Pro-Palestine community members, including a local basketball coach, shut down the Ferra Engineering weapons factory in Magan-djin/Brisbane on November 10.
They called on federal Labor to acknowledge complicity in the ongoing violence in Palestine and immediately stop exporting arms to Israel.
Subhi Awad, a local basketball coach, said “trapping children in a tiny area, then starving and bombing them can never be justified”.
It has been reported that Ferra Engineering in Tingalpa manufactures more than 100 components for F-35 fighter jets, including weapon adapters that carry and release bombs.
Ferra is the only company in the world producing this critical component. This means every bomb Israel drops from its F-35s is released using parts built here.
Juliet Lamont, 54-year-old filmmaker and a participant in the Global Sumud Flotilla, said: “As hundreds of international humanitarians sailed closer to Gaza’s shores to try to break the illegal siege and deliver baby formula and critical medicine to the starving and the dying, Israeli F-35 fighter jets would swoop over our boats, taunting us.
“We all felt so sick, scared and disgusted because we knew they were on their way to drop 2000 kilo bombs on innocent Palestinians. We also knew that the success of their genocide was due to having integral component parts, solely made by companies like Ferra, which made this slaughter possible.”
The F-35s being used to bomb Gaza have killed tens of thousands of civilians, including children sheltering in schools, hospitals and refugee camps.
Labor maintains it does not supply weapons to Israel. However, companies like Ferra continue to manufacture components for weapon systems that are deployed in documented attacks on civilian populations.
The activists called on federal Labor to immediately cease all arms exports and component manufacturing for weapons systems used against Palestinians and implement comprehensive sanctions against Israel.
People will continue disrupting the business as usual at the Ferra factory until meaningful action is taken by the government to sanction Israel and stop the crimes against humanity.
Angela Banovic said she took part as “an act of love” for the children of Gaza, for the families and communities everywhere who “deserve safety and dignity”.
“If our leaders will not speak up for humanity, then it is up to us. Not in our name!”