SCOTLAND, the place I call home, is also home to the arms industries central to the destruction of the Palestinian homeland.

Seeing my homeland playing a role in the dispossession of others from theirs is what made become active, joining solidarity protests, signing petitions and finding other ways to apply pressure.

For a while, it made me feel better but despite years of work and thousands of people being involved, none of it was making a tangible impact. I was still living among weapons manufacturers, such as Thales, Raytheon and Leonardo, profiting from arming the occupation of Palestine.

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Witnessing Palestine Action’s relentless direct action against weapons factories in England inspired me to step up my solidarity.

I saw people scale factory roofs, blockade gates and put their bodies on the line to disrupt this murderous trade. They too were done with the traditional campaigning tactics, tried and failed time and again. While the violence being used against Palestinians escalated, Palestine Action took matters into its hands.

It was time to bring this movement to Scotland. At dawn on June 1, 2022, I found myself, alongside four others climbing up the Thales factory in Govan, Glasgow. Thales manufactures armoured vehicles, missile systems and more – and, importantly, partners with Israel’s largest weapons firm, Elbit Systems, on the Watchkeeper drone project.

Under this project, Thales and Elbit jointly own UAV Tactical Systems in Leicester, which regularly exports drone technologies to Israel. 

The Watchkeeper drone was modelled on Elbit’s Hermes 450 and was used by the British army in Afghanistan.

It is now used to surveil the English Channel for those seeking refuge. The similarity of the models allows UAV Tactical Systems to produce parts for both the British and Israeli versions of the military drone, while Thales is also integral to the production of F-35 fighters.

On our way to the factory, and on to its roof, we were bonded together by our determination to launch a movement to end Scotland’s weapons trade with Israel.

Overcoming any nerves, and wrought with adrenaline, we had to bypass security and climb up the 6m long ladder on the side of the building. Once we were at the top and saw workers evacuate the building, we knew we had done it — we shut Thales down.

After 14 hours, I was taken down by the police and held in cells for another 14 hours. I felt no regrets. The factory was forced to close for that day, and its operations diminished in the days after – that was the immediate impact.

But the long-term impact can only be seen when you look across all of what Palestine Action does; the cumulative result of efforts against the war machine. It wasn’t long before the next group of activists from Palestine Action Scotland took the same journey as us, themselves scaling the same roof to shut down Thales.

In January the next year, the group set its sights on Leonardo’s Edinburgh factory, a plant which produces “high energy military lasers” for Israel’s F-35 jets. With hammers to hand, and fire extinguishers filled with red paint, just three people managed to shut down a factory with 1800 workers.

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And these are just a few of the actions under the Palestine Action umbrella, a campaign which has seen hundreds of targets struck in locations spanning continents.

While taking direct action is not without its personal sacrifices – being held in a cell, facing trial, or potential imprisonment – it’s incomparable to what Palestinians face daily. If Palestinians could shut down the factories of Elbit, Thales, Leonardo, and other complicit companies, then they would.

These factories are in the West because Israel assumes its industry will be safe here, so far away from its victims. That gives us an opportunity to contribute to Palestinians’ resistance, in places where they aren’t able to resist. With the scale of brutality that Palestinians live under, that opportunity becomes an obligation.

The highest court in the world has ruled on the risk of genocide in Gaza, and warned of the consequences for those failing to prevent it.

By arming Israel, Scotland has to answer for what is done If our politicians fail to act, then shutting Thales, Elbit, Leonardo and others down is the correct course of action. It took only a few of us to show that this can be done.

If we had just a fraction of those who take to the streets to protest, then we’d be able to put an end to Scottish complicity in Palestine’s oppression.