestinians, immigrants, and other oppressed peoples will continue as long as we permit those perpetrating it to operate in our communities. Today is just the beginning. We will continue to take action to make it impossible for Elbit to operate in Cambridge until Elbit is gone.
Shut Elbit Down! Elbit out of Cambridge!
