Today a Palestine Action activist has occupied the roof above the entrance to Fisher German’s Manchester offices, shutting the site down as part of a longstanding campaign against the landlords of Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons company. Fisher German leases and manages the Shenstone property, which houses Elbit’s ”UAV Engines”, manufacturers of engines for Israel’s killer drones. Their offices have long been met by protests and actions against their continued complicity in the Israeli war machine.
Climbing atop the entrance of the building in Deansgate, while a protest has been assembled outside the offices, the actionist has unfurled flags and banners exposing Fisher German’s collaboration with Israel’s largest arms manufacturer. They have filmed themselves taking the action, explaining why Fisher German has been targeted, in a video posted to social media.
In the past, Palestine Action has hit the real estate giant with relentless & focused direct action across Britain: their Birmingham offices faced a rooftop occupation staged in the summer of 2021 and five counts of action at the site in 2022 alone – activists smashing windows and dousing the property in red paint. In 2022, inside sources and activists monitoring the site confirmed to Palestine Action that FG had been forced to abandon their Harborne office ‘Vine Property Management‘. Regardless, Fisher German have continued to support Elbit’s criminal industry, marking them complicit in the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian population of Gaza.
The factory is a crucial subsidiary of Elbit because it produces the engine for the Hermes 450 drone. Whilst once a surveillance drone which provided the Israeli military with targeting information, the Hermes 450 has since been equipped to carry missiles. It is said to be the ”backbone” of the IOF’s spying and targeting missions. It was used to bomb targets, including people, in the 2014 assault on Gaza. Elbit Systems supplies 85% of Israel’s drone fleet and 85% of its land-based military equipment and is vital in the state terror inflicted on Palestine. These actions happen at a time when Israel is mounting a campaign of genocide and ethnic cleansing, bombarding Gaza and killing over 14,000 people, around 5,000 of whom are children.
Palestine Action has vowed to continue direct action against Elbit Systems, Fisher German, and all other companies complicit in Israel’s brutal, colonial violence. Fisher German is among many Elbit partners and complicit companies on its Elbit Sites map, which it posted online as part of its Palestine Action Underground campaign. Additionally, the publication of Palestine Action: The Underground Manual contains the essential information for creating an autonomous group able to independently strike at the facilitators of Israel’s systemic and military violence. Palestine Action calls on free people across the country to take action against Fisher, German, and other companies complicit in Elbit’s genocidal arms trade.
