Activists invaded Instro Precision, a subsidiary of Elbit Systems, and blockaded a Canadian bank still invested in the Israeli arms company

Palestine Action say that their activists targeted Instro Precision, a subsidiary of Israeli arms company Elbit Systems, and the offices of Canadian Scotiabank, which activists say has not completely divested from Elbit.

Instro Precision, which described itself as a leading supplier of “support equipment for military and commercial electro-optical sensors”, had their Kent factory targeted overnight. Activists blocked entrances and others invaded the facory where thay began “dismantling technology, machinery and parts” involved in the “manufacture of scopes, sights, and targeting equipment for Israel’s exterminationist military”, the group said in a press release.

Also targeted were the offices of Scotiabank in London, which Palestine Action continues to claims are “major investors in Israeli military production”. Ten activists locked-on at the entrances of the Bank’s HQ shutting the building down while others sprayed the building red as a “symbol of the Palestinian bloodshed” caused by the arms company. 

The Bank of Nova Scotia, operating as “Scotiabank” had up to $500m in assets invested in Elbit until recently. After pressure from activists the Bank completely divested from Elbit, yet its subsidiary asset management fund, the wholly owned “1832 Asset Management”, still holds over $230m in Elbit shares, which would still make the parent company Elbit’s largest foreign shareholder.