Rights and Accountability 2 December 2020
The group Palestine Action has protested continuously at sites in Britain run by the Israeli weapons firm Elbit Systems. (Via Facebook)
Killing a Palestinian will soon be as easy as ordering a pizza.
That repugnant message – albeit couched in less explicit terms – was delivered through a recent article published by the website IsraelDefense.
It quotes Oren Matzliach, a colonel who is overseeing the use of a new app by the Israeli military. The app would allow a commander to type details about a target on a small electronic device and then troops would open fire on that target swiftly.
Ordering an attack will be “like ordering a book on Amazon or a pizza in a pizzeria using your smartphone,” Matzliach said.
The causal way in which the colonel speaks about remote-control slaughter should outrage everyone.
The Israeli authorities – or high-ranking figures within them – view every Palestinian as a legitimate target.
That much became clear – if it wasn’t already – during the Great March of Return protests in Gaza over the past few years. Civilians who demanded their basic rights were officially declared as “terrorists” by the Israeli government.
The app has been developed through the Digital Land Army program, developed by the Israeli arms maker Elbit Systems in conjunction with the Israeli military.
Disruption is vital
Such “innovations” prove why it is vital to disrupt the weapons trade.
For several months, Elbit has been the focus of protests organized by the group Palestine Action in Britain.
The protests – which have included temporary shutdowns of an Elbit-owned plant near Birmingham and invasions of the firm’s London offices – have evidently irritated Israel and its lobbyists. An Israeli minister is reported to have asked that the British government suppress them.
Protesters can take heart from how previous actions of this nature have made a significant impact.When Israel attacked Lebanon during 2006, nine activists occupied a software plant that Raytheon, a US weapons giant, had opened in the northern Irish city of Derry. Raytheon decided to withdraw from Derry as a result of that protest.
Priority market
It is a safe bet that conversations are taking place among Elbit’s managers about the future of their investments in Britain.
Elbit regards Britain as a priority market and has developed a network of factories and offices across the country.
The British government has become an important client for Elbit. Between 2018 and this year, the British defense ministry ordered around $61 million worth of Elbit’s products or services.
During October, Elbit was an active participant in an annual exercise held by the British military. The exercise bears the not-so-subtle name of the Army Warfighting Experiment.
Elbit took advantage of the experiment to showcase new radio equipment and a satellite communications system intended for soldiers.
Elbit also displayed a portable shelter that can, if a promotional brochure is accurate, be set up “close to enemy lines” during a military operation. The shelters – which look compact and relatively comfortable – are “field proven,” according to the brochure. The weapons industry trots out euphemisms like “field proven” or “battle proven” to alert potential clients how the items being marketed have been tested in wars.Elbit’s most lucrative “battle proven” products are probably the drones it has supplied to Israel’s military. They have proven lethal when used for firing missiles at civilians.
Not surprisingly, Elbit does not openly gloat about how it abets Israel’s crimes against humanity.
Sometimes it even conceals the fact that it is an Israeli company. Promoting its British investments on Twitter, Elbit favors the deceptive hashtag “made in Britain.”
For people across the globe who experienced colonization, the British Army has long been regarded as one of the most violent organizations in history.Elbit, however, proclaims itself proud to support that army. Britain’s troops look “cool” with Elbit’s wearable computers strapped to their backs, the company brags.
When the weapons industry makes killing as easy as ordering a pizza, there is a risk we will no longer be shocked by how it profits from suffering. Activists who are determined to keep us shocked must be applauded.
Comments
tech of death
Permalink Frank Dallas replied on
The cynicism is typical. Every technological advance is seized on by the purveyors of death and the rulers of the countries whose wealth and power depend on violence are only to willing to spend their citizens' wealth on ever slicker means of wiping people out. Usually, the innocent. The matter, of course, is not technology but how we relate to one another. The protests against Elbit, courageous and excellent, are not anti-tech but anti-oppression. The far-gone Zionists see themselves as victims of the rest of humanity: all Gentiles, so the paranoia goes, are trying to destroy Jewry (not Israel but Jewry). Thus, every aggressive act of the Israeli State is an act of defence. When your view of the world rejects all evidence and rest on ideas plucked from thin air, this is where you arrive. Palestinians are merely the Zionists' most immediate enemies. This tech will be used to claim the Israeli State has reliable evidence that Palestinian grandmas and babies are planning to wipe Israel off the map. Of course, the cowards in power in the US, the EU, the UK etc will nod wisely. We return to the fact we can't rely on leaders. The common folk must make it impossible for the powerful to go on apologising for Israeli brutality. They are kept in the dark. It is our responsibility to inform them. The leaflet through the letter box. The street stall on Saturday morning. Enough of us and we can spread the word far enough to bring a revolt among the common people whose interests coincide with those of the Palestinians: peace, equal rights, justice. They have to lie to keep their vile injustice in place. That is their weakness. Having to lie every day eats your soul. It destroys your mind. We need only tell the truth: Israel is a racist State. Palestinians must have the right of return granted by the UN. We have the truth of equality on our side. They must hide behind the lie of racism. That's why we will win. That's why our resolve is firm.
Hi Tech Murder
Permalink Adrienne Weller replied on
I agree that the paranoid view of Israel gives them the supposed right to kill Palestinians and that they see themselves as Jews and not Zionist Jews. But both are covers for the Israeli governments profit and power role that is backed up by the U.S. for its own profit and power. We must not forget that we need to get rid of capitalism to get rid of Zionism.
the right of return
Permalink tom hall replied on
Full agreement, Frank. You did well to point out that the Palestinian right of return is acknowledged by the UN. In fact, that right is incorporated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the Geneva Conventions of 1949, and various UN General Assembly resolutions. International law is clear on the subject, and so must we be. Certain venerable supporters of the Palestinian cause in the West have stated the view that honoring the right of return presents an insurmountable roadblock to progress, based mainly on the assertion that the Israelis will never accept such an outcome. But when the possibility of independent statehood has been comprehensively demolished by Israel's absorptive colonization of the entirety of Palestine, we have to recognize that the absolute core of the case for Palestine lies in the right of return. All other rights are contingent on the legal presence of the great majority of Palestinians who were expelled, and their descendants. If they cannot be present, they cannot have subsidiary rights and there can be no resolution. Far from representing an obstacle, adherence to the right of return is an indispensable condition for a peaceful settlement. And when that day comes, the Israelis will accept the new reality- grudgingly, to be sure. Bitterly. Rancorously. But accept it they will.
These systems of technology
Permalink Henrik Mörner replied on
These systems of technology are elaborated for mass murder and deadly terrorism against the Palestinians (or further on exported to deploy against any allegedly inconvenient minority elsewhere - for example Tibetans and Uighurs in the so called PRC). This is one of many ironclad proofs that Israel under its present evil fascist regime already has become a major racist power well capable of and fully intent to final ethnic cleansing and / or all out genocide against Palestinians. But this abominable apocalyptic genocide project is every bit as much a scheme drawn by the sick minds of the feverish "rapture" frothing evangelical rightwing fascist fiend hordes in the USA and their horror lord Trump, as by the Israeli fascists themselves.