Spokespeople available on request
Contact stoparmingisraelsheffield@gmail.com
Photos and videos available here – https://drive.proton.me/urls/XAZF0QH7F8#A1hegspGOuMA
Key details: 7am to 10am, Forged Solutions, Milford Street, S9 2LDSTARTS
SECOND SHEFFIELD WEAPONS FACTORY SITE SHUT BY PRO-PALESTINE ACTIVISTS
From 7am today, a Sheffield weapons manufacturer has been blockaded by the protest group Stop Arming Israel. This action follows the group’s successful blockades of Forged Solutions’ Meadowhall factory on 15 and 22 July.
The Sheffield-based group halted all traffic heading into the River Don Site of the Sheffield based arms manufacturer Forged Solutions, with protestors standing in front of the entrance to the site holding banners, chanting and giving speeches on the company’s likely complicity in Israel’s genocide. Several lorries have been turned back. The protestors plan to remain until 10am, and expect this to once again shut down the factory for a day.
Forge Solutions is listed on the Open General Export Licence for the F-35 fighter jet, which is currently being used by Israel in its genocide of the people of Gaza. Whilst Forged Solutions has denied that they are making parts for the F-35 in Sheffield, the company boasts on its website that its “services to the defence industry date back well over 100 years…Today, our products can be found across a range of defence applications, from tanks and submarines, to military jets.” [1].
The blockading of the River Don Site is part of the Stop Arming Israel group’s targeting of companies and factories across the city with connections to Israel’s genocide. The group describes it as a form of “peoples sanctions”, joining similar blockades, pickets and occupations across Britain that are seeing arms factories shut down regularly.
A spokesperson for the group stated:
“The Stop Arming Israel group aims not only to target complicity but also direct participation in the genocide in Palestine. Forged Solutions has a long history of supplying parts to companies like Pratt and Whitney and Safran Aero Booster which go on to make engines for fighter jets like the F-35, F-16 and F-15. All of these planes are used by the occupation in its genocide of the Palestinians meaning that Forged Solutions is a participant in the genocide.
“Whilst the British Establishment continues to support the Zionist occupation and criminalise resistance to genocide, Stop Arming Israel stands firmly with the Palestinians by disrupting the supply of weapons and death. Freedom to all oppressed peoples.
“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
Another protestor explained their involvement in the blockade:
“As Sheffield residents, we are left with no choice but to take matters into our own hands and blockade the Forged Solutions factories. We have lobbied the council and the mayoral authority countless times about the city’s complicity in the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people. The most effective action we can take is to directly halt the activities of these factories – as we have successfully done on multiple occasions – and disrupt the supply chain of weapons being exported to Israel. Forged Solutions can continue to deny their involvement – we will continue our disruption.”
ENDS
Spokespeople available on request
Contact stoparmingisraelsheffield@gmail.com
Photos and videos available here – https://drive.proton.me/urls/XAZF0QH7F8#A1hegspGOuMA
Key details: 7am to 10am, Forged Solutions, Milford Street, S9 2LD
About Stop Arming Israel
Stop Arming Israel is an organisation committed to ending Sheffield’s complicity in Israel’s genocide. The group targets factories of companies involved in exporting parts which are used in the murder of civilians. The group aims to disrupt these supply chains in order for the city to truly stop arming Israel.
About Forged Solutions
Investigation from the Campaign Against the Arms Trade saw Forged Solutions Group listed as one of 79 companies currently registered on a UK government open licence for exports in support of the F-35 program. [2]
Forged Solutions Group have five sites across the UK, including three in Sheffield, one in Matlock and one in Blaenavon, Wales.
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