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Israeli arms firms among exhibitors at DSEI trade show in London

Wednesday, 10 September 2025 8:11 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 10 September 2025 8:11 AM ]

Campaign Against Arms Trade (Caat) (File Photo)

The walk of shame for those the demonstrators here called merchants of death on day one of the four day Defense and Security Equipment International arms fair in London.

Pro-Palestine, climate, and, anti-imperialist campaigners, have all gathered in London to demand what they call a genocide fair to be shut down.

We need to put money into schools and hospitals and peace building and peace education.

And this arms fair is displaying weapons and selling weapons that will just perpetuate wars and suffering.

Demonstrator 01

Hundreds protest UK arms fair amid Gaza genocide

Hundreds protest UK arms fair amid Gaza genocide

A coalition of campaign groups in London have staged demonstrations against one of the world’s biggest arms fairs.

One of the largest arms exhibitions in the world, the DSEI in London, is held every two years.

Ordinarily, it faces criticism for its role in facilitating arms sales to regimes with questionable human rights records.

This time around, the protesters say there is a more urgent reason to oppose it.

We find it really reprehensible that the UK government supports weapons manufacturers displaying their wares in the middle of a genocide.

Dr Zaina Gadema, University Lecturer

Palestine Action protests force closure of Israeli arms manufacturer Bristol site

Palestine Action protests force closure of Israeli arms manufacturer Bristol site

An Israeli arms manufacturer has shut down its Bristol facility after repeated protests by the activist group Palestine Action.

In the run-up to the exhibition, the UK government barred official Israeli delegations but not the regime's arms companies.

51 Israeli arms companies are exhibiting here, including the three largest Israeli companies.

So that's Elbit systems, that makes 85% of the drones, Raphael and Israel Aerospace Industries.

So the people here today are trying to uphold international humanitarian law.

We have a government that doesn't care.

Emily Apple, Campaign Against the Arms Trade

UK firm on supplying F-35 parts to Israel despite regime’s Gaza aid blockade

UK firm on supplying F-35 parts to Israel despite regime’s Gaza aid blockade: Minister

The UK has remained firm in giving spare parts of F-35 jets to Israel despite the regime’s blocking the entry of aid into Gaza, a British minister says.

Britain exports parts for the F-35 jets used by Israel to bomb Gaza, campaign groups say this makes the UK directly complicit in Israel's ongoing genocidal assault on Palestinians.

So that is the message from the docklands in London, the arms trade, the demonstrators say, cannot be business as usual in the middle of a genocide.

They assert that without dismantling the fair, without imposing an arms embargo on Israel or banning its arms manufacturers from making weapons on UK soil, let alone exhibit them at an arms fair, Britain will remain complicit in Israeli war crimes and genocide in Gaza.