Elbit systems, a weapons and surveillance company established in 1966 by the Israeli tech company Elron and the Israeli Ministry of Defense, is a key focus of pro-Palestine activists who want their governments to stop supplying it with component parts.
It pivoted from producing computers to weapons in the 1980s, producing parts for Israel’s Lavi fighter jets and Merkava tank turrets, for which it supplies the technology today.
According to Disrupt Land Forces, Elbit made US$6 billion from weapons sales in 2023, “with $17.8 billion worth of weapons on back order”.
From the Merkava tank turrets that have blasted and flattened so many Gazan homes to the bomber drones used during Operation Cast Lead and the current phase of the genocide, to the surveillance systems along the wall of separation running through the West Bank, Elbit has profited handsomely from the genocide of Palestinians.
Elibt has also profited from Israel’s many invasions of southern Lebanon. It told Israel the drones used to kill Red Cross workers in 2006 as well as the 500 pound “control fragment” bombs used to kill seven civilian aid volunteers on March 27, 2024. The tank shells that killed a Reuters journalist in 2024 and the illegal white phosphorus Israel used in mid-Ocotber 2023 are both suspected of being Elbit products.
Elbit’s partnership with Israel has earned them not just blood money, but a brand-new weapons testing facility at the expense 36,000 Bedouin Naqab/Negev residents,
Israel’s use of Elbit’s weapons in Palestine and Lebanon has allowed the company to market itself as “field tested” and “combat-proven”.
This has attracted such clients as Myanmar’s military and the Indonesian government, which have used Elbit products to ethnically cleanse the Rohingya people, crush Myanmar’s Spring Revolution and wage a bombing campaign that has internally displaced 86,886 West Papuans.
Impressed by Israel’s West Bank wall, the United States’ DHS has bought Elbit surveillance technology since 2004 to use along its brutal southern border.
The Brazilian government was similarly inspired to purchase surveillance drones from Elbit in the lead up to the 2014 FIFA World Cup, to assist in its brutal crackdown on protesters and the poor.
Elbit and Australia
Elbit Systems Australia, Elbit Systems subsidiary, has its head office in Canberra. It has offices and factories in Magan-djin/Brisbane and Naarm/Melbourne and training staff located in Commonwealth facilities in Townsville and Canungra (Queensland), Duntroon (ACT) and Puckapunyal and Wondonga (Victoria).
Between 2008 and 2021, Elbit Systems was awarded a number of contracts by the Australian Department of Defence (DOD) and the Australian Federal Police (AFP). Many were awarded by former Coalition MP and weapons lobbyist Christopher Pyne while Defence Industry Minister (2016-2017).
Pyne secured $89 million worth of weapons’ contracts for Elbit while he was defence minister between August 2018 and May 2019. Pyne announced in February 2019 the global release of Elbit Systems Australia’s collaboration with sometimes contract rival Electro Optics Systems (EOS) on the T2000, a “turret with the works”. T2000s have since been sold to the Indonesian government for their tanks.
Pyne’s lobbying firm hosted an invite-only drinks night in March, 2021, where MPs could mingle with Elbit salespeople.
Elbit Australia partnered with the Victorian government in February 2021 to launch a Centre of Excellence in Human and Machine Teaming and Artificial Intelligence, autonomy and robotics in Port Melbourne to facilitate research development collaboration with universities. On June 6, 2022, Elbit announced the Centre would partner with RMIT to develop drone technology for the ADF.
Continuing the trend of rising imperialist militarism signalled with AUKUS, Australia announced the Land 400 Phase 3 defence project in July 2023. This is a $7 billion program to “modernise the Australian Army to ensure it can respond to the most demanding land challenges in our region” — a possible future war with China.
The project involves the purchase of 129 Redback IFVS (tanks), to be produced by Hanwha Defense Australia. Despite the ADF’s 2021 directive to cease its own use of Elbit products over “data security concerns”, Hanwha awarded Elbit a $914 million-over-five-years contract to supply high-tech turrets to the new tanks.
While keeping it vague, Elbit has said the plan is to do “most of the work in Australia”. The tanks are expected to be assembled at Hanwha’s Avalon site in Victoria.
Action against Elbit
Palestine Action Group held a 30-person protest outside of Elbit’s un-marked factory in Port Melbourne on August 15, 2014, during which six people climbed onto the roof and occupied it from 5.30am until 10am, until they were forced down by police.
Activists targeted the Port Melbourne factory again on July 6, 2015, this time in a coordinated action with British activists, who shut down factories in Birmingham, Kent and Staffordshire. Members of the Whistleblowers, Activists and Citizens Alliance (WACA) locked themselves to the front gate of the facility, preventing vehicle access for the duration of the day.
The direction action group Palestine Action, formed in 2020 in Britain, has focused particular energy towards taking out Elbit’s factories, suppliers and collaborators. From 2021 to 2022, it organised regular factory occupations of factories belonging to Elbit’s (now former) subsidiary, Elite KL. Activists ripped off roof tiles in one occupation, exposing the factory to rain.
Continuous disruptions caused “administrative expenses” to balloon to £700,000 and, eventually, Elbit’s Systems sold Elite KL off. The firm’s new owners manufacture parts for public transport.
In 2021, Palestine Action UK set its sights on Fisher German, the property manager of Elbit’s Shenstone Staffordshire factory. After two years of vandalism and office and event crashings, German announced it would be dropping all association with Elbit.
In late 2023, Palestine Action targeted Elbit’s sole British recruiting firm at the time, iO Associates. After weeks of actions, iO unceremoniously removed Elbit from its Manchester offices due to “safety concerns”. On November 29, iO Associates officially ended its association with Elbit.
Following Elbit’s deal with RMIT, students initiated the RMIT Stop Funding Apartheid campaign. The universities chapter of Students for Palestine organised a speak-out on August 11, 2022. A series of actions by RMIT staff, students and community members followed, including a September 11, 2023, protest outside the university gates.
Bowing to the sustained campaign, RMIT said on October 19, 2023, that it “does not have a partnership with Elbit Systems or any of their subsidiaries, including Elbit Systems of Australia”.
One September 12 2023, the Free Palestine Coalition Naarm held a rally at Hanwha’s headquarters as part of that year’s Disrupt Land Forces week of action. It organised another the following year, which was attended by more than 1000 people despite extensive police violence.
On April 15 2024, the Free Palestine Coalition Naarm launched its Boycott, Divest, Sanctions campaign with a protest outside Victoria’s parliament. While a petition to end the government's partnership with Elbit was debated in parliament on May 15, 2024, the Free Palestine Coalition held a protest outside.
MPs voted to disclose its agreements with Elbit but not to end them. On May 31, 2024, protestors disrupted a Victoria Defence Capabilities event, occupying the venue and staging a “die-in”.
Similar actions have been carried out in the US by groups including Elbit Out Of South Carolina Coalition, whose campaign of weekly rallies outside Elbit’s Ladson facility started in October 2024. Its latest demonstration was on May Day.
Diversity of tactics
A diversity of tactics has been used in the fight against Elbit. There is room for debate around the sustainability and movement-building effectiveness of some actions.
However, a common thread throughout has been the effectiveness of campaigns that set their sights not solely and directly on Elbit itself, but also on its collaborators.
As Palestine Action UK co-founder Huda Ammori said in an article for Declassified UK, “targeting Elbit also requires understanding that the company doesn’t act alone ... in order to maintain functioning weapons factories, Elbit needs to contract out a multitude of services including suppliers, recruiters, facility managers and transport. Some of Elbit's facilities are not owned outright, and therefore landlords and property managers are required to harbour their criminal activities.”