Pro-Palestine activists target Glasgow office over weapons firms ties
Members of Palestine Action targeted the Righton Blackburns service centre in Shettleston in the early hours of Friday morning, smashing windows and spraying red paint. Protesters also graffitied the words "Drop Thales and Leonardo" on the side of the building.
The group said they targeted the facility, which supplies metal and plastics, because it is a link in the supply chain for companies in Scotland which provide Israel with parts for arms used to attack Palestinians.
BREAKING: Actionists target Righton Blackburns facility in Glasgow, metal suppliers to weapons companies arming Israel, including Leonardo and Thales.
We will break every link in the genocidal supply chain. pic.twitter.com/3sjRXJDgwE — Palestine Action (@Pal_action) April 26, 2025
Campaigners argued that the company supplies aerospace and defence companies with speciality alloys that have military applications. Its customers include Leonardo, Thales and BAE Systems.
Leonardo, which has a factory in Edinburgh, manufactures parts for Apache helicopters and targeting systems for F-35 fighter jets, which are used by Israel to bombard Gaza.
French company Thales, which has a factory in Govan, designs the Watchkeeper drone which is used to surveil Palestinians.
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BAE Systems, based in Glasgow and Dunfermline, also produces weapons systems and F-35 components which it supplies to the Israeli military. It also works with Israeli weapons firm Plasan to provide armour for combat ships used in the Royal Navy.
In a statement, the members who carried out the action said it was "not a protest, but a direct intervention to disrupt the flow of weaponry and surveillance equipment".
The group said: "Our governments are not only standing by while a genocidal campaign is carried out in plain sight, but is actively supplying the armaments that enable Israel's disgusting crimes against humanity.
"Marching from A to B to ask politely for change is no longer sufficient for people of conscience. We are all complicit.
"Our actions on Friday morning were not a protest, but a direct intervention to disrupt the flow of weaponry and surveillance equipment.
"Israel's overt goal of exterminating Palestinians is made possible by facilities such as Righton Blackburns, from where vital parts are distributed to the assembly lines of Leonardo and Thales that make the planes, drones and weapons that are tearing the limbs off civilians and beheading Palestinian children even as you read this.
"Responding to the call from within Palestine, and inspired by decades of Palestinian resistance, we will not allow these horrors to be enabled and perpetrated by companies operating from inside our communities in Glasgow – communities that overwhelmingly oppose Israel's crimes.
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"Until companies such as Righton Blackburns remove themselves from the supply chain that arms Israel, they will remain a target."
Palestine Action has targeted weapons firms operating in Scotland – and their suppliers – since October 2023.
Most recently, activists targeted a building in Glasgow city centre which houses insurance company Allianz, which has investments and insurance policies related to Israeli weapons firm Elbit Systems.
Police Scotland has been contacted for comment.
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