Anti-genocide activists have damaged the SEC Plating factory in Belmore, which manufactures parts for F-35 fighter jets used by Israel to bomb Palestinians in Gaza.
Activists shared photos of the factory façade splattered with red paint and “Free Gaza” written across its roller door on August 19. They urged employees to support the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions’ call for a global boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel.
SEC Plating signed a contract in 2011 to produce components of F-35 fighter jets on behalf of BAE Systems Australia, the country’s biggest weapons’ manufacturer. Activists have previously staged multiple peaceful pickets outside SEC Plating, with the most recent on June 27 being violently attacked by NSW Police.
“SEC Plating’s contract helps Israel kill Palestinians,” they said. “Israel is using these planes to commit a genocide in Gaza … Over 60,000 people have been killed, including 20,000 children.”
Meanwhile, federal Labor has obfuscated or downright lied about Australia’s role in aiding Israel’s genocide.
Earlier this month, Defence Minister Richard Marles dodged questions about Australia’s supply of armoured steel and F-35 parts to Israel, claiming: “We don’t supply weapons to Israel”. However, this month it was also revealed that the defence department was upholding at least 35 military export permits to Israel and has continued directly sending weapons to Israel.
Foreign minister Penny Wong said in July that F-35 parts sent to Israel “are non-lethal in nature”.
“There is no such thing as a ‘non-lethal part’ of a fighter plane whose job it is to drop bombs on starving people in tents,” the anti-genocide activists said. “Australia is the sole producer of some weapons’ components. If we stopped supplying these it would have real, material impacts on Israel’s ability to keep massacring Palestinian people.”
“As Israel ramps up its ground invasion, doubles down on its lethal man-made famine in the Gaza Strip, and continues to systematically target and assassinate Palestinian journalists and their families … There must be a halt to the two-way trade in weapons and parts with Israel, expulsion of the Israeli ambassador, and immediate sanctions on Israel.”
sec_plating_july_11.jpg
