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The Telegraph
The Telegraph
16 Mar 2024
Patrick Sawer


Pro-Palestine protesters demand closure of arms factory in UK

Protesters demanded the closure of an Israeli-owned defence manufacturer that supplies the British Army, as part of a series of pro-Palestinian protests around the country yesterday.

Dozens of activists – some holding cloth bundles stained with red to symbolise babies killed in the Israel-Gaza conflict – blocked Rafael Advanced Defense Systems’ Armstrong works by the River Tyne in Newcastle.

One woman held a placard aloft declaring: “This factory kills children”, while others flew Palestinian flags and a Geordies Against Genocide banner.

A prostester with red paint on her hands to symbolise blood being shed in Gaza
A prostester with red paint on her hands to symbolise blood being shed in Gaza Credit: Scott Heppell/North News

Campaigners in the North-East have held marches and pickets calling for the closure of Rafael since the Oct 7 Hamas attacks, accusing the firm of “arming Israel in its genocide of the Palestinian people”.

Rafael took over the Pearson Engineering defence group in 2022 as part of what it described as its “strategic expansion in the United Kingdom”.

The firm is Israel’s third-largest defence company, with more than 8,000 employees and 30 subsidiaries worldwide, supplying the defence, security and aerospace sector.

A woman holds a cloth bundle stained with red to symbolise babies killed in the Israel-Gaza conflict
A woman holds a cloth bundle stained with red to symbolise babies killed in the Israel-Gaza conflict Credit: Scott Heppell/ North News

It was chosen by the British Army to supply the armoured vehicle Trophy Active Protection System, designed to defeat anti-tank missiles and rockets.

Demonstrators outside the factory in Newcastle yesterday
Demonstrators outside the factory in Newcastle yesterday Credit: Scott Heppell/North News

The Shut Down Rafael Newcastle campaign group states: “The Israeli state-owned weapons factory Rafael is on our doorstep, in our city, and it is arming Israel in its genocide of the Palestinian people.”

The Newcastle protests came as hundreds of activists around the country staged the latest in a series of protests against the Israel attacks on Gaza that followed the massacre of hundreds of Israeli civilians by Hamas on Oct 7.

Marches also took place in Cardiff, Bristol, Derby, Sheffield and Lancaster, and as far afield as Kirkwall, in Orkney.