Two anti-Israel vandals rammed a van through a UK defense industry factory security barrier on Tuesday, according to West Yorkshire Police and Palestine Action, then locked themselves to the vehicle to prevent their removal.
The van used to ram the Baildon Teledyne factory security barriers was filled and weighted down with concrete.Palestine Action said on Instagram on Tuesday that the two activists then attached themselves to the reinforced vehicle “to obstruct the production of crucial parts for Israeli missiles and fighter jets” by the American company.
The vandalism activist group claimed that it took eight hours for law enforcement to remove them from the premises. Police said that specialist resources were used to resolve the incident.
A 27-year-old man and a 44-year-old woman were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit criminal damage. The vandals were bailed without conditions on Wednesday.
“Whilst Teledyne’s Shipley factory needs masses of technology to produce their weaponry, we only need dedication to shut them down,” Palestine Action said on Instagram on Wednesday.
“Together, we will defeat the Israeli weapons industry once and for all.”
Vandalization campaign
The activist group also claimed this week that it had vandalized 15 Allainz insurance company branches across Europe, alleging that they were the insurers of Israeli defense firm Elbit Systems. Branches that allegedly had their windows smashed and sprayed with red paint included the Newcastle, Glasgow, Bristol, Berlin, Munich and Frankfurt offices.
Palestine Action, which the UK Home Office in November reportedly considered banning, has been responsible for a vandalization campaign against businesses and institutions it sees as associated with Israel. The group has been graffitiing, breaking windows, and damaging machinery since 2020, but increased its operations since the October 7 Massacre.
The vehicle-ramming of target facilities has been a revisited tactic of Palestine Action. In July activists rammed down the gates of a Wirral Teledyne factory so that they could vandalize the facility.
In August, a repurposed prison van was used to plow through a fence and into the entrance of Elbit UK’s South Gloucestershire Horizon facility. The vandals were armed with sledgehammers, axes, whips, and other homemade weapons and wounded two police officers and a security guard.